The Most Impactful Thing I did To Improve My Life

When I hit the magic age of 30 all of the stereotypes about turning 30 happened all at once. I grew tired of my job (and my managers), I got tired of my morning commute, and the evening commute as well. So I decided to quit my job without a safety net and to just wing it in life. I lived off of my savings for some time as I wondered where to go next.

I started to freelance my web development skills, I created a web consulting agency and I co-founded a tech startup. Nothing you wouldn’t see on a television show about a 30 year old burnt out programmer.

At this point I was also relatively overweight and had developed bad habits when it came to living any form of a healthy lifestyle. I wasn’t vegan, vegetarian, paleo or any classification of diet. I didn’t meditate or watch my breath or even walk really. I was a trapped victim of my modern environment.

Like Thomas Anderson in the Matrix, I knew there was something else I was missing. I was on auto-pilot and it was becoming more noticeable. And the more noticeable, the more uncomfortable it became. One day a friend handed me a book to read. It was tiny, it was orange and truthfully I just took it to be polite. The book was The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. At this point I had never heard of either the title or the author and truthfully the last thing that I read was…