Growing up is inevitable but growing & levelling up is a choice.
You must have heard this phrase time and again. Let’s understand what it means. We all go through life but our actions predominantly determine its quality. Always remember that if you’re doing the same set of things or making the same amount of money or you’re solving the same set of problems, as you were a year ago, then that’s a problem. I genuinely feel that it’s not a cool thing to be in the same space as you were, a while back, whether it’s emotionally, financially, intellectually or mentally. To level up your life, you need to constantly grow in every sphere of life & become a better person.
Let me tell you why I feel levelling up your game is such an important thing. Firstly, because if you don’t level up, you will get bored of life really soon. Secondly, there are high chances that you will get burnt out. Thirdly, you might lose out on happiness in life and lastly, you will not be able to keep up with the changing market.
When I was in college, all I really wanted was to keep moving & levelling up my game. Let me share some part of my journey with you to help you understand that.
Here are 5 things to keep in mind if you want to grow through life:
Keep an open mind
Every random article or book says this. But what does this mean, keeping an open mind? It means to say “yes” to things that come your way. It means not to be rigid in your behaviour and practices. It means to be okay with things going differently as compared to what you had planned.
Initially, I wanted to do an MBA because I wanted to be the CEO of a good company. After a while, my focus was to improve my CV because I wanted to work with big brands. But when I met someone who was making money off the internet and was open to sharing about it, my focus shifted. We ended up starting a company together. All of this happened because I was open to trying new things and wasn’t emotionally attached with my “previously defined goals”. Take it from me, being focused has nothing to do with being stubborn & hesitant to change.
Upskill
I self-taught a lot of things, including how to make videos. I got an e-commerce mentor when I knew it was necessary. Whatever your means to the end are, just keep upskilling in life.
Improving your learnings, learning new skills, building expertise is how we can level up and work our way up the ladder of success. Whatever your field of interest may be, there are plenty of upskilling options available today.
Take risks & keep moving
Your comfort zone is not your best friend. However comfortable it may be, there is no real learning there. Sometimes, taking that plunge that you’ve been waiting to take is the best thing you can do for yourself. Adventures and risks bring out the best learnings that last a lifetime.
I gave up the job offer I got from my college placements, took a leap of faith and invested all the money I had made through internships & network marketing into a company I started with a friend. I lost all my money and went bankrupt in 1.5 years.
Then, I started my animation video business. Before that, we had done a lot of things, including web development, product launches, kindle publishing and every known avenue to make money with less investment. That experience was vital to the new business that I was starting. Eventually, I reached a point where I realised that making videos is not what I want to do for the rest of my life.
When I started the business, I was solving the problem of being broke, but now I had money. Now I couldn’t see myself making animation videos anymore. So whatever profits we had made from the animation business, I invested them into getting an e-commerce mentor and running ads for my e-store.
After that, when I realised that there was a need for similar education in India, I started Digital Dukaandaar to share this knowledge with other people. Now some of these people are doing great in various fields including design, research, ads, and drop shipping.
It was important to take these risks, financial, mental & operational, in order to grow. If you really want to level up your game in life, it is imperative that you go through both failures and successes and welcome them with an open heart & mind.
Make Money, but not just Money
Everyone wants to be financially independent in life. However, that shouldn’t be the only goal. The goal should be to fall in love with the process.
The problem with Print-On-Demand is that you’re not creating something. You’re finding a pattern and using it to make money. You model what’s already working to make money. I know I am good at spotting winning designs and running ads and it helped me make a lot of money when I really needed it.
But now I have reached a point in my life where money is not the most important thing. Now I want the freedom to create and level up. And money can not buy my freedom. So now I am working on something new. I am working on my own apparel brand now. I am using all the knowledge, experience and learnings I have gained over years.
Know how to get things done
When I started the animation business, that’s when I learnt the art of delegation & automation and their importance in scaling up a business. We eventually started working with big brands like DHL, Viber and levelling up to $10,000 a month in revenue.
However, getting things done by other people doesn’t mean that you don’t need to know them. Even with my journey in the e-commerce space, I didn’t want to be the guy who runs Facebook Ads all the time. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t know how to run them. I had to learn them before I could outsource them. But now, I have the freedom to choose what I want to do.
One of the best ways to learn is to get things done by other people. While this may sound contradictory, it is true. You don’t have to do everything by yourself all the time. Working with people, getting them to do what you don’t want to do, is also an important part of personal growth.
In the last 8 years, I have gone from blogging to website development to SEO to animation and then to e-commerce, print on demand and so many other side projects. Gaining experience helps you plan the next big thing and not just throw arrows in the dark. I wasn’t this guy 8-9 years ago, but now I take pride in learning from everything I have done. I am a far better person to myself and my loved ones.
Whatever your current state in life be, there is always scope for growth and levelling up. You just need to figure out how. The technology-driven virtual world that surrounds us has multiple learning opportunities waiting to be explored. As they say, change is the only constant and one needs to learn how to adapt to that change and make the most of it. We all want a better life and this is just my reassurance that you’ll get there if you continue growing and levelling up in life.
