I have been thinking about this topic a lot lately – Amor Fati. I am building a membership site at the moment. And, it is fascinating to me how so many skills that I have developed over the past 2 years (and more) have aligned perfectly so that I can create this site right now without much technical help from the outside.
It’s so odd to me because for the longest time, I was a creative person. I believed myself to be creative, and non-technical.
But in 2014-5, I joined a company called Blueprint with a colleague and a boss (Sab and Ruth), both of whom pushed me constantly to become more technical. I am so grateful for their encouragement now, but at the time I used to wonder why they are torturing me with all of this extra work.
According to Sab, I had to learn how to become more technical right now. He wanted me to learn how to code HTML and CSS right at this moment.
Luckily, he believed I could do it, and he encouraged me constantly. He was a self-taught master and he knew that it was possible for me as well. He also asked me to use Adobe Photoshop to create simple graphics.
HTML And CSS Coding For The First Win
That’s where the first piece of my technical puzzle fell into place. I started learning how to do minor coding for the WordPress site that I was managing for work.
But because of this minor bit of coding (really non-significant in the big scheme of things, not so for my life path), I was able to do the coding for my WordPress site.
I moved the site over from WordPress to self-hosted all on my own. It was something that had scared me for so, so long, but now it seemed so easy.
All because I coded a little bit. But in my mind, my persona had changed from that of just a creative to that of a creative who’s also a techie.
Thus, I took that role quite suitably and started doing minor coding for my website on the side, and then when I quit starting my own business, I did all the work for my website myself, without any fear. Because of Sab’s encouragement, I knew I could do it.
Little did I know that this was an unusual thing. Most people I speak to balk at the idea of coding their websites and usually end up hiring someone else.
In hindsight, the idea of being taught coding by an Azerbaijan colleague was ludicrous. But it worked.
Adobe Photoshop And Canva For The Second Win
As I said earlier, Sab was brilliant, and he wanted me to follow in his footsteps. He took time out of his busy schedule to teach me how to create simple graphics. It was so kind of him and I am forever grateful for his advice and time.
I did what I could when I was working for Blueprint, but when I left the job, I had to start creating graphics for my own business. I wasn’t making money in my business then, so the goal was to create cheap graphics on my own and use them to enhance my website.
There was no way I was going to pay someone else to do this. Sab would have killed me if I did.
I started playing around with Adobe Photoshop in my spare time, but I wasn’t learning it fast enough. I needed a better solution.
That’s when the universe sent me Canva, one of the most useful and brilliant web apps out there. I love it and I recommend it to everyone I meet.
I Love Canva
It helped me create (and still does) beautiful graphics that I use everywhere!! I even make the covers of my Kindle books myself, because I can.
But the reality is that I wouldn’t have had the courage to try all of this on my own if Sab hadn’t pushed me in the first place to start using Photoshop. After using Photoshop and its complications, Canva was easy as pie.
In hindsight, my journey with Adobe Photoshop was necessary for me to learn and use Canva effectively. So many people look at Canva and are so afraid of creating graphics that they don’t even bother learning how to use it properly. They prefer to pay others hundreds of dollars to create graphics for them, which is such a waste.
Videos And Podcasts For The Third Win
The third win came partly from the work that I saw being done at Blueprint, and from the fact that I was intensely jealous of people who were on video and podcasts.
Let me backtrack a bit. My esteemed boss, Ruth, and Sab created these videos of her speaking on various subjects related to Agile theories and techniques.
My mind would constantly go to one thought and one thought only. I want to be on video as well. I didn’t and couldn’t speak on Agile theories, of course.
But, I wanted to speak on video on topics that interested me – creativity, spirituality, entrepreneurship, productivity, INFJs, etc.
That envy sparked something in me, so as soon as I started my own business, I started creating videos of myself speaking on random topics. They didn’t mean anything to anyone else, but to me, they were epic!
They were monumental. I was doing something that I had dreamt of doing for decades now.
The same thing occurred with podcasts. We had a sort of audio recording for the company where one of my colleagues interviewed Agile experts. And the same thing happened to me there as well.
While I was preparing them for the website, all I could think of was I want my podcast. I want my podcast. It was a refrain that ran through my head.
The universe planted the seed in my head, so as soon as I could, I started my podcast, The Millionaire Hippie podcast, which has been running for 1.5 years now.
Facebook Ads For The Fourth Win
I did a lot of Facebook work for the company as well, but no ads. Nothing even close. But for some reason, the victories I had with everything else pushed me onward and upward.
The reality is that most of the stuff I do now I don’t have a clue about. I am not an expert in any of it.
But I realize more and more every day that everything that I do in business now I learned through concerted effort over time. I didn’t know WordPress at once, but I learned it over time.
Same thing on how to set up a podcast – I learned that by reading a lot of articles online and watching YouTube videos.
Again, same thing with setting up Facebook Ads. I don’t know much about them, but I experimented over and over again with them and learned so much.
I don’t do Facebook Ads anymore, because they aren’t part of my overall business strategy. But I do know them.
And just like that, I know a lot of other software as well. I learned ClickFunnels, which is a sales funnel creator, on my own. I learned ConvertKit, which is my email program on my own.
Membership Site For The Fifth Win
As all the pieces drop into place perfectly, I am here right now, sitting and writing this post, and working on my membership site.
I am building a membership site. And I feel so ready for it. So ready that I can’t even begin to explain to you, how ready I am.
How did I get this ready?
Because the universe works in perfection and it stacked up the knowledge pieces for me so perfectly that I didn’t even know I was preparing for this journey that I am on right now. I didn’t know that all of the pieces that I was learning over the past few years were so that I could be sitting here right now and telling you that I am setting up a membership site with all of that knowledge.
This is not the final win because this is just the beginning.
I will build this, and this will teach me to build something else, and so on.
The journey is endless and it keeps ongoing.
But In Hindsight, Everything Seems Perfect – Amor Fati
The point of all of the stories above is to showcase the perfection of it all. At the moment, when I was struggling with code, or with CSS, or Photoshop, I hated it all.
I didn’t want to be part of it. Maybe I was being deliberately tortured for some inane reason. I thought the universe disliked me or wanted to make things hard for me.
But now as I look back, I see the perfect pattern.
It is laid out for me to see and now I realize that the universe doesn’t do anything without a reason. Everything happens for an exact reason.
A reason that we might not be privy to right now – we might not know the exact reason. It might be a mystery to us. We might be completely clueless.
That doesn’t matter. The universe knows. The universe sees it all, and it’s laying out a path for us, so we can reach our ultimate goals – goals that perhaps we don’t even know we are going to have.
I didn’t know two years ago that I would want to set up a membership site in the future. But the universe knew and it laid out all of the pieces for my puzzle perfectly.
Amor Fati – Why Can’t We Accept The Right Now As Perfect
The point is that it’s perfect. Everything that is happening is perfect.
Right? Right! So why are we struggling at the moment?
Why are we fighting against what’s happening? Hating the universe for putting us through this? Why are we bashing the universe for being mean, sloppy, hateful, or whatever else?
Remember from now onwards. This moment is perfect and whatever is happening is meant to happen.
It’s meant to happen because it is going to be useful to you in some manner for something that you are going to do in the future that you aren’t aware of right now. That you don’t need to be aware of right now.
That’s what awakening is all about. You don’t need to know all the answers.
You know you don’t know all the answers. That’s the whole point of being a human.
We are blind. We are ants, rummaging around looking for an answer when the universe sees all and is trying to guide us in the best way possible.
Stop fighting the present moment. It’s all happening for your good.
Yes, that breakup – it’s happening for your good. That job loss – is for your good.
That death in the family – for your good. That horrible scandal in the news – for your good.
Everything, everything, everything.
Finally, Let’s Accept Everything And Love Our Fate (Amor Fati)
I have to credit Brian Johnson from Optimize for this phrase – Amor Fati. Love your fate.
Love everything that is happening to you – because you know now that it’s all happening for you to get to that point that you are not even aware of.
If I had tried to prepare for this moment right now, I wouldn’t have known where to start, because I am blind. I didn’t see where I would be.
But the universe is seeing it all, and it knew eons ago that this is where I would be at this moment in time. It was setting up the pieces of the puzzle for me long ago – long before I was even born.
Foolishly, I fought my fate for far too long. I hated my hate and I disliked the universe for putting me through this stuff.
Why, oh why? I would ask constantly. Why do I have to do this?
Now I don’t ask that question anymore. I don’t know why, but I know the universe knows why and that’s good enough for me.
Perhaps It’s Not Good For You? – Use Amor Fati
Fine, you don’t want to accept this. Do you want to keep on fighting the universe on everything that is going on?
Good for you – I commend you for your strength and tenacity. The reality for me is that I am tired of fighting the universe on everything.
Whenever I go along with the universe on what she wants for me, everything seems to run smoothly and perfectly. But when I fight her on it, when I go against everything she does, then everything falls apart and I feel exhausted and run-down.
The truth is I have limited time and energy on this planet. I might have at most 40 years left on this beautiful blue planet.
That’s not a lot of time. I have a lot I want to get done. I could do it in a manner where I am always fighting the universe over everything as embittered enemies do.
Or I could befriend the universe, and realize that everything she is doing, she is doing for my good.
She wants me to succeed. She wants to get there, wherever there might be (sometimes I am not even sure, but she always seems to know).
When a horse is pulling the cart, it doesn’t help if you keep on pulling the reins on the horse, not allowing him to go in the direction that he wants to go. I mean, direct him as needed, but let him free as much as possible. It’s the balance that matters.
Free will or destiny (Amor Fati) – I am not going to have that argument. But I know that I want to let my universe go along with me, and free flow as much as possible. I don’t want to rein her in too much all the time. It ruins her creativity.
I use Amor Fati and I tell everyone else to use Amor Fati as a philosophy as well. Will you use it?
