Having life purposes matters. So many people ask me how I came up with my current life purpose (I help people live their Level 10 lives with my words, videos, and podcasts). They wonder about my brand name, The Millionaire Hippie, and about the FB group with the same name that I created. Why are you doing all of this, they ask?
The Journey To My Life Purpose
When people start asking me all of these questions, I know it is because they themselves are going through a similar journey of discovery and are looking for answers. Maybe they are searching for their life purpose, or maybe they know what they are supposed to be doing with their life, but they are too afraid to take the first step.
They are asking me about my journey. In that moment, I wished I could have had someone following me around with a videocamera throughout my life. This way everyone asking me questions could see how everything in my life has been bringing me up to this point of discovery.
Everything that has happened in my life has happened so I could at this point in my life discover my life purpose and execute it.
It seems like a bold statement to make. But it is the truth. Everything that has happened and will happen in your life is happening for a reason. A very clear reason that will only be apparent to you in hindsight. But that reason exists.
In that regard, I decided to forget about the videocamera, and document all of the different trends in my life that I believe have bought me up to this point. Maybe this will prove the idea to or not. But in my mind, right now, sitting on the ground in my condo in Toronto, it seems like a grand idea.
The Start
I was born in New Delhi, India on a hot summer day, or that’s what my parents tell me. The hospital I was born into is one of the best teaching hospitals in the world. I think that marks the start of my long career of loving to learn and wanting to learn more all the time. I’m one of the most curious people you will find on this planet.
I ask the question ‘Why’ more than most toddlers.
It isn’t one of my most endearing qualities, but this curiosity has caused me to ask questions of my clients, and figure out what turns them on.
My sister and brother came into the world in the hot and dusty city of Hodeidah, Yemen. I loved and love them both dearly. I never had any jealousy towards my siblings at all. They were just additional playmates to hang with.
I think my life purpose at this point was to play. Inventing new games at the spur of the moment was my creative talent. It came easy to me.
Travel Is In My Genes
My family and I spent a lot of time moving around in our childhood. My father’s job as an engineer moved him around everywhere in the Middle East. I took the movement in stride. Being a gypsy at heart, I loved the constant motion. I loved exploring new places and I always loved adventures.
This feature of mine has helped me quit my job 3 times and go travel for extended periods. It is also the reason I am pretty much fearless while travelling. Having been to so many different places, there is no fear in my mind anymore. Travelling was something that I knew would have to be a major part of my ideal life scenario.
I also believe that my ancestors have travelling in their genes. My father was the first one to decide to leave his modest little village and move to the big city, New Delhi. He laments about my travelling gene, but he is the reason I have it.
I was told by my English teacher in Sanaa, Yemen (when I was 7) that I write really interesting stories. At that point, I became hooked to telling stories with my words.
I love writing, and storytelling. I would spend hours sitting on a couch with little ones around me, concocting endless stories on the spot that would keep them enthralled for hours. It came easy to me.
Writing, thus, became a part of my persona and would become a huge part of my life purpose later in life.
High School
I became extremely obsessed with boys in high school. I lived in a Moslem country and they deliberately kept us away from boys. Whenever I got a chance to watch them, I would try to observe them.
Why are they so different from us? Why am I not allowed to talk to them?
They seemed harmless enough. Some of them even seemed interesting. I wanted to spend time with them but I was too shy from years of non-interaction.
Even when boys would try to talk to me, I would run away. Or pretend I couldn’t hear them.
This obsessive personality of mine translates into every area of my life. If I find a song I like, I will listen to it on repeat for days, even weeks at a time. I have re-watched the episodes of House, M.D. at least 5 times (each time with as much enthusiasm as the first).
When I fall in love (which I do often), I spend hours reading up on that person’s personality type, and star sign. I want to know what they like, so I can do what they like. I want to know what they want to eat, so I can cook that for them. And so on.
More On My Obsessive Personality
That’s the great thing about my obsessive personality. Once I decided I wanted to find out my life purpose, all of my waking and sleeping hours were spent on the questions.
Why am I here? What is the purpose of my being alive? Why did I end up living on the planet at this point in time? How am I meant to contribute to the world? What unique talents and abilities do I bring to the table?
I also became obsessed with beauty in high school. Beauty in all of its forms fascinates me, but my poor self-image caused me to hate myself. In my opinion I was ugly, and I desperately wanted to be beautiful. Thank God, I loved my mother’s cooking too much to become anorexic, but I would skip lots of meals, and would spend way too much time exercising.
The good thing that came of this was my obsession with nutrition, and fitness. I’m so grateful I discovered yoga – it is the only form of exercise that suits my personality, and body type. I try to do yoga 2-3 times a week and in just those few times, with the diet I eat, I am able to keep a pretty svelte body (svelte enough for me).
This healthy body of mine has been crucial in housing my healthy working mind. It’s why I’m able to do all the work I can, work long hours without crashing, and still balance out time on my hobbies and relationships.
University Was A Breeze
I worked like a crazy dog in university, working 15-20 hours at a part-time job and going to school and studying for the rest of the waking hours. I had a rigorous curriculum that I followed, and I had a straight 4.0 GPA almost throughout.
The truth of the matter is that if I could go back, I would have skipped university entirely. All of that time and energy I spent on university could have been better spent on practical experiences, like travel, entrepreneurship, and creativity. That is what I tell anyone who asks me now – skip university, and start a business instead (in whatever, the field itself doesn’t matter, the experience does).
I loved the friends I made in my time at University, but it was a waste of time in general. My life purpose at that point was still to become a doctor and gain that M.D. behind my name (more to satisfy my parents than anything else).
Rejection Is Not The Enemy
I graduated from university and applied to medical school three times. Even though, I was rejected three times, I don’t think I learned anything from the rejection at the time. Later, I realized it was a sign from the universe and from myself that I really didn’t want to go to medical school. I am so grateful now that I was rejected. At the time of rejection though, I was devastated.
I cried for days.
For the next few years, I roamed around rudderless, and purposeless. What should I do with myself? My nerve and courage left me.
Not knowing what to do next, I accepted a position with the Canada Border Services Agency to work at Pearson International Airport, where I worked for three years. At this point, I was making unconscious decisions. I wasn’t thinking about anything. It was all based on what was the easiest thing to do at that moment in time. That’s not how I live right now.
I hired a job coach to help me figure out what to do. He said, I should become a motivational speaker. I shied away from that. Me, a motivational speaker? Pshaw. The idea was laughable to me then. Now it makes absolute sense.
I meandered for years after those rejections. With no Plan B or fall-back, I had made the mistake of believing that medical school would be my salvation. It was not. Thank God.
Full-Time Government Work Is Soul-Sucking
I am so grateful I had a job right out of university that paid really well. I loved the job, even with the shift work. But I disliked the people I worked with. They were dead on the inside. Not only did they hate their lives, their jobs, their bosses, and everything else they could think of, but they complained all the time.
I could feel myself turning into one of those complaining zombies the more time I spent around these individuals. I knew that I couldn’t turn into one of them. If I stayed for too long, I would have turned into them.
Even though the money was great, and the job was fun, I decided to leave to get my MBA. Before my soul was deadened like the rest of the full-time long-term employees.
An MBA Is For Schmucks Like Me
If my mum’s dream was for someone in the family to become a medical doctor, my dad’s was always to have someone in the family get an MBA. I guess, if one route doesn’t work, try another. The MBA program was my second route. I am grateful again that I got to go through that experience, but I definitely am not a cut-throat business person.
I love learning and I did learn a lot from my MBA program. But an MBA doesn’t help you with entrepreneurship. The belief that I would learn to run a business from an MBA was utterly false.
The only thing that helps with learning on how to run a business is running a business. I have learned more about business and my mindset in the past six months of running this online business than in the year-long MBA program.
But schmucks like me believe we can skip the hard work and learning process of entrepreneurship by getting an MBA. An expensive degree should do it.
Nevertheless, some of the learnings from my MBA program are still percolating around in my head and I’m sure I use it in my day-to-day workings. No experience is truly wasted. The universe is perfect.
I Discovered Vagabonding
To the surprise of all of my classmates, I got a great job with a great company a month before the last day of class. My boss was amazing, the job was great, and I had amazing colleagues who cared and were eager to grow. I should have been happy here. But when entrepreneurship is in your blood, not even the best 9-5 job will satisfy you.
That was the case for me. I read the book ‘4 Hour Work Week’ and ‘Vagabonding’ in succession, and it completely changed my viewpoint on retirement, life, and entrepreneurship. I realized you don’t need to be a millionaire to have time-freedom and location independence. And life is too short to wait until 65 to really start living it.
The concept of mini-retirements interspersed throughout a lifetime seemed more appealing than working 40 years and then dying before actually enjoying retirement.
I realized I wasn’t happy at my job. I wanted to explore this world we lived in.
If I couldn’t be happy at such an awesome job, then I felt there was something wrong with me. I decided to quit and go travel for a year through Australia, and South-East Asia.
To say that my parents were devastated was an understatement. They thought that I had completely lost my mind and were not happy with my decision at all.
At this point, my life purpose became travel and exploration. Living life to the fullest.
9 Months Of Resistance In The Form Of Travel
In hindsight, I was running away. I wanted to start my own business, and reading the ‘4 Hour Work Week’ made me realize how much I wanted to be Timothy Ferriss. I chose the travel part because that was the easy part to focus on. But truly I wanted to be an author, speaker, blogger, and an inspiration to others. That’s what really appealed to me.
Instead of starting an online business, and getting that stuff done, I decided to resist unconsciously, and go travel.
My travel was more like constant motion so I wouldn’t have to think about anything. Don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed it immensely. It was one of the most enlightening experiences of my life. I loved every moment of it. But it was all resistance to doing the real work.
I was running away.
There is travel without running away, which is what I am doing right now, in my move to Chiang Mai. That has purpose to it, and doesn’t feel like escape at all.
Homecoming Feels Scary
After 8 months on the road, I missed home, and my family immensely. I booked my ticket home. After the initial high of being home, in the comfort that is Canadian living, I realized I didn’t know what the hell I wanted to do with my life. I was clueless.
Panic and loss invaded me. Everyone else seemed to be alright with the 9-5 deal, but I wasn’t. I couldn’t compromise. I had this one life to live for right now and I couldn’t physically live it working a 9-5 job. It seemed like a horrible way to live. I felt like I would die on the inside, if I kept on going on this path.
It was also the recession and I couldn’t find a job for months.
I worked as a server, and made enough money to pay bills. But I also realized that I didn’t want to repeat this experience again. I didn’t want to leave a job, go travel, and come back with no money, and no prospects.
It was like restarting over and over again.
Met One Of My True Loves
Luckily enough, I found a job, and went to one of my first music festivals in the same month, Sep 2013. I believe that is when my true transformation began. My introduction to my spiritual life began due to my various interactions with the spiritual people at the Harvest music festival in Northern Ontario.
I began my life-long love of house and techno music. I also met a group of people with whom I went to Thailand in December of that year.
That trip to Thailand was amazing. Never before have I travelled with such a big group of people. I realized that people liked me and wanted to hang out with me. That was a revelation in itself to me.
Through all of that, I met Theo, one of the first true loves of my life. The first time, I actually had a long-term relationship with an individual who was kind, generous and remarkable. I was truly grateful that he chose to love and be with me, out of all the people he could have chosen.
It was a remarkable journey.
I truly learned more about myself through that relationship than anything else that I did.
My life purpose transformed to spending time and travelling with my love, and making sure that he was happy.
Let’s Drive Down To Ushuaia in #7
In our love-filled haze, we decided we should drive Theo’s car #7, a 1998 Honda Civic Hatchback, to the tip of South America, from Toronto. We started making plans, and it seemed pretty plausible logistically.
I forgot that spending 12-13 hours a day in a car with someone will change your feelings towards that someone no matter how much you love them.
My life purpose became moot as we struggled daily to find food, water, and basic necessities. I wanted to build a travel blog and a following, but I was too tired and distracted to do it properly.
We saw a lot of cool places and met a lot of people on the trip, but it was mentally and physically exhausting. So much so that we came back with little love left for each other.
A few months after our trip, we both gave up on the idea of being with each other romantically. We became then just friends.
In One Foul Swoop, I Had Nothing
In that month of October 2015, I lost everything. My relationship with Theo, my job, and my love for travel. I started hating everything that I loved before. I felt lost again. What was I doing with my life? I decided to focus all of my grief on learning options trading from the Tasty Trade network online.
That was the only way I got through the extreme grief I felt over all of the losses I had accumulated.
I distracted myself with learning. Lots of learning about trading and options. I spent 8-10 hours a day studying and learning how to trade.
I also moved to my condo downtown Toronto then, and got a job with a brilliant company, in Feb 2016.
My life purpose at this point transformed to becoming financially free. I wanted to build a foundation for myself, so no matter what happens, at least, I will always have financial stability. I decided to use real-estate to do so and learned with my father who is a guru in all of that.
9-5 Causes Me Physical Pain
As soon as I started the 9-5 job, I started getting aches and pains in my body. Especially my right shoulder. I realzied that this pain isn’t new. I get this pain every single time I have started a new 9-5 job. My back would spasm, and I wouldn’t be able to move without extreme pain for days. It’s like my body was warning me every single time to avoid the 9-5 resistance card.
I ignored the pain as usual, and focused on work, yoga, and learning.
Even though, I wanted a different life, I ignored the pain. I told myself, I was going to stop with the nonsense. Buckle down and make something of myself.
Little did I realize, that the 9-5 life isn’t for me. It just isn’t. I couldn’t stick it out for more than a year. Mar of 2016, I quit and started my online business.
Meditation Is My Jam
I had no idea what my business would be about. But I knew I couldn’t do the 9-5 thing anymore. It was physically and mentally harming me. I just couldn’t do it to myself anymore. It was impossible.
As soon as I made that determined effort to start my business, the forces of the universe conspired to help me. I met people who helped me in my journey. Ideas that helped me create my brand, ‘The Millionaire Hippie’ flowed into my life. I began my Facebook group which has more than 1200 members at this point.
I have been creating online courses, and guided meditation session to help people. In addition, I have been building my YouTube channel, and Podcast.
This journey has been nothing short of miraculous.
Which brings us to right now.
The Present Moment Is All We Have
I’m here right now. A culmination of all of the moments that have passed. I wouldn’t be who I am, if it weren’t for all of the different things I have done, and made happen. I’m here right now for a reason.
I outlined my life in such great detail, because I wanted to show you how much has happened in my life and probably in yours as well. Everything happens to bring us up to the present moment. Everything had to happen exactly as it did for us to end up here.
My life purpose transformed at least 6-7 times in the past 33 years. Even more than that, if I truly analyze it.
Our life purpose is malleable. It changes constantly.
So many people worry about figuring out their life purpose. They worry that if they say their life purpose is this one thing, then they are stuck with that for the rest of their life. But that is absolutely not true!
Everything Matters
Everything I have done, every book I have read, every course I have taken, every person I have met, every relationship I have had, has brought me here. To this point.
Right now.
This moment.
I’m here right now because of all of those moments.
I wouldn’t be sitting here chatting with you about my life purpose, if I hadn’t gone through all of that.
Remember, I was given my higher purpose at the age of 23 by the job coach – become a motivational speaker he said.
But that wasn’t the right time for me. I couldn’t have done it then, as I didn’t believe in myself enough. It was scary and I shied away from the challenge.
So much more had to happen.
So Much More To Go
This isn’t the end. I know my life purpose for right now. To inspire and motivate others to live Level 10 lives through my words, videos and podcasts. But will that still be true in 10 years?
I don’t know.
I don’t worry about that in the now. All that matters to me right now is I’m following my life purpose without resistance.
Resistance has cropped up so many times in my life. Even right now, I feel fear in following my life purpose. I’m afraid on a daily basis. I want to shirk from my duties every single day. I lose faith in myself almost every week.
It’s a constant struggle to believe in myself and keep going.
I want you to remember that.
This isn’t an easy path we have chosen. If it was easy, it wouldn’t be worth it.
The 9-5 Path Isn’t Easy Either
I want you to remember even if you aren’t an entrepreneur and you choose to work 9-5, it doesn’t mean you have chosen the easy path. Everyone needs to follow their own path no matter what it is, without comparing themselves to others.
Stop the comparing madness, and live your true path. Everyone’s path and life purpose is different. We cannot live someone else’s path for them. All we can do is be conscious of our own path and live it as truly as we can every single day.
This has been a long post, I realize. But I have so much to say on this subject, and I thought if you saw my tumultuous, crazy journey, if you saw my road bumps, if you saw the map of my life purpose, maybe you would be a little easier on yourself.
Trust me on this – it doesn’t get easier. You get better perhaps, but it doesn’t get easier. In fact, I think it actually gets harder.
To stick to a path is hard in this day and age where choices and distractions are plenty.
