Even After 36 Years, Self Improvement Works Fast   

    I just recently had some drinks with my co-workers for a going away party of me and another co-worker from the company. I had gotten pretty drunk and we started opening up about our past. More specifically, we started talking about the moment's in our lives when we were like "fuck this shit". One particular co-worker is 36 and he had been working in the food industry for about 20 years. He told me all about it: 14-hour days were the routine, everyone was understaffed, and the regular coping to this was excessive drinking every night. 

    He maintained this for about 20 years at various different restaurants until one day he went to the hospital and discovered he had testicular cancer. Luckily this cancer was gotten rid of after about a week, but this woke up him to the way he had been living his life. He had a non-existent social life, worked all the time, saw his family once a week, and anytime he had off was interrupted by phone calls or the state the restaurant would be in once he returned. Seeing this all for what it was, he looked for change. He previously believed that he would only be useful in a restaurant environment, he had mentally trapped himself there up until previously. Now, however, he knew that that wasn't the case. By signing up for college classes to program and by going above and beyond in class, he was recommended by his professor for the job we currently both share.

    And now? He loves his life so much. He has all the benefits that the job offers, good pay, benefits, and work from home.  It's everything he ever dreamed of, plus a relatively stress-free work environment. All it took was a paradigm shift in his head. Granted the source of this shift was literal cancer, but I think we can see the powers of self-improvement in his case. Seeing the unsatisfactory state of his life, he identified a limiting belief, removed it, and imagined a world where he was a programmer. He then took action and achieved what he wanted after only a couple of years. In the grand scheme of his life, it's a little above 5% of his life. 5% of effort resulted in a new life for him. 

    I know I had stated that this job made me suicidal, but for him? It's amazing. This is the beauty of self-improvement, we're all on our own little journeys, but he was extremely supportive, albeit sad since we had an affinity with each other, of my decision to leave the company. But what's amazing about his story is that it's never too late to start trying to make a difference in your life. This guy is genuinely happy now and, sure, his life is still filled with lots of work, but his mental health is far better than it was before. He's still looking up at the stars and going up and up. 

    This one is a short article, I'm still getting over the drinks I had with the co-workers I'm going to miss. Just remember that, unless you're dead, it's never too late to make your life even a little bit better. You never know where that might take you. 

    If you liked this article, check out the video version at: https://youtu.be/s0KP1ZR0pfM