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Chapter Ten
You’re Not Alone
Read Time: 6 Minutes
Hello
Ahem! Clears throat. So, where were we? [awkward silence + the sound of crickets.] Oh, yeah! Um, right. Okay, I got this!
Time for some retrospection
Welcome to chapter ten and the year twenty seventeen, squadron! We’ve come a long way, haven’t we? At this time of the year, we can look back and gauge our personal and professional progress, or it’s digressing if you swing that way.
Not judging.
To all the new recruits: Read why I started the SQUAD or read previous chapters here. (Password: topgun)
Back?
Were goals met? Resolutions achieved? You finally asked that girl you’ve been eyeing from third grade out on a date? It turns out she only went out with you because she’s a Scientologist trying to meet her monthly recruitment quota.
There there.
Or the time you lost a bet to a bunch of gay bikers at a sketchy bar, outside of town, and had a dyke perform a Brazillian while you laid passed out on the bar, pants hanging down to your ankles. That night you were made aware of deep-seated issues inhibiting your ability to have relationships with people that are not Siri.
Ripping the band-aid off analogy would’ve sufficed? Meh!
Here’s what to expect in this chapter. It’s unlike my regular formats which the squadron are familiar with. The first half is a curated collection of articles and blogs I wrote in 2016. Don’t miss them. Back? The second half is an attempt to connect where we left off last year. This isn’t exactly textbook smooth but bear with me.
The SQUAD, unlike Project 365, has had it rough. My intentions are to make it a regularly weekly affair. Commitment issues? Tell me about it. Sigh.
Who is Paul Syng?
A guy in his early thirties sporting bald head. He’s shy, at first, but talkative and witty at provocation. People mistake him for being an extrovert. Honestly, at best, he’s a closet ambivert.
☞ Start Reading
How I got my first job in advertising (Series)
The bell to our one bedroom hall kitchen rang. We were expecting burgers and fries from McDonald’s this afternoon. But, this wasn’t your regular delivery.
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Is Instagram aspiring to be VSCO?
At first glance, my knee-jerk reaction is Instagram’s new look appears to mimic VSCO (commonly labelled anti-Instagram or the artistic and curated version of Instagram). Let’s not pass on the judgemental baton, yet.
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How I was caught shoplifting
With nothing on the cards for a sunny Sunday afternoon, my mother announced a trip to the local mall. I was in the 3rd grade that year.
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School days in prison
Ever hear people wax nostalgic about their school days, and if they’d get a chance to go back in time, they’d do it in a blink of an eye? Well, that is certainly not my case.
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Dating in India
For over a century, people from across the world have travelled to Indian shores to witness the Indian rope trick. It consists of a man climbing up a rope that disappears into the thin sky above…
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Five Life Lessons My Coach Taught Me
The calling card came early 2015 disguised in shoulder and neck pain. A consequence of long hours at my desk doing client work I no longer enjoyed and the lack of inertia-destabilising physical activity…
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Twenty fifteen slash twenty sixteen, for me, was a year of change and reinvention. Not wear a different colour of pants sort of change but drop everything I was doing — leave the company I founded, sell the car and move to a different country — requiring every iota of courage in my bones sort of change.
Ruffle a few feathers, why don’t we.
I returned to Canada after a 15-year long stint away to India at the end of 2015. Moving to and from India deserves a chapter which I will certainly address in the future.
Today, however, is not about that. Today I want to share how a negative became a positive or how isolation worked in my favour.
It was the end of twenty fifteen.
There I was at the bottom of this mountain looking up at the peak. Even a step in the direction seemed impossible at the time given the circumstance. No money, no job/work and no connections. I was terrified but not depressed.
btw. At the slightest swing of sadness, why do we convince ourselves of depression? Have you met someone clinically depressed? E-zactly (love how Chris says it), I thought so.
When I moved back to Canada, it was Brampton where I landed. An anomaly if you ask me. It’s a town outside of Toronto. Nothing happens here or allow me to rephrase that. It sucks if you’re not a family man and not into “downtown stuff”.
The isolation was my lowest point personally and professionally. Away from my social circle, my company, the cloud that was my life — a bubble I lived in, one I had nurtured and built over a decade.
Taking everything that mattered once upon a time away left me with nothing to fall back upon. I had to come to terms with not realising everything I took for granted.
At the bottom of this aforementioned mountain, I reset to my defaults. I focused on the positives by putting all my time and effort into doing things I cared about — design and wellness. The isolation of living in Brampton played a pivotal role in keeping me away from “downtown stuff” or distractions in other words.
With nowhere to go or things to do (the lack of money being one tiny condition) I started Project 365 (to make stuff daily and post it online). And focused on wellness (read 500 days of CrossFit). In my period of self-study and exploration, I came across this fantastic article: The “Brute Force” School of Design.
Just put in the hours, mate.
The past year has taught me that by sheer brute force transformation in one sphere of life plays a domino effect, trickling across other aspects of your life.
What I have become in the process and learnt is something I will be sharing in the coming weeks.
Before you go
I encourage you to fill out this survey. Tell me a little bit about yourself, it only takes sixty-two seconds. Your suggestions are appreciated and help me shape and improve the SQUAD.
Share your views on today’s Chapter either by replying to this email or tweeting me. Always happy to improve, learn and answer your questions.
Have an epic week!
Yours truly,
Paul Syng
Access the Locker to read any Chapter online or T–S–F to download 365 open files. The Locker & T–S–F are classified and exclusive to squadron only. (Password: topgun)
