Have A Life Wish
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Starting this private and intimate dialogue with you is exciting and the nerve-racking equivalent of watching Philippe Petit (played by Gordon-Levitt in The Walk) cover the immense void between the World Trade Center towers on a tightrope, sporting a smirk across his face.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This, first edition, was probably one of the toughest things I have had to write. Yesterday, I sat squarely with my Mac all afternoon conflicted with one simple question, how I can make this valuable for you?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n On deleting countless first-drafts, three hours and two stiff cups of coffee into the intellectual trek, I decided to address the why?<\/strong><\/em> Why is Paul Syng writing blogs<\/a>, this email and doing 365<\/a>? \u00a0<\/p>\n “Do things you love, so even if they don’t get tons of attention, you won’t care, because you’ll love doing them anyway.” <\/strong> The first reason being to have a real\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>and authentic dialogue with you. Social media is great for “spamming”<\/em> the world but it glosses the truth. There’s practically a filter for every situation,\u00a0“Make Me Glamourous”<\/em> or “Photoshop Yourself To Not Such A Sad Life”<\/em>, dressing your average lettuce into a Greek Salad Goddess.\u00a0<\/p>\n Often times I find myself hiding behind these digital walls. And on other occasions simply terrified by the sheer power it holds. Despite the noise and chaos, not enough meaningful dialogues to show for it.<\/strong><\/p>\n This conversation is terrifying on multiple levels. By putting myself out there, dropping my guard, being vulnerable and inviting the SQUAD into my inner world I am rolling the dice. This, I feel, is the path for allowing growth, gaining a different perspective and having something real from inside out. Only nails, no polish.\u00a0<\/p>\n To me, regardless of sucking at writing, penning down my thoughts has become therapy. Not knowing proper grammar or structuring paragraphs and constantly playing tease with “then” and “than” has allowed me to look beyond my shortcomings, making word foreplay fun.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n Lastly, I want this to be a dialogue, a conversation and not an email blast I send out every Sunday. Imagine we’re on the beach, huddled together by the bonfire, there isn’t a Facebook post or tweet in sight. There’s us, present and eager to share stories, listen and learn.\u00a0<\/p>\n With that said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Today’s email is all about dreaming big and chasing your dreams. And by the end of today’s email, you’ll know exactly how having a life wish got me out of a rut and changed my trajectory, forever.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n I’ve broken up the copy into broad themes with a bird’s eye perspective to bring you up to speed with my current situation. I’m handing you the loaf and bread slices if you’d like a better analogy there. Apply your own jam or peanut butter making each slice unique to your situation.\u00a0<\/p>\n The loaf and slices also underpin what’s to come with occasional departures and other exciting adventures. Grab a cup of coffee, find your corner and let me take you on our first journey of self-discovery.<\/p>\n It started with tremors.<\/em><\/p>\n On this hot day, three years ago, I woke up feeling a loss of breath, numb in my head. I shrugged it off misinterpreting the symptoms for a bad night’s sleep. But that rare sinking feeling kept creeping back at odd times of the day, getting worse, eventually becoming my new normal.\u00a0<\/p>\n Looks can be deceptive.<\/em><\/p>\n To my peers, I had it all mapped out. Owning and running a brand design company alongside a great business partner and team, cherry-picked clients, and a cool studio to pack it all in. I bought an Audi and got myself a personal trainer. Looked shiny and pristine, right?\u00a0<\/p>\n And despite all those things I was a depressed dude.<\/em><\/p>\n I lost my appetite for work and life. Devastated, I began to question everything. Was it the clients? Was it the city? Was it because I was single? Never had I felt impaired and lost. Why the fuck was I not happy? I couldn’t ask for more. Was I just being a thankless asshole?\u00a0<\/p>\n I am a positive person.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n I like to think of myself as a happy being. I love progress. Improving and bettering myself, thinking of new ideas and deep-diving into the unknown are my hard-wired defaults. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Listening and learning from the mistakes of mentors and people I admire to leapfrog myself are skills I have had to learn over time. Skills I wish they taught in schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n “Why are you putting rocket fuel in a scooter?” <\/strong> Changing my point of view was the first step to recovery. By looking inward, I realized the fever I had was losing sight of the “why?”. Like most people and brand managers I could answer the what I was doing and how I was doing it but the explanation to why I was doing it every day had sailed into irrelevance\u00a0(Think Interstellar).<\/em><\/p>\n Becoming a nomad.<\/em><\/p>\n I knew the only way to come out on top would be to do the scariest thing possible. I hit hard-reset, departed from the company I started, sold the Audi and packed my bags for Toronto.\u00a0<\/p>\n At age 32, being jobless and single meant having zero personal and professional commitments, while sleeping on a futon and living minimally gave me the mental space and declutter (Marie Kondo helped)<\/a> to rewire and reframe my “why?”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n To become and be known as a creative powerhouse, agnostic of form and discipline.<\/u><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n That’s the why, the north star, the brand driver, the positioning I had lost sight of. By articulating it in words, the why has not only become a powerful force pulling me towards it but a new found direction and purpose.\u00a0<\/p>\n As the great Pablo Picasso once put it: \u201cInspiration exists, but it has to find you working.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n My why is the inspiration to put in the work. It drives and overrides all my decision making and keeps a check on priorities. So when I decided to start a 365-day project, exploring graphic design or come out of blogging exile, it overrode all my pesky inhibitions and insecurities.\u00a0<\/p>\n Because it’s easy to get caught up in what the world is doing and wonder what people might think or will this work or not knowing where to start or the common comparison trap.\u00a0<\/p>\n “Those of us trying despite discouragement are right.” <\/strong> Reminding myself that I am the shit, having the I accept “me” conversation out loud with my inner-voice without having people around me, at the coffee shop, freak out was all part of the process.<\/p>\n You are your worst critic.<\/em><\/p>\n Telling my vulnerable self to shut the fuck up and just do it<\/em>\u00a0has to be the single most important daily ritual I practice for getting out of my own way. Taming my perfection OCD being second on that list.\u00a0<\/p>\n Celebrating small victories daily. Thirty crows know best.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n You’re not becoming Rambo on day one. Despite the lukewarm response and failures, bad days or moments when I fall off the mental skateboard, my north star kicks in reminding and assuring me of my destination.\u00a0I’ve been blogging for three months and 365 is in month six. Small incremental efforts are beginning to add up.\u00a0<\/p>\n Be patient and disciplined.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n From the day, Philippe Petit dreamt and imagined walking on a tightrope across The Twin Towers to performing “le coup” there were six years of planning. On the day of the “le coupe”, Petit couldn’t hide his joy putting on a thrilling aerial display with extreme confidence. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cTo me, it\u2019s really so simple: life should be lived on the edge. You have to exercise rebellion, to refuse to tape yourself to the rules, to refuse your own success, to refuse to repeat yourself, to see every day, every year, every idea as a true challenge. Then you will live your life on the tightrope.\u201d<\/strong> With that inspiring quote, I conclude this first edition. I’m glad I was able to share what’s at the heart of everything I’m doing right now in only a few alphabets over one thousand. What’s more important is just fucking doing it despite all the discouraging signs. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n I encourage you to share your views either by replying to this email or tweeting me<\/a>. Always happy to improve, learn and answer your questions. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n This weekly digest will appear in your inbox every Sunday. Be sure to add me to your contact list so you don’t lose me.<\/strong><\/u><\/p>\n Have a fantastic week. And welcome to the SQUAD.<\/p>\n Yours truly, TWITTER<\/a>\u2014INSTAGRAM<\/a>\u2014MEDIUM<\/a>\u2014OFFICE<\/a>\u2014ELLO<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SQUAD Welcome To Chapter One Have A Life Wish \u2014 Starting this private and intimate dialogue with you is exciting and the nerve-racking equivalent of watching Philippe Petit (played by Gordon-Levitt in The Walk) cover the immense void between the World Trade Center towers on a tightrope, sporting a smirk across his face.\u00a0 This, first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"rank_math_title":"","rank_math_description":"","rank_math_canonical_url":"","rank_math_focus_keyword":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-digest-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90001\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Jonathan Harris<\/em><\/p>\n
Ambar Mehrotra<\/em> \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Casey Neistat<\/em><\/p>\n
Philippe Petit<\/em><\/p>\n
Paul Syng<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/paulsyng.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/18a82762-fb13-431c-a5ff-cbed6435a6f4-scaled.jpg\")
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