When I was a kid, I used to do things for fun.
I used to cut out articles from newspapers. Curate songs in cassettes and CDs. Write about completely random things that I found interesting.
You know the kinda things introverts love.
But then, life happened.
I started doing things, not out of curiosity, but out of a need, a desire, some sort of greed to get something out of it.
Till my early teens, things I did were done just for fun. There was no desire.
But in my 20s, things completely changed. Everything I did– the books I read, the movies I watched, the songs I listened to– everything was done out of a desire to get something out of it.
To feel smarter or intellectual or make money.
To fit in.
Although I learned a lot of things, I lost that curiosity of my childhood.
I forgot what I wanted.
I forgot what I liked.
I forgot who I was.
And I reached a point where it started hurting me.
I started feeling confused. Feeling lost. Purposeless.
I felt like I was a copy of a copy of a copy.
And it took me years to connect back with my true self.
Children are connected to their true selves. They know what they want.
They know what they like and what they don’t like. There is no desire involved in their choices.
But when we grow up, we lose that certainty.
And then we start asking questions like:
What is the purpose of my life?
What should I do with my life?
Am I on the right path?
Because we get disconnected from our true selves.
Then we start reading books and asking other people and following other people’s path.
And we end up at a place where we feel completely lost and unhappy.
Even when you have achieved everything you ever desired, you still feel this hollow place, this emptiness inside you.
That hollow place is nothing but your inner child that you left behind.
When I reconnected with my old childhood curiosity, my life took a completely different turn.
This is what changed everything. Looking back at my first attempt of starting a novel.
Well, I got a little carried away with the design and the colors, but, you know, I was a kid. I was only 13.
I wrote about 25 to 30 pages. I was inspired by the movie I think it was Jurassic Park or Godzilla. I replaced the dinosaurs with vampires and that was my story.
Going through these old pages showed me that this is what I was born to do. This is my play.
The way to connect back to that curiosity is to follow your genuine interest.
And when you do that, you start enjoying life more. You feel more fulfilled and peaceful inside.
Because now you are not doing things to “get” something but just to enjoy life.
You’re not forcing yourself to do things, but instead you’re flowing.
You’re flowing with the universe, you’re flowing with your energy, you’re flowing with your soul.
Every day you’re excited to wake up and do the things you love, just like a child.
Remember, as children, how excited we were to play video games or any kind of outdoor sport?
When you used to wake up in the morning and rush everything to get back to the game you left last night or go out with friends and play football or baseball or Cricket.
That same curiosity and interest can be brought back into our lives through a little reflection and contemplation.
Simply by doing things that you love, and enjoy.
Complex questions have simple answers.
But we don’t pay attention to these simple answers because we think that if the question is so complex, the answer must also be complex.
Start doing things that you enjoy. That feels like play.
Now that I’m making YouTube videos, I feel like a child again.
Just sitting and talking about things that interest me.
I could have talked about other things in my videos. The so-called popular viral topics.
I could have written articles about “how to make $10,000/month”.
And I’m sure it will get way more views.
But do I want to do it? Absolutely not. Because it doesn’t interest me at all.
I enjoy talking about the things that interest me. I enjoy talking about philosophy and psychology, and the mind and the spirit. These are the things that interest me.
Dear friend, all you have to do is go back to your childhood.
Whenever you’re free, sit back and reflect. Reflect on the things that you enjoyed as a child. And start doing them again.
In my book “Born to Stand Out”, I’ve shared my decade long journey of how lost I was in my 20s and how I regained my confidence and I re-connected with my true self.
As adults, we think that we cannot do the things we used to do because we are grown ups now.
Don’t let norms and rules of the society run your life. They don’t matter.
Connect back to your inner child. Connect back to your true self.
And above all, do things that genuinely interest you.
Do things that you want to, not because you should.
I believe that’s the key to a happy, peaceful, and fulfilled life.
If you’d like to learn more, watch this:
Stay blessed,
Karun