The Beginning - Why I'm Starting a Blog
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
My journey to the point of setting up this website was pretty slow, deliberate and cautious. See, I'm 20 years old. And throughout my childhood and teenage years, I was always focused on trying to improve myself.
Whether it was learning something new at school so I could get a good grade on the test - figuring out the best strategies for the games I played so I could win - or just looking for growth hacks and 'get ___ quick' schemes.
Even past those somewhat superficial ideas, which I realised later weren't really all that life had to offer - I wanted to know more about what made the world tick. How I could figure out exactly why I was here and what I was meant for. I wanted a greater purpose.
Being raised in a religious Muslim family, and hearing so much about the unseen and unknown; this great force that people worship, or at least think about - I was curious. I needed to know more.
That need to know more - it hasn't diminished. But over the past few years, the need to give back has started to grow alongside it. To create as well as consume. And I see this as the start of that process.
Somewhere on my journey in self improvement, I realised that, quite counter-intuitively, the best way to move forward was to give back - the same way a rocket takes off by launching propellant out of the bottom.
When you make an effort to share what you know, you open the discussion up to everyone around you, and give yourself access to ideas that you might never have come up with yourself.
Those ideas can take you to entirely new places, to see entirely new things.
And that's what this blog is - a way for me to put something out into the world with the hope that even one person reading these words can benefit from them, and start creating for themselves.
I'd be lying if I said I was doing this solely for selfless purposes. I grew up as the quiet one around my family and friends - never saying much, just absorbing everything around me.
But this is my attempt at changing things up - learning to develop my own voice, my confidence and understanding of life. And through that, getting a better understanding of myself.
Solitude and isolation do wonders for self-awareness - I learnt that first hand. But to go out into the world with a mission, teach while you learn, and make an effort to help people in the same ways you've found to help yourself - that's worth a lot more to me.
Quite simply - I've decided it's time to put myself out there.
I know there are things I can give before my time here is gone. That means more to me than any vulnerabilities I have. The fact that I've been wanting to do this for so long has caused me to think of it as a massive undertaking - but I get the feeling, that's what's going to make me all the better for it.
I want to share what I have. To let people know who I am, and who I was. Whether it's through productivity and self improvement discussions, creative projects like worldbuilding, spreading awareness about humanitarian crises, or talking about the meaning of life.
I want to share as much as possible. Connecting with people in my life was always something I found extremely hard to do on a deeper level, because I was afraid to tell people how I feel and think.
Maybe this will change that.
I usually listen to music while I write, and the same goes for these posts. If you're curious what this one was themed off of, here's a link to the piece - it's from a beautiful videogame called Journey, and it's been one of my favourites for a long time.
On the off chance that you've read something on here and loved it, or want to read more, feel free to shoot me a message on my socials:
- @moh_askari on Instagram
- @MohammadAskari_ on Twitter
- Mohammad Askari on Facebook
The feedback helps massively. Thanks!