In this article I want to tell you a story about something that happened to me a few years ago, after I finished high school, in order to make you realize what's the true power of determination and what we can do, as humans, if we want to achieve something really bad and we have a dream we need to fight for.
Everything started when I discovered web design & development, when I was 17 years old. I spent some time learning HTML & CSS and while I wasn't the best at building websites, I was feeling proud of myself for being able to create something using tools that were close to a programming language.
Because of that I was spending hours studying and practicing, hoping to get really good at creating websites and maybe even get some money out of that. My objective at that time was to get good enough to upload my projects on ThemeForest and sell the websites I created. It was the best plan I had to get rich.
In two years of hard work I started building better and better websites, and learn new things like Bootstrap, JavaScript and jQuery. I remember that time when one of my friends called me "crazy" for spending 15 hours straight studying and practicing coding in JavaScript. It was fun, but apparently it didn't seem "normal" to other people.
That's how obsessed I was. Besides that I wanted to make money online, more than I was making at that time from YouTube, to prove my parents that I don't need to go to college to get a degree in order to live a decent life. So, when high school was over I decided it's time for me to step up my game and do whatever it was possible to become as good as I could at web design & development.
I changed my entire schedule and I made sure to do everything I could to work for as much as possible. I was waking up at 7 in the morning every single day, eating fruits and vegetables, working out for around an hour, studying and working on my computer for around 3 or 4 hours, eating again, exercising, working, and so on.
That was my schedule, more or less. Whenever I had the time I also went for a run. I cannot describe how good I was feeling at that point. From a guy who was never moving more than necessary I changed into a person who was exercising daily and eating healthy in order to keep myself energized and ready to work as much as possible.
I was working for 12 hours every single day, except on weekends, while also exercising for around 3 hours daily. It was the first time in my life I did that, and I felt amazing. I remember I was making weekly trips to the city near me, trips that I still make every week, to drink some coffee with an old friend. When I was doing that I also took the time to visit some stores and buy enough fruits and vegetables to last me a week.
Everything was great, and not only I was feeling awesome, but I was making more progress than ever. I was learning JavaScript pretty fast while also learning to use Linux and Python at the same time, I was getting better and better at using HTML & CSS to build static websites and I was practicing a few things in Photoshop.
I got to a level where I was able to create a landscape website page in a few hours, using HTML, CSS and Bootstrap. I felt really proud of myself, and while I wasn't able to make a lot of money yet, I was making great progress, and that made me happy. Besides that, I was learning more and more things every single day, so I couldn't complain.
I was doing what I loved, I was working on the projects I considered to be interesting and I was also making enough money to not get in trouble with my parents and pay for certain things we needed in the house.
Everything fell apart when all kind of relatives started telling me about college. Everyone was against my dream and nobody believed that I can actually get what I wanted, so after around two months of working really hard, I gave up to the pressure and I accepted to go to college.
It was the worst decision I made in my entire life. Because of that I lost all my motivation to work, I stopped exercising daily, stopped eating healthy and because I needed money for college I stopped learning web design & development because I couldn't afford paying for hosting services. I was broke.
I spent around 2 months in college when I decided to quit and focus again on the things I loved, this time determined to never listen to any relatives and to care only about what I was doing. College was so expensive that in two months I spent around $1000 from which $500 or more were mine, and when I left college my parents needed money to repair some things around the house, so I was left with literally nothing.
After all that I had 0 motivation to start over again. Web design and development wasn't an option any more, because new things appeared in the meantime that I knew nothing about and I was so broke I couldn't afford a $3 hosting service, so I had to do something completely different.
I started learning Photoshop at an advanced level and forced myself to work on projects I never worked on before. In a few months I started creating design packages for Graphic River and Creative Market, and making some money once again. Sadly, I did not start learning anything related to web design and development any more, because I did not feel like I had the time to start learning all the things again.
However, what I did was force myself to work every single day, for at least 10 hours, in order to create as much content as possible. Sadly, I did not have the same schedule as before. I did not wake up at 7 in the morning and I wasn't spending my money on fruits and vegetables every single week, because I didn't have enough. I also stopped exercising.
What I realized a few months ago is that no matter what happens in our life and no matter how many things are against us when it comes to something we really love, we can always get up and fight in order to accomplish what we so much want. Not giving up is one of the best things I did, and continuing working on my dream was extremely rewarding, maybe not financially, but spiritually.
We, as humans, have an immense power that we are not aware of. I'm not talking about "energies" that we have in our bodies or "energies" that we can get from the universe. I'm talking about true determination. I'm talking about getting up every single day and fighting with a bunch of people who laugh at you and constantly say you can't do it.
I'm a pretty weak person, and I don't consider myself to be smart at all. But I managed to work and to get up again and again, no matter what happened in my life, and the only thing that helped me do that was my determination to accomplish my dream. If I'm able to do that, I can't think of any excuse why you wouldn't be able to do it as well.
You don't need to be a genius and you don't need to be "special". You just need to be determined to make your dream reality. That's all. If you have an objective that you love so much, something you want with all your spirit, then fighting for it it's always gonna get easier and easier, because you'll get used to getting up and keeping your head up in front of everyone who thinks you're just wasting your time.
You can fall and you can fail multiple times, as I did in the past. I gave up on that awesome period in my life because I couldn't fight with all that pressure that people started putting on me. Now, no matter what I do, I can't get back all those awesome feelings I had back then and I can't get the same kind if motivation. That doesn't mean I'm not working every single day for what I love.
If I'm capable of doing that, you're capable as well. You just need to find the right thing to fight for and you're ready. That's all it takes. Learn what true determination is, and you'll soon find yourself to be one hell of a soldier, ready to fight against anything staying between you and your dream.