Last week I wrote part 1 of this newsletter.​

We talked about being dissatisfied and wanting more to life than the traditional path, and why starting a personal brand will benefit you no matter if you start your own business or work for someone else.

Now let's get into how we can start changing that.

Step 1: Define your vision

What's a vision?

A vision is what your ideal lifestyle would look like.

Be specific and focus on how you want to feel rather than what you want to have.

Ask yourself WHY.

You can be inspired by others and learn from their experience and stories, but they don't have the answers to how and why you want to live in a certain way, it's up to you to figure that out.

Having intrinsic motivation will beat external rewards.

I want a car and a house is not so specific and there's no feeling involved in that.

For example:

In my ideal future, I live a life where I have complete control over my time and choices. Every day is different, and I get to decide how I want to spend it. I live in a spacious home in Stockholm with beautiful views of nature, the lake, and the city skyline. I’m close enough to the city for convenience but also surrounded by nature, giving me the best of both worlds.

I would even make that more specific by adding "I feel relaxed and inspired" for example.

Now, think about your ideal day (be aware of your limitations, dream big, and be honest with yourself):

• Where do you live or what does it look and feel like?
• How do you spend your time?
• How long of a workday do you want to have?
• What would you do for work?
• Add anything else that comes to mind for that specific future you want.

Again, focus on the experience.

Having a clear vision will guide your decision and keep you focused on what truly matters to you.

Pro Tip: Set a timer for 20 minutes and free-write your dream lifestyle without overthinking.

Step 2: Identify your enemies

No, you don't need to fight them.

Your enemies are not just internal.

External challenges, like pressure from society to follow a traditional career path, toxic workplace culture, or even the environment you're surrounded by, can drain your energy and creativity.

Becoming aware of these external obstacles will help you move further away from situations that conflict with your vision. What outside forces are pushing you away from the life you want?

Understanding them helps you create an ‘Anti-Vision’ to steer away from.

You will most likely need to deal with them, but your focus is on creating your own path.

And don't worry you're not alone, we are more for every day that passes, we are here creating the New Normal; right beside you.

To get an idea, here is a part of my Anti-Vision:

• I imagine a future where I'm stuck in a draining 9-5 job, pushing aside my dreams and creativity.
• I see myself surrounded by fake workplace culture and meaningless tasks.
• My daily commute feels repetitive and soul-sucking, filled with mindless distractions.
• My health and energy decline as I neglect myself and fall into poor habits.
• I’m surrounded by shallow relationships that hold me back from personal growth.

Now, everyone's different and has their own values and goals, if you want to work for a company, that's fine, I'm not against that. This is just what I want to get away from (which could change as I grow).

That was just an example.

Here’s how you can craft your Anti-Vision:

Make a list of the things that hold you back—whether it’s a comfort zone, mental roadblocks, or societal pressure.

Ask yourself:

• What is the future you want to avoid at all costs?
• What do you want to make people aware of?
• What have been the toughest or most challenging moments in your life?
• What recurring frustrations or lingering doubts have you experienced around your interests?

Example: "Fear of instability" or "Belief that I need a 9-to-5 for security."

Identifying these "enemies" makes it easier to confront and overcome them.

Pro Tip: Ask yourself, "What would I do if I wasn’t afraid of X?"

Step 3: Start Building a Roadmap

What's a vision without action?

A dream. A fantasy.

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If you're struggling to make ends meet while working a 9-to-5 and don't yet have the skills to transition to working only four hours a day, it's okay to put some goals on hold temporarily.

Some goals are too far away for you right now, nothing to worry about, you just need to focus on what’s in front of you and keep that goal on the waitlist for now.

Always remember this:

Things will get in your way, and there will be moments where you doubt your progress and need to rethink, but as long as you make decisions based on what feels deeply right, you’re on the right path—by deeply right, I mean decisions that are not based on fear, external motivations or others’ expectations.

Break your vision down into small, manageable steps. Don’t aim for perfection—start with tiny shifts.

Dedicate at least 30 minutes each day to work toward your desired lifestyle.

Write to get clarity as to where you are heading and what you need to do to get there.

Learn a skill necessary to achieve that lifestyle.

Pro tip: Document what you learn and share what you find on your way.

Step 4: Systems, systems, systems.

When you work at a traditional job, you have teams of people taking care of finances, human resources, product development, marketing, customer support, and operations.

Each department specializes in one area, making sure everything runs smoothly without you needing to worry much about it.

But when you’re building your own personal brand or business, at least in the beginning, there’s no one looking out for you; you’re on your own.

You're responsible for everything—from finances and strategy to content creation and building relations.

That gets overwhelming very quickly, trust me, I’ve been there. Your mind just zones out and you start working in low-power mode.

So even though overwhelm is positive, as it means you’re learning, and I’d say unavoidable if you want to create something impactful, you can make it a lot smoother for yourself by implementing simple systems for time management, learning, and creativity.

Choose whatever works for you, but I use:

• Notion: where I keep my tasks, projects, goals, contacts, and other important stuff to make mental space for other activities.
• Notion Calendar: for keeping up with important tasks, meetings, and events.
• Kortex: for content creation. This is where I do most of my written content, I capture ideas, develop them into newsletters and blog posts, and create content for social media platforms. The best with this tool? It lets you connect your ideas and content so you don’t end up with a bunch of useless spread notes—it’s your second brain for content creation.

There’s an ocean of tools and ways of creating systems, but you need to build the systems that work for you, the ones that give you more time, not take it from you—don’t get caught up in “busywork”.

If you don’t want to spend time learning the tools yourself, although I’d recommend you learn the basics of them, you can find someone who could help you set up some systems; there are plenty of people.

Recently, I created my own system in Notion where I sort tasks by a score I’ve come up with and can choose the mood I am in that day, it will sort the tasks based on that criteria—not just cool, it's a game-changer (even if my girlfriend thinks I’m a bit too into it!).

Create your systems to automate what’s important in your life, but before you do, ask yourself if you could eliminate or simplify something instead of building a system.

Step 5: Content creation is a tool for growth

What’s content creation?

Content creation is simply sharing ideas, stories, or knowledge in a way that helps or entertains others.

It's more about communication than the over-commercialized buzzword it’s often made into.

A tweet, a blog post, a podcast, or a video, has the same goal: to connect with people by giving them something meaningful or useful. At its best, it’s about giving value to a conversation or culture.

Although there’s so much content being spat out for clicks or the algorithm, there are lots of great people out there expressing their thoughts, insights, and creativity—understanding content creation is what helps share that in a way that matters.

So how do you start?

Just start, even if it’s rough. Create something to express and explore yourself.

The easiest way is to start writing. Write about your interests and your observations of the world, the system, and the culture. Write about a story of your past where you learned the lesson, and share that lesson.

How you start doesn’t matter, what matters is that you start. Starting will lead you to new problems and challenges you need to solve.

That’s how you create meaningful content.

People want to hear from you, even if you don’t believe it yet. I know that.

Make sure to subscribe to the newsletter and you'll get what you need to know about content creation.

Step 6: Reframe failure and uncertainty

Failure is scary, I know. I’ve been terrified of so many things in my life, and still am.

When I was younger, I hated phone calls (I still don’t enjoy them, but I’m comfortable with them now). Just the idea of having to call someone where I didn’t know exactly how things were going to turn out made me nervous as fuck; it made me anxious.

I overcame that fear by reading 100s of books, consuming countless courses, and watching every YouTube video available on “How to not be scared about phone calls”… No, of course not.

I got on the damn phone despite my fear.

And the thing is, the fear is like a shadow projected on a wall—huge and intimidating—but when you face it, it’s smaller than you thought. It’s only as big as your mind makes it.

There’s not a magic word or affirmation you can say to make that fear disappear, but there are ways to make it easier to confront some fears. If it helps create a safe space where you can go when things don’t have a positive outcome.

My best advice here is to have compassion for yourself and be curious towards what you could learn from a situation. Don’t be hard on yourself and fall into the shaming spiral, you won’t get anything other than suffering from it.

The biggest obstacles to your dream life are invisible:

• Fear of Failure
• Fear of Success
• Fear of Judgment

Write in detail what you think would happen if you failed, succeeded, and got judged. Write the worst-case scenario for each fear. Seeing the negative outcome written can make it easier to deal with.

Now, what can you do to minimize the worst-case scenario? Think of a way to comfort yourself when things go wrong. Having something positive to look forward to if something negative happens will cheer you up to keep going despite setbacks.

Finally, what’s the cost of not taking action? How does it feel to be stuck?

Think of how your life will look like if you don’t start. Write it down.

Knowing how your life will be if you don’t change will fuel your transformation.

Step 7: Get better at handling life's ups and downs.

Life will put many challenges in your way; some will be easier than others, but no matter the difficulty, having ways of regulating your emotions will make it a lot more peaceful.

Whenever you are in a stressful situation that needs a solution, the first thing you should try is to regulate your nervous system.

That is managing your body’s stress response, helping you stay calm and balanced even in challenging situations—by practicing deep breathing, meditation, or mindfulness to control how your body reacts to stress, bringing it back to a more relaxed state—essentially, it's about learning how to shift from feeling anxious or overwhelmed to feeling grounded and in control.

In simple terms, it's about knowing how to calm yourself down when you're feeling stressed or tense.

If you do that, you can solve the root cause of your problems. I wrote about how I deal with my problems and the practices I use to find permanent solutions.

Pro tip: Use this breathing technique to calm down your system.

1. Inhale and count to 4.
2. Hold your breath and count to 4.
3. Exhale and count to 8.
4. Repeat 10 times.

Now take the first step

Building a life you love takes time, it's a journey of small, intentional steps—defining your vision, confronting limiting beliefs, setting up systems, and embracing failure.

Start today (or this week), it doesn't have to be a big step, start journaling your vision, create a simple routine, or post your first piece of content.

If you're looking for more personalized guidance or clarity on how to start building a more aligned and fulfilling lifestyle, feel free to reach out. I'd be happy to help.

Reply to this email and I'll get back to you :)

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Have a nice day and week! Talk to you soon.

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