How I Found My Passion (And Why I Became a Chinese Medicine Doctor)

You know, this time in history is kind of weird compared to prior eras of human history because whereas our ancestors were probably mostly concerned with not dying of the plague, now modern people wonder about these really existential crises questions, right? Like, what do I do with my life? What is the work I am born to do? And honestly, the very question of what makes life meaningful is an evergreen human question. I think now more than ever, it's something that a lot of us wonder about. Now in this video, I thought I would share a bit about my own journey, my own story of finding the work that is my dharma because I think it can really help you. Hey guys, Alex Hine, author of the book Milk the Pigeon, a field guide for anyone lost in their 20s. You can check it out. It's now on Amazon and Audible. So I've included a link right below this video, which is for a free journaling worksheet. If you're trying to figure out what the hell to do with your life, that journaling worksheet down below this video can help you. It's the first link there. Now for me, you know, my best friend, unfortunately, in my 20s was kind of a perpetual feeling of being lost. Like I had what maybe many of you may have too, which is that you have your material needs met, you have a job, you're not starving, you can pay your rent, but you just really don't like your life that much. You'd rather not have that job. If you had a bunch of money you inherited or you won the lotto, one of the first things you'd do was probably quit that job, right? Well, I was the same way too. And I was, you know, mixed up in this ball of feeling like I should be so grateful, like everyone said, because I had a job. But all I wanted was the feeling of feeling alive again. All I wanted was to feel like my life had meaning and purpose. And there was a reason to actually show up to this job besides having to just pay my rent to exist on a piece of land and do that for 40, 50 years and somehow call that a life. I remember having all these uncomfortable conversations with my girlfriend at the time because she was, you know, a first-generation immigrant. She was always talking about like career, school, being focused on work, but she hadn't entered the real world yet. You know, she hadn't entered the working professionally for a couple years, understanding how monotonous it's going to be for the next decades. You know, for her, it was like, why can't you be grateful? But for me, it was, I just really don't like life that much, but there's nothing wrong with it. So this was the time where I got back from moving to China. So I had just come back home. I was 24, 25, and I realized that I really had just one primary goal. My number one primary goal was that I wanted to feel excited about my day-to-day life. And I was willing to fight, kick, claw, whatever it took to build a life where that was the case. Because to me, I realized that there was no amount of money that really excited me or made me feel good about life. Primarily, it was a feeling of excitement about what I was working on, primarily in my work quadrant of my life. You know, I mean, that's 9, 10, 12 hours a day. If you don't like it, there's almost no amount of money that can make it worth it. So around this time, as I'm really doing all the work possible to find work that excites me, I was reading this book Mastery by Robert Greene. And in the book, he talks about the case histories and the biographies of some of these renowned people who are known for being masters in their fields. And he talks about Charles Darwin being one of those people. And he talks about how Charles Darwin went on this journey via a ship, and he ended up in the Caribbean. And one of the things he was doing was he was studying these barnacles for some crazy amount of time, like a decade, so that he could formulate his theory of evolution, make it credible, and acquire enough evidence that when he presented it to the scientific community, they would analyze it through a skeptical eye and still see the value and the accuracy and the truth of this Darwinian theory of evolution. And it just made me think about, you know, Robert Greene talks about following your natural inclinations. And it got me reflecting back on my life. You know, as a kid, was there something I always gravitated towards that was fun, that was interesting, where I lost track of time? And what was that thing? You know, and I got to thinking, you know, when you're reading a book, and you have pictures pop in your head about you're creating a storyline in your head, you're visualizing it. I saw this picture of myself as a kid, where I was always reading books about doctors and herbal medicine and mysticism. And if you could sum up my passions in one main thing, it was the intersection of medicine and mysticism or spirituality. And so as I'm reading about this, as I'm picturing this kind of story, this narrative in my head, I begin to feel, you know, goosebumps, and an intense feeling of excitement, and just elevated energy, like, oh, that would be cool. That's exciting. And I thought back to all these stories I'd read about the great sage physicians throughout history, where the patient had been to all the great doctors of the time. And yet, they went to this one, you know, the wisened person of the woods, and they fixed them. And I was like, that is what I've always wanted to learn. Whatever that is, whether it's learn from one of those people, become one of those people, this is my craft. Now, I don't want to go too much more into my story, but I do want to share that the difference is the subjective feeling internally. The difference is that before this time, I always felt like I was looking for the path. You know, I always felt like I was looking for what was out there for me. What is my passion? What is something I really like? What should I do with my life? And the difference now is that I feel like I'm pursuing. I'm in pursuit of, I'm on the right path. And now I'm like, well, what is one year down that path? That's going to be pretty awesome. What is five years down that path? I'm pumped. Versus when I felt lost before, my mid to early 20s, maybe 10 years ago, I was, I felt so listless. I felt so unhappy because I was trying to figure out, find the thing. But now it feels like the thing has been found, and it's like I'm on a ninja warrior obstacle trail that I want to be on, this obstacle course. And it's like one handhold leads to the other, leads to the other. What's just on the other side of this? And so I think if you're searching for that feeling, number one is look for the feeling. Don't chase the external job or person or whatever. Try to recognize the feeling of excitement, and then let that be your compass for finding the work that is really most important to you. Because otherwise, you end up doing the, becoming the doctor because that's what you think is it, or your mom said that, or you become the lawyer or the entrepreneur because it's cool and it's powerful and it has security. Or you choose the decision out of fear, which is not a good decision. Look for the feeling first, and then recognize that when you see it externally. All right, guys. Again, my other book, Milk the Pigeon, I literally wrote it to answer those exact questions existentially. So you can check that out. That'll be a resource that'll help you. And then again, the first link below this video is for a free journaling worksheet that'll help you figure out what to do with your life and how to plan it going forward so that it's awesome. All right, before you guys go, I have two related videos for you here.