The Power of Connecting The Dots

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I hope you will enjoy this week's piece on how we can connect the dots of our life course looking backward. It only takes 6 minutes to read it.

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This Sunday, I ran my very first half marathon. It was a massive goal I wanted to achieve this year.

While recovering on my couch after this run, I was thinking through the journey that led me to this accomplishment.

And it reminded me of a watershed moment on a sunny August weekend in 2021 when I saw a barefoot stranger at a motivational event at a running festival.

So today, I will tell you a story on connecting the dots.

On how that barefoot stranger inspired me to run, focus on working out and complete challenges like a Spartan Race. How that stranger also inspired me to enroll in a Documentary Filmmaking course.

On that August weekend, I didn't feel like going to another town 2 hours from home, but I wanted to support my friend and his family who took part in that running festival. So we went and attended a motivational event on the first day.

During the break of that event, I went to the buffet and saw an athletic guy being barefoot and chatting with some people. I knew nothing about him, but he seemed quite a weirdo for walking barefoot.

I thought - is he some hippie? We are at an event, not a formal one, but still, this is not the beach.

Later, I realized that he was one of the guest speakers. He started his speech by apologizing for being barefoot, blamed it on an 80-kilometer run the previous day, and said that he didn't feel so well placing his feet in shoes.

In the next 60 minutes, I got to know him a little through his speech and the moderator's questions. He started running when he was 27 - on Christmas Eve when he felt depressed and had nothing better to do.

Since then, he became an avid runner who completed nine Spartathlon* races in a row.

*This is a 246-km race between Athens and Sparta, and runners must complete it within 36 hours.

This barefoot stranger was Balázs Simonyi, a filmmaker and ultrarunner. Balázs also did an excellent movie called Ultra on the Spartathlon race; to show why runners participate in such a transcendental experience and how they tackle those 24+ hours of running.

As soon as I got home from that weekend, I watched his documentary, and the movie's stories touched me deeply. Honestly, I also shed tears at the end of it. Since then, I watched it again three times and had that tearful emotion every time the movie ended.

Why Am I Telling You This Story With The Barefoot Stranger?

Because if I hadn't seen Balázs at that event and heard his stories, I wouldn't have watched his movie. Without the emotions that the documentary and Balázs' story had given me, I wouldn't have done a 6-month Documentary Filmmaking course and focused more on working out and, eventually, trusting my trainer and - more importantly - myself to sign up for my very (and not last) Spartan Race.

The inspiration that got me on that August weekend didn't stop since then. It transformed into dedication, actions, changes of certain habits, accomplishments, clear goals, and - yet - seemingly impossible dreams.

Now, as I am looking back to that day 14 months ago, I can connect the dots. While on that Saturday afternoon in August, I didn't fully know what the hell I was doing there, now I clearly understand why life took me there.

The notion of connecting the dots has been with me since I was 18 when I first watched the video of Steve Jobs' 2005 commencement speech.

Therefore, this is not the first time I can connect the dots of certain patterns in my life, yet I consider this one one of the most powerful ones.

And while I can already connect some dots related to my dedication to running, there are still some unconnected dots around my documentary filmmaking. But that is okay. And even though I already have plans and dreams with filmmaking, it will be a long way down the road to connect the dots of my filmmaking craft.

Why Keep This Powerful Notion In Mind?

As Jobs said, you have to trust in something that the dots will somehow connect in your future.

You might go through a devastating breakup with the loss of vision for a bright, stable future full of love.

You might have been fired from your job and have no idea what to do now while heading to a financial disaster.

You might be going through a terrible mental breakdown, spending your days fettered by anxiety, panic attacks, or even depression.

Whatever low point of your life you are going through, it's always about a lesson you learn to make you stronger and lead to a different and better path in your life.

This, of course, also depends on how you can take action by yourself - or with the help of trusted others - and how to address that low point of your life.

At those moments when life gives you lemons, you are presumably unaware of the actual reasons behind it. And it is almost always incredibly tough in those moments to believe in destiny (or else) and how you will be able to connect the dots looking backward.

But still, is it better or more worthy to "snivel" on the bygones or the current happenings? Or can we try to take that small step forward and believe that everything has some meaning in life? From my experience, that's always what gives you that minor power to take another step forward - no matter how deep the shit you are in.

But it doesn't always have to be about the lowest point of your life.

There might be some events, social gatherings, or opportunities you want to skip. And that is fine. We mostly have to listen to our guts. However, we often have to kick ourselves in the ass and realize that with most of those occurrences, we don't lose as much as we would gain.

How Can You Take Advantage Of 'Connecting The Dots'?

If you are at a low point in your life, it might not be the best to blame yourself for how you ended up there. While you might need some days just to let it sink and go with the flow, you need to take ownership and understand what small step you can take at that point to change that life course you are in.

Maybe it's just about going for a 15-minute walk around the block. Or to start working on your CV. Perhaps take a piece of paper and write down all thoughts you currently have.

If you are hesitant to take an opportunity of going to an event, social gathering, or else, try to understand what you could gain and lose. Are you indeed mentally and physically tired that you must stay home? Or is it actually about being lazy?

Any of those could be valid. If it's more about the ladder, grasp the pros and cons, and most of the time, the pros will win. You can never know whom you will meet, what inspiration you might get, or what opportunity you might face.

Don't let yourself miss it.

Because in the not-too-distant future, you will look back and be able to connect the dots. That's going to be your 'aha' moment!

Máté - TMBNC

💡 My Weekly Recommendations 💡

Some Pieces I Recommend You This Week

• Filmmaker & YouTuber Christian Maté Grab shared a brutally honest video on how his dream life turned into a deep struggle with mental health issues, why he disappeared from the public for almost two years, and how he has been recovering.

• Jack from Young Money also wrote about a similar topic as connecting the dots - how he almost didn't meet Morgan Housel, a tremendous & acknowledged finance guy who wrote The Psychology of Money (a book I dearly recommend reading!)

• Alvin Ang, who used to be a reality TV star, wrote a great blog post on how the Greek concept of "Lathe Biosas", or living in obscurity, led him to a happier life. 

Newsletters I Read Every Week

• Young Money - Jack writes inspirational & insightful posts on finance, career, and life. I learned a lot from his work, and was also a great motivation for me to start my own newsletter. 10/10 recommended!

• International Intrigue - A valuable newsletter on diplomacy & geopolitics delivered every weekday. Rather read this than all those shitty clickbait articles on mainstream media.

• Exec Sum - A daily newsletter on the major stories from the financial world. It's fun, entertaining, and informative. Better than those finance outlets with shitloads of ads.

• Snail Mail by Slow Growth - a weekly newsletter delivered every Monday by Matt D'Avella's team with great motivational content on productivity. It's not the usual productivity bullshit that you find everywhere else.

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