Dr. Andy Fata-Chan

Everything that we want is closer than we think but we always insist on taking the scenic route to get there.

If you know me then you know that I’m no stranger to hard work.

I pride myself in my ability work long hours and grind because it’s helped me achieve the success that I have today.

And I thought that same formula would help me achieve more success but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

There is a great quote from Marshall Goodman and he says:

“What got you here won’t get you there.”

I wasn’t always this way.

In fact, I was the complete opposite.

I had very little ambition, little to no drive, lacked confidence, couldn’t finish a book if you paid me to, and I had no future…my family always had to check in to see if I was going to graduate from high school.

The bar was low.

A complete 180 occurred when I realized that I wanted to be a physical therapist in my last year of college, it was the first time in my life that I felt drawn to something besides sneakers.

Physical therapy school changed everything for me.

My neuromuscular professor, Dr. Garcia, recommended to our class that we pick up a book called ‘The Brain That Changes Itself’ by Norman Doidge if we had free time and for some reason I thought that would be a great idea…

Despite the fact that physical therapy school is already pretty damn tough!

I realized two things after finishing that book:

• I could finish a book and actually enjoy it
• The brain is constantly changing itself based on the inputs that it receives

This was a huge turning point for me because I didn’t think I could actually look forward to reading and I was struggling with anxiety/depression so that meant things could change if I changed the inputs that I was getting.

So…I started changing my inputs.

I was on a relentless pursuit of self-betterment.

That snowballed into me reading a book almost every week and I gave Thriftbooks a tonnnnnnn of business during that time.

*It’s still one of my favorite ways to buy used books for a great deal. No affiliate link, it’s just an amazing business.*

I was also finishing a new course or mentorship every few months and that got me into over $10,000.00 in credit card debt as a student.

The high from getting better was something I never felt before because for the first time in my life…

I was doing something with my life.

But here am I struggling despite the fact that I work so damn hard.

Hah!

I guess hard word doesn’t solve everything and that’s what I’ve found out.

At some point, when you’ve achieve any bit of success…you start to think about when it’ll go away and you never want it to go away.

This is self-sabotage but I’ll connect those dots for you in a bit.

So.

Whatever you did to achieve that success, you start to do more of it.

And oh baby did I self-better the sh*t outta myself.

Not out of abundance though.

Out of scarcity.

I’ve pushed the limits not because I was excited to get better but because I was terrified of regressing.

Regressing to the person that I was.

The same kid that forged his parents signatures on report cards, failed gym class, barely made it to college, got into academic probation twice while in college, rejected from 20+ physical therapy schools, and more.

I didn’t want to be that kid because he had no success, I worked even harder than ever before but for the wrong reasons.

It’s not fun to operate on scarcity because you start to project your insecurities on other people and if you run a business then it starts to bleed into fabric of your company’s culture.

Do I regret working my ass off?

No way.

Could I have handled it better along the way?

Most definitely.

But…we’re taking the scenic route.

Ever since I started working with a life coach last September, all I ever wanted to feel was light and happy.

I’m not saying that I haven’t felt light or happy before but it was always in response to something happening externally.

It wasn’t innately.

This past month, I’ve cried a whole lot of happy tears in the most random places.

Like an H-Mart parking lot, Wegmans…yeah I have pretty exciting life 🙂

All because I’ve given myself time to process things that I haven’t been able to process before.

Finding gratitude and abundance in places that I never looked.

I was listening to a podcast by Noah Kagan with John Paul DeJoria, it was brilliant.

John is a billionaire.

One of the questions that Noah asked him was when he did he know that he was going to “make it”.

His response will shock you.

It was when he was able to pay all of his bills on time!

That’s it.

He loved what he did, he believed in his product, and all he needed was his bills paid on time for him to realize that it was going to be okay.

All I’ve done is move the goal post every single year.

There was a moment in time where making enough to cover the basic necessities of life was enough.

But I got caught in this vicious cycle of scarcity.

I needed things to happen so I could FEEL something that I could’ve felt a while ago.

Light and happy that I was able to live a life doing what I truly enjoyed.

But I’ve been taking the scenic route, driving a long long time…

When it’s been with me everywhere I went.

There is so much to be grateful for.

There is so much abundance.

Right in front of me.

I opened up a book called ‘The Inside Game’ by Steve Magness today.

The first chapter says in big letters:

“We are all in survival mode.”

That’s how it feels like when you operate on scarcity.

You can’t feel light and free when you’re trying to survive.

You’re constantly thinking about when it’s all gonna go away.

And that’s how you lose everything.

Until you realize that there is nothing to be scared about.

Everything is limitless and in abundance.

But only…

If you believe it.