Preparation Journal: Lessons from My Self-Education Journey

I am 21 year old from Ireland I was introduced to “The Preparation” by my grandfather he has given the book to my brother who is 19 and was at a crossroads he was wrestling with the decision to either go to collage or take a year off after finishing his secondary school education and my grandfather gave him the book as he thought it would help. It's not the typical type of advice young people get from their family in Ireland so my brother and mother were surprised by the suggestion. while I was in Portugal as I spent the summer at a hostel in a national park in the north of Portugal near the Spanish border I called my grandparents to catch up and we got onto the topic of “the preparation “ it sounded like unique concept and something I had been researching myself so when my grandad started to explain what it was my mind lit up and I knew I needed to get my hands on the book. My grandad offered to purchase a copy for me and send it to where I was I sent him the address of where I was going to be next week a small farm in the south of France. I unfortunately was given the wrong address by my host in France but the book wasn't delivered to far away so after a few failed attempts of knocking on French farmers doors and with neither me nor the farmer speaking each others language I found the book. So now I'm on pg 203 and just after reading the passage maxim wrote about “how to hold yourself accountable” now I'm writing this. As somebody who has kept a journal irregularly for the last 3 years I am looking forward to keeping track of my progress in a public platform.

A little information about me. I dropped out of school at 18 with 1 year left before I finished after being presented with the opportunity to either travel or finishing my school and take it seriously or get kicked out of the house as at that stage I was being quite a degenerate getting drunk smoking doing drugs and not having any aim or direction in my life after getting back from a family holiday in Portugal where I spent the all the waking hours drunk or using some type of substance. My mother had enough and I decided to go traveling as I couldn't possibly see myself going back to school or living another year the way I had spent the previous 3. I think this decision was the single most impactful decision I have made in my life so far and maybe will ever make as I do r know the person I would be today if I had not decided to travel. After I said yes my mother asked me to decided where I wanted to go. For me it came down to 2 things being as far away from Ireland as possible and their being lots of animals in the area I decided on Costa Rica and spent 6 months there. It opened my eyes to so many things I met people and experienced things that transformed my perspective on how to live my life, what type of people I want to associate with. Since then I have not been as diligent in my pursuit of becoming a “competent,confident and dangerous” man as is wrote in “the preparation”.

I have cycled over 1200km from Munich to Budapest down the daunbe by myself camping in fieldings talking to God for a month that was a surprising religious experience

I have worked on a farm milking cows and working construction for 2 months and since January of this year I have spent 7 of the 10 months in different countries in Europe meeting different people and living a different lifestyle I started off this year going to live on a the top of a motion in the northern region of Italy in the reggio emila region with a couple from Belgium I joined a football team in Italy and trained with them during my time there it was an eye opening experience and I absorbed every minute. I stayed their for 2 months before another volunteer from Denmark arrived and convinced me leave and go to Rome for a few days. After a few action packed days in Rome I went to a yoga farm retreat 2 hours south of Rome I spent a month there while it was a beautiful place in the world I didn't appreciate the beauty of where I was after I got the flu or some kind of virus and felt like a zombie for 3 days I decided to call my parents to ask if they wanted to come to Rome and visit and I would come back with them as my cousins were visiting from England for mid term. In hindsight it was a poor decision as it led to me being at home with no direction for 3 months failing into old habits. As June rolled around I decided I would not be at home for my 21st birthday which Is July 1st so I applied to summer jobs in America and Europe and eventually decided to go to volunteer at a hostel in Portugal for 3 months and after 3 rewarding months it's changing the trajectory of my life and set me on a path to become a competent confident and dangerous man

I will continue to read the book and counting to post my progress weekly or more often as i enjoy the process of writing