we all have dreams right that one thing that pops back in our mind every time sometimes it feels so close but other times not so much so this is me a filmmaker from the Netherlands who's just chasing his [Music] dream the dream was that I wanted to be a YouTuber just like wolf of the world today but every time I got close starting that little voice of self-doubt held me back until one day I realized something that changed everything so now my approach to this dream is completely different today I'm sharing exactly what flipped the
switch for [Music] me actually starting with YouTube took me way longer than it should have I spent so much time on overthinking and dting myself I really didn't have to do that but it makes sense because we as humans are so programmed to worry all the time what other people think about us and many of us me included are so terrified to put ourselves truly out there but honestly putting yourself out there can feel really scary at first but it can also be super freeing it's like giving yourself permission to follow your heart and do
what truly matters to you something maybe only you can bring into the world okay so through one simple shift in my mindset I was finally able to follow my own feelings and to start and I really want to share with you what this mindset shift was exactly but my story starts a little bit earlier so I want to take you a little bit on a backstory are you ready like most kids I was always creating stuff Legos dominoes theme parks I guess I was just a creative kid but then I discovered video video was like
the perfect mix of creativity and storytelling this is so I started with Lego stop motion movies did some stupid stuff with my friends and After High School it evolved in capturing travel moments with these friends I even tried some flogging back in 2009 what started out as random fun projects with a friend turned into a full blown creative video agency small jobs became bigger ones but as things got bigger I guess something changed okay now don't get me wrong having an agency is really nice and I had a really good time but there was something
changing when we were starting to work with bigger Brands because bigger Brands mean really different responsibilities more people more com compromises I always thought that working with bigger Brands would mean greater opportunities more budget and more creative freedom but it wasn't really true I really had the feeling that I was drifting away from why I started in the first place so something had to change the dream felt unreachable but I was craving to create and YouTube felt like the perfect outlet for that passion let's do this just write a script how hard can it be
that's a nice first sentence I think or seriously I think it doesn't matter if you're just starting out or you've been doing this for a while self-doubts will come and your mind can totally take over I guess I know this because this is not the first time that I've tried to start and the problem is that the mind can be strong you can't go from making ads for big companies to making YouTube videos what will people think of you what if they think you were weird what if they don't like it I think all these
self-doubts translated in all these excuses I kept making I'm too late too old I don't have enough skills GE security it completely numbed me and the more excuses I made the further away that dream of starting a channel got but then something happened this is where everything changed for the first time I let go of the dream of becoming a a YouTuber and suddenly I felt free life was good at first but there was one thing that kept showing up or actually it was three things because this three-letter question kept coming back letting go of
the YouTube Dream allowed me to finally step back and get a better understanding because why did I want this so much at first I assumed it was for the obvious reasons success building a big audience and maybe be making a living of my own content someday a place where this would be my life my job and my success story but when I st all of that away I realized that wasn't it at all the real reason was Far simpler I love creating I love telling stories that's what it's always been about I wasn't chasing YouTube
for fame or success I was chasing it because it was a way to do what I loved to share stories to put ideas in the world and to do it all in a way that aligned with my oldtime passion creating videos and once I realized that it felt like something heavy lifted off my shoulders and I literally felt a shift happening in my mind and suddenly it all made a lot more sense because I really felt that I didn't need to reach a distant goal a specific amount of subscribers or I don't have to make
money I could just live that dream right now because the process of the creating that should be the dream and not some goal that we set not some outcome and we know this from all these other successful creators because they always tell us when they just started out the beginning was always the best when they still had space to experiment and try things and just enjoy the process and still so many of us chase something without really asking why myself included for a long time but once I Let Go of the need for an outcome
and I really focused on the why the things suddenly really felt a lot lighter and clearer and I just realized wow if I want to do this if this is really my dream I can start living this dream from tomorrow so that's what I did the next day I sat down and started writing on the script it wasn't easy there were moments when the words wouldn't come when I stared at a blank screen doubting if I had anything worth saying but I reminded myself why I was doing this to create to tell stories and to
connect every time I felt stuck I came back to that thought and that kept me going now here we are this video is the result of all those little moments of the effort the self-doubt and the determination to keep going sure it's not perfect but it's something that I created so if you want to create just start you just have to experience the journey that's what makes you a Creator yes okay so let's talk about the journey for a bit because when I started with this video I thought it would take me two or 3
weeks instead it took me over 2 months man it was such a messy process so here's the thing during the making of this video I already realized I want to keep doing this so I decided to go all in on YouTube for 6 months I don't know if that's crazy or brilliant or both but I'm going to do it and anyway along the way I recorded the process I thought it would be fun I recorded every struggle and all the things that I learned so uh watching it back was actually super reflective for me and
it got me thinking because all the things that I'm learning right now are already so valuable to me and if they're valuable to me that must be valuable to someone else so thought it would be cool to start a small newsletter I think once a month I will send all my most important learnings and maybe even make a little bit more raw unlisted YouTube videos about the process as well because I've got all this footage left and now you might think yeah you're an experienced filmmaker but trust me this whole Creator game is something completely
different than just creating videos it would be really cool if you can learn from my process of starting this Creator dream and yeah let's see what happens um oh let's finish the video so if you're someone who dreams of creating but feel stuck waiting for the perfect moment I get it I've been there for years but here's the truth the best time to start is now just take that first step and then one step at a time and let the process teach you the sooner you do that the sooner you will realize that the journey
itself is the dream and when you do this you will find out that living your dream is really not easy but it might just be worth it and there's only one way to find out and remember don't take everything too seriously [Music] y
