My name is Jake, and this is Week 0 of trying to build a life that does not make me feel like a background character watching everything unfold from the sidelines.

Let me explain.

BACKSTORY

I think I have spent most of my life waiting for a treasure map.

Not an actual one, obviously. Although, I would not complain.

More like some random moment where life points at something and goes, “there it is, go that way.”

Because for as long as I can remember, normal life has always felt a bit too mundane for me.

Go to school. Go to university. Get the stable job. Get paid. Buy things you do not need. Complain about being tired. Talk about the weather. Talk about the same problems every week. Do nothing about them. Repeat.

Somehow, that is meant to be the dream.

One life, and the grand plan is to spend most of it in an office doing work you do not care about, having conversations you do not care about, waiting for the weekend so you can feel like yourself for two days before doing it all again.

And I know that sounds dramatic.

But I have always found it mad that we are given one chance at life, and the safest option is treated like the correct one.

I have always wanted the weird story, the big idea, the kind of life you look back on and think, at least I actually tried.

Over the years, I think I tried to find it in every idea possible.

I would start something, get a tiny bit of proof that it could work, and then stop.

I would send the outreach, get the client, do the project, and then somehow let the momentum disappear.

I would buy the sneakers, sell them for profit, prove the concept, and then stop.

I would design the artwork, get someone with a proper audience interested, see the door open slightly, and then step back before walking through it.

That has probably been the most frustrating pattern of my life.

The door would open.

And I would not walk through.

Not because I did not want the adventure.

I just wanted the adventure without having to step into the light.

Which, unfortunately, is not really how adventures work.

Because every path eventually asked the same thing from me.

To stop hiding behind the idea and actually put myself into the world.

That was always the leap.

And every time I reached it, I stepped back.

I think that happens to more people than we admit.

We are scared of rejection. Scared of looking stupid. Scared of being judged. Scared of people seeing who we really are before we have managed to become who we want to be.

So instead, I did the sensible thing.

I finished university, came back home, and said yes to the first proper job that offered me a role with a good salary.

And honestly, part of me was relieved.

It was safe. It was stable. It made sense.

But fast forward eight months and I do not really have much to show for it.

I went to the gym when I felt motivated. I went to work, repeated the same tasks, had the same conversations, and hit the same invisible wall every day.

Then I came home, got into bed, and called it rest, when really I think I was just trying to take back some of the time I felt I was giving away for a salary.

Then I would spend that salary in the first week on things I did not need, just to feel something new for five minutes.

That is not living.

That is just a slower, more socially acceptable way of disappearing.

And I think what scared me most is that I was starting to accept it.

Like maybe this was just what life was.

Maybe the treasure map was not coming.

THE TRIP THAT WOKE ME UP

Four weeks ago, I came back from a trip that started in Manchester, went down to San Sebastián, and ended in Bilbao.

I went for a Zach Bryan concert, and as you can imagine, it was incredible.

I was so close to the stage that I am pretty sure me and Zach made eye contact. Delusional? Probably. But I will be taking it to the grave.

And for that whole trip, I felt alive.

Not just because of the concert, but because of who I was during those few days.

I was out of my comfort zone. I was saying yes to things. I was sweating through every T shirt I owned in 30 degree heat. I was tired, uncomfortable, excited, present, and somehow loving all of it.

It was the most myself I had felt in months.

Then I came back.

Back to work. Back to the same routine. Back to the same conversations. Back to the version of me that felt watered down.

And for the first time, I did not feel any sense of comfort when I came back.

That trip did not magically fix anything. It did not give me a perfect plan, a guaranteed business idea, or some deep life changing answer.

But it gave me a glimpse.

A glimpse of how different life feels when you are actually in it.

And once I felt that, coming back to autopilot felt pretty unbearable.

Sometimes the problem does not feel big enough to change until you get a glimpse of what the other side could feel like.

That trip gave me the glimpse.

THE IDEA

So this is where Life of Jake comes in.

Maybe no treasure map is coming.

Maybe there is no random moment where life hands me a route, circles the destination, and tells me where X is.

And that is fine.

Because maybe not knowing where X is, is the whole point.

I do not know exactly where this leads.

I do not know if it turns into a business, a creative career, a better version of myself, a massive embarrassment, or something I cannot even imagine yet.

But I do know the current route is not working.

So the game plan is simple.

Every week, I am going to do something that moves me closer to the life I keep imagining, then document it here.

The wins, the failures, the awkward bits, the lessons, the tiny signs of progress, and all the versions of myself I meet along the way.

There won’t be any bullshit attempt to make my life look better than it is.

If it is shit, I will tell you.

If it is good, I will tell you.

And you?

I am not sure who you are, but if you have read this far, then maybe this feeling is familiar to you too.

Maybe you have been waiting for your own treasure map.

Maybe you have an idea, a skill, or some version of yourself you keep putting off until you feel ready.

I do not think ready is coming.

So this is me starting anyway.

Next week is my Week 1, where I lay out the foundations of my plan.

Will it be your Week 1 too?