Thank you, ChessMood Family!

“Appreciate everything, even the ordinary. Especially the ordinary.” — Pema Chödrön

From my articles you might have the impression that I’m made of iron, have a super discipline and I always have solutions. Which is very far from being true 😊
In reality, I have hard times and hard days too… Guess how I find motivation to push forward and who helps me?

***

Today (Nov 4, Friday, 20 days before publishing this) in the morning, I barely opened my eyes. The first thing I saw was that it was already light outside. The second thing — my wife looking at me with a smile:
“Wake up, Av, it’s 8 AM already.”

“How?” I asked. “We had our daily alarm set at 5.55 AM.”

She smiled wider and said:
“Yeah, but you turned it off and went back to sleep again.”

In almost 5 years, since we started ChessMood, there had never been a single day when I turned off or sneezed the alarm.

And here I was… Lying in bed still sleepy, thinking how could that happen.
I couldn’t recall the moment the alarm rang.

The worst part was I still couldn’t wake up…

Eventually, I did that somehow, got myself prepared and we left for the office.

Usually, once I get there, I have a quick breakfast, my favorite coffee, do my morning rituals and jump to my tasks.

Today my breakfast was longer than ever, and my coffee wasn't as tasty as before. I skipped my morning routine and started working immediately. Actually tried to start 😊

I opened my laptop, and continued writing one of the unfinished articles that we publish weekly.
2 hours later I deleted everything I’d written… Nothing was good.

Then after having a cup of tea I tried to continue my recordings for the SLP course, as the next day we had scheduled uploads.

After lazily preparing all the technical stuff (for 30 minutes!), I finally sat down on my chair to get started. But after looking at my screen for a few minutes, I just closed everything and shut down the laptop.

I had no energy, my mood was bad somehow, and I couldn’t concentrate.

I went back to the 1st floor where the team was working on a feature we want to release soon, to see what was going on.
But it didn’t work as well. I got angry for stupid reasons and left the office to walk.

I wasn’t in the Right Mood. Nothing was going well.

I don’t have such days often, but I have sometimes 😊
So, please don’t think that I’m superman, and sorry if you got that impression from my articles. I’m far from being perfect.

Usually, such bad days happen after intense work for some time, as was in this case too…

For the previous 2 weeks my wife and I had been waking up earlier than our usual 5.55 AM. At 6 we were at the office already. And we left it later than our usual 8-9 PM.
I was burning out…

The good news?
I knew how to heal myself. I have a few drugs.
And one of them is YOU.

Yeah, YOU, dear ChessMood Family!

After a short walk and refreshing my mind, I came back to the office and sat at my most favorite corner in our place — in the yard.

Took with me my laptop, notebook, a pen, and started the healing process. With your help… You never knew that you healed me when I was down, right?

First, I went to the Success Stories page and the courses page’s reviews.
I went through all your kind words and impressive achievements one by one.
You have spent time writing them and never knew I was using them as drugs.
THANK YOU!

I went through screenshots (yeah, I take them) of all your kind emails and messages you’ve sent to me or to ChessMood’s inbox.
I keep them as a drug too.
THANK YOU!

I wrote down in my notebook all our ChessMood family members' names. Whomever I remembered. And I remember many of you. I took at least a few seconds feeling grateful for each in my heart.

I wrote down all our students' names, who volunteered and helped us with something.
The names of all you who always cheer me up.
THANK YOU!

I went through our website, through all the courses… Through all the pages we have.
I could never build these all by myself.
It was our team!

I started to write down each name and feel deep gratitude.
For always believing in my craziness and going ahead with me.
For staying late with me whenever required and for all the positive vibes they bring to our team every single day!
THANK YOU!

Then I wrote down one of our first students’ name — Bhabatosh, who later helped me to save the company and became my craziest friend.
THANK YOU, BRO!

I wrote down all our investors’ names.
I recalled Badre, who helped us to speed up everything and was always with me when I needed advice.
Shiong, who became addicted to our courses and wanted to invest too.
Grandmaster X, who still doesn’t want to reveal his name.
2 other nice souls that have interest in investing now…
THANK YOU!

I wrote down all my mentors’ and advisors’ names, who are there whenever I need something.
THANK YOU!

Wrote all our partners’ and friends’ names who always help me to spead the word.
THANK YOU!

Apart from chess, I also wrote down all my close people’s names, all the blessings I have in my life, including my parents, sister, my wife, Yakko, my close friends and everyone I recalled.
Felt Gratitude for many ordinary things including my ability to see, hear, walk and many other things that I (we) take for granted…

And I was back.
Back to happy Avetik! Yay! 😅

I should’ve told you this earlier.
How you heal me each time I’m down.
How I remember each of you often. How many of you have a special place in my heart.
But as they say, better late than never.

Sorry and thank you!

After healing myself with your help, I was back to work and had a very productive day. Finished my recordings, killed the tasks with my team related to the feature which you’ll see soon, finished an article about one of the ingredients of chess growth, that we’ll publish soon, and wrote this…

I don’t know what to call it.
Essay? Letter?
Whatever...

Initially, it was an email.
But then I decided to publish it on our Blog, so it’ll always be there and you can read it later, in case you miss the email.
And we’ll publish it on Thanksgiving day, the 24th of November.

Love you!
Thank you!
Very, very, very, very much!
Avetik

P. S. Feel free to answer me on our forum.