Built From the Field by Chris Momongan
🗓️ Posted: @May 7, 2025
✍️ Category: Mindset Shifts • Personal Growth • Origin Story
That idea—the value of an idea—has been following me for over a decade. It all started with a movie.
I still remember watching Inception like it was yesterday. AMC Phipps. My buddy Alfredo. Summer of 2010.
The moment that stuck with me most wasn’t the zero-gravity fight scene or the folding cityscape—it was the scene where Cobb implants a simple pinwheel into a subconscious safe. That image—the idea of an idea taking root and changing everything—was electric.
I walked out of that theater feeling like my brain had been rewired. The Hans Zimmer soundtrack? I played "Time" on loop. It became the background to my late-night thoughts and even my first 5K run in Savannah. I remember blasting it on the treadmills at LA Fitness, imagining I was running toward a version of myself I hadn’t met yet.
And I needed that version badly.
At the time, I was in a rut. Working in a brokerage call center as a financial rep. The work was monotonous—headset on, script ready, same calls, same energy. It reminded me of Mr. Anderson’s office in The Matrix, pre-red pill.
I was in debt. Like, deep. Student loans from college, plus credit cards my mom had opened in my name to cover my school expenses. I didn’t understand credit or personal finance. I didn’t realize how much that would haunt me.
I had a job that paid well if I didn’t have debt—but I did. And instead of facing it, I ignored it. Lived like it wasn’t there. Future Me will figure it out, I thought. I just wanted to enjoy my 20s.
It left me stuck. Resentful of people who didn’t have to dig their way out before they could build anything.
I was in a long-distance relationship that was already crumbling. I told myself I was in love because we’d lived together during college—but the truth is, I was afraid of being alone. We barely talked. It wasn’t connection. It was fear.
And I was out of shape. Drinking too much. Coping through bars and surface-level socializing.
I longed for a spark. Something to ignite my energy.
Inception gave me that spark.
Not in the traditional motivational way—but in the idea that a small, planted thought could change the trajectory of someone’s life. I wondered: what would happen if I planted my own?
So I did.
I told myself: “Only do things that move me forward.”
I decided I wanted to have a positive impact on people.
That idea became my mental totem.
First came fitness. I committed to getting in the best shape of my life. I went from 250 pounds to 195. Lean. Confident. Sharper.
And with that clarity, I started to question the rest of my life.
I got promoted to a team handling high-frequency traders. More complex issues. More intense clients. More money.
But also—more stress.
There was a guy on the team who had been doing the same job for nearly a decade. Same chair. Same script. Same headset. And I remember looking at him and thinking: If I don’t leave now, that could be me.
He didn’t seem miserable, but he seemed... institutionalized. Like Red from Shawshank Redemption. A man who had forgotten he could walk out the door.
That terrified me more than any risk of quitting.
So I left.
Sometimes we wait for someone to plant the idea for us.
But we can plant it ourselves.
One small thought—about health, time, or purpose—can shift our entire trajectory.
That’s why I journal. That’s why I build systems. That’s why I write these posts.
Because a better future starts with a better thought today.
🎯 Takeaway
A single thought—planted with intention—can reshape your future.
Whether it’s fitness, purpose, or freedom, the first step isn’t action.
It’s belief.
The most powerful systems start with the simplest ideas.
More entries like this—real, reflective, and in real time—are coming soon.
→ @builtfromthefield (brand)
→ @chrismomongan (personal)