2023 comes to an end today, and as a goal setting exercise and maybe just so I convince myself better times are ahead I'm going to spend some time to envision what my best life looks like a year from now.
Off the top of my mind here's what I want done by the end of 2024:
1. To be married to my girlfriend and living with her, not handling a long distance relationship.
2. To be making at least 150k USD annually.
3. To have at least 2 side projects/small bets running in parallel to my primary source of income. Whether they're profitable or not is another matter but they must exist and they must not be net-loss making.
4. To have done at least 1 international trip with my wife.
Practically, I think 1,3, and 4 are well within my control. 2 depends on some external factors like being employed, what pay I make etc. but still mostly under my control.
A theme, or more like a motto I'd like to bring to my life this year is to live it more fearlessly. I don't know for sure what can happen in the future. Not even the near future. I can try my best to guide it, I can try my hardest to control it, but what this year has taught me is that barely anything is guaranteed. Not that cushy job and pay I so attached some part of my identity to. Not the lifestyle I enjoyed and the car I drove in. Sometimes not even the right to live and stay somewhere.
But few things are. The love and support of a select few. The pleasures of learning and satisfying intellectual pursuits. The fruits of labor. The joy in taking care of my health. The way I feel content when I eat anything mom cooks. And whatever that feeling is when my girlfriend says I look good (total nuclear meltdown). However my year has gone(and thank fuck its gone), all of these experiences were always next to me in one way or another. When she hugged me and never let go as I cried because I thought we were over. When dad fed me breakfast in the hotel lobby after I realized I threw away a life I built over 5 years. When my friends constantly joked about everything I'd get sad about because they know humor is the best way I'm able to disarm from stressful situations. This is what I'll take into next year, and none of what kept me up at night wondering where the fuck am I going.
Cause I'm going just fine.
Off the top of my mind here's what I want done by the end of 2024:
1. To be married to my girlfriend and living with her, not handling a long distance relationship.
2. To be making at least 150k USD annually.
3. To have at least 2 side projects/small bets running in parallel to my primary source of income. Whether they're profitable or not is another matter but they must exist and they must not be net-loss making.
4. To have done at least 1 international trip with my wife.
Practically, I think 1,3, and 4 are well within my control. 2 depends on some external factors like being employed, what pay I make etc. but still mostly under my control.
A theme, or more like a motto I'd like to bring to my life this year is to live it more fearlessly. I don't know for sure what can happen in the future. Not even the near future. I can try my best to guide it, I can try my hardest to control it, but what this year has taught me is that barely anything is guaranteed. Not that cushy job and pay I so attached some part of my identity to. Not the lifestyle I enjoyed and the car I drove in. Sometimes not even the right to live and stay somewhere.
But few things are. The love and support of a select few. The pleasures of learning and satisfying intellectual pursuits. The fruits of labor. The joy in taking care of my health. The way I feel content when I eat anything mom cooks. And whatever that feeling is when my girlfriend says I look good (total nuclear meltdown). However my year has gone(and thank fuck its gone), all of these experiences were always next to me in one way or another. When she hugged me and never let go as I cried because I thought we were over. When dad fed me breakfast in the hotel lobby after I realized I threw away a life I built over 5 years. When my friends constantly joked about everything I'd get sad about because they know humor is the best way I'm able to disarm from stressful situations. This is what I'll take into next year, and none of what kept me up at night wondering where the fuck am I going.
Cause I'm going just fine.
I was brought up in brighter days
It’s good to say
Now I’m born and raised
- John Mayer, Born and Raised