2021 in 8 forms of capital

jasonleow  •  3 Jan 2021   •    
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I reviewed my 2020 through the lens of 8 forms of capital yesterday. And so today it’s about setting my intentions for 2021 in 8 forms of capital.

And continuing from last year as well, instead of saying “I will…”, I’m phrasing it with “I want to see if I can…” because “I will” sounds like a bold, unsubstantiated proclamation, while “I want to see if I can” is like an optimistic invitation to challenge myself.

I want to see if I can…

💵 Financial:
Hit $5k MRR from all my products by 31 Dec 2021, through consistency rather than intensity.

  • Why 5k? It’s completely arbitrary, but it sounds like a comfortable figure to make a living from. Where’s the audacity though? After COVID, I’m feeling more realistic and cautious I must say. I’m still struggling to feel bold enough to dream as big as I did in 2018-2019. But I still think about my $1mil ARR goal. Having a moonshot goal—something too big and awe-inspiring to strive towards—is still something I harbour deep within my heart. When the heart is ready.

⚒️ Material:
Give more, give away more.

  • Give and help others more and regularly. We need it more than ever these days. Offer free resources for my work – design, code, advice. A more consistent pipeline for my social impact patronage. My social impact projects had been one of the key highlights of 2020, so I want to see if I can take it a notch higher and make it a more regular feature of my work.

🌲 Living:
Sleep better, move more.

  • Now that diet and chronic health conditions are mostly fixed and stable, time to look to other aspects like sleep and movement/exercise. Sleep is a constant challenge with a baby, so this needs more thoughtfulness and purpose behind it to really solve it. Perhaps exploring sleep biohacking would help. COVID made an already sedentary lifestyle even more sedentary, so being more intentional with movement will be important health-wise. Stretch aspirations: More nature. Forest/ocean bathe more.

💡 Intellectual:
Follow my dev nose.

  • All things dev had been sparking my curiosity, and I’m just gobbling them up like Cookie Monster from Sesame Street – Vue, Nuxt, Next.js, GraphQL, Svelte, JAMstack, serverless functions, Node.js, even plain vanilla Javascript. Yet, the elusive “fundamentals” of programming continue to intrigue me. I find myself drawn to both the cutting edge as well as the evergreen fundamentals. Good to follow my curiosity and energy.

💪 Experiential:
Look for 1% improvement every week. Just 1%, 1 thing, 1 task, 1 idea.

  • From my experience doing #100daysofcode, I realised that consistency really compounds. It’s a superpower right at the fingertips of everyone but so under-utilised. There’s a sense of quiet doggedness in consistency, which I enjoy more and more. It’s not loud and attention-chasing and fluffy. It’s quietly powerful, attracts via vibes, and of real substance. The other insight from #100daysofcode is how 100 days seems to be a good number to solidify any habit for me. Studies had shown that habit-forming threshold to be 21, or 66. But I guess context, environment and personality matters here. 100 days seem to be the magic limiter. Just one thing for 100 days—1%, 1 task, 1 idea—and the habit is likely here to stay and compound effects starts being apparent.

👥 Social:
Quality conversations and relationships, local and global.

  • COVID had trimmed away a lot of the lame coffees and socializing that took more than it gave. Being the introvert I am, that worked really well for me. Contrary to common (mis)perception, introverts don’t hate socializing. We just prefer quality, in-depth ones. So I would love to be more intentional about my coffees and conversations this year. Meet people who I genuinely love to meet, or long to catch up with. That includes folks in other countries whom I normally wouldn’t have a chance to have coffee with.

🎨 Cultural:
Changing lanes (and identity) to geek/dev subculture.

  • I definitely find myself at the intersection now, with one foot deeper into dev subculture than in design. Identity wise, it’s been a difficult, tooth-pulling kind of change, yet insightful and fun. Can one have fun yet find it painful? Seems like I can haha.

⛩️ Spiritual:
Fatherhood that’s mindful and present.

  • Work gets to me often. I want to see if I can be more present when interacting with my kid. Be more mindful about my emotions, what and how I am projecting to him. Model behaviour that I myself would be proud of.

Onwards, 2021.

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