2023 review in 8 forms of capital

The 8 forms of capital framework by Ethan Roland & Gregory Landua is my go-to tool for setting intentions for the year. I’ve done this for the past 8 years starting from 2016 – few frameworks had stuck around that long.

For the uninitiated, this framework talks about how capital isn’t just financial capital but comes in 8 different forms:

💵 Financial capital: money, financial instruments, investments

⚒️ Material capital: possessions, natural resources, tools, infrastructure

🌲 Living capital: nature, land, ecosystems, animals, health (my own addition)

💡 Intellectual capital: ideas, knowledge, words, images, intellectual property

💪 Experiential capital: action, embodied experienced, worldly wisdom

👥 Social capital: connections, relationships, influence

🎨 Cultural capital: song, story, ritual, art, theatre, community customs

⛩️ Spiritual capital: prayer, faith, beliefs, spiritual attainment

This annual review framework is not commonly used, but I love that it captures how everything—resources, capital, skills, assets—in life are interdependent and connected. Money is necessary, but not sufficient. This framework forces me think holistically about how I approach achievement. Think of it as 8 different lenses to view reality and life. Each offers a different but useful viewpoint. Together it forms a good picture.

Back in Jan, I set these intentions for 2023. I asked myself “I want to see if I can…”. So did I? Some reflections:

💵 Financial: Hit $5k/m, any which way.

• This is the only intention with a specific number. But I only hit an average of $1k/m consistently this year. That’s 20% of the target. For consolation, I had set out to hit $200 MRR in 2022 and didn’t hit it. Looks like I achieved that 2022 goal this year, 2 years later.
• The “any which way” part of the intention was also to move myself away from obsessing about MRR and having a main SaaS project, and just do whatever it takes, what number or kind of projects to get to $5k collectively. For this part, at least I’ve done it well. I’m all in on small bets, totally open to revenue from one-time payments, and starting to ship new products again.

⚒️ Material: Invest high ROI assets for health and productivity.

• No big tech refresh this year as finances are tight. But been eyeing that Macbook Air M1 for some time!
• I did invest in software tools for better productivity, like ChatGPT Plus, a Carrd Pro upgrade, Telegram, Sidebird (but now defunct), Twitter Blue. The Twitter related ones had been cancelled, while the others are helping me make money.
• Are domains considered investments? But hardly high ROI. I got 33 total now.

🌲 Living: Sleep well, stress less, move more.

• I wanted to improve my sleep, stress, fitness this year. Doing above average for fitness, meh for sleep, and stress had got worse.
• My stress biohacking and Fit AF goals aren’t really working. It’s just there. If it’s part of my daily routine (like daily exercise) it gets done. Stress right now is heavily influenced by external events so I can only do so much.

💡 Intellectual: Power up on marketing.

• I’m on more than 30 channels right now for Carrd plugins project.
• This year, I also started to think and execute on more SEO. Also started affiliate marketing on Gumroad, Lemon Squeezy, Carrd. I even tried ads (but got suspended briefly, and didn’t work).
• Also launched a Black Friday directory for Carrd deals, as a marketing stunt.
• Overall, a fruitful year in marketing.

💪 Experiential: Acting fast on opportunity.

• Twitter continues to be a practice ground for sensing opportunities and acting fast. Many viral tweets are due to that.
• I also set out with an intention to be real - I think I tripped over some mistakes this year (when I over-experimented on Twitter), but now coming back round to just being real and authentic. Being more realistic with my decisions and choices also helped with greater clarity and course-correcting.
• I also wanted to ship fast, launch more products this year, but didn’t. I think I got to accept my season and go at it with consistency instead of speed. It’s working, from seeing my progress with the 1 commit/day challenge on Github.

👥 Social: More LinkedIn conversations.

• I got high ROI from posting on LinkedIn in 2022, so I set out to post daily on LinkedIn this year. Had an unbroken streak till Nov where I decided to take a break. Even though the daily posts keep the impressions and followers coming this year, the revenue ROI had been lacklustre. I think overall the market’s just pretty bad.
• But social capital on Twitter continues to grow. There’s little financial ROI from that one, but lots of intellectual and experiential capital from connecting with my indie hacker peers and learning from them.

🎨 Cultural: Travel with a toddler.

• No travels this year due to financial concerns. Sadly.

⛩️ Spiritual: Stress biohacking through mindfulness.

• Started longer sitting meditation in the mornings from Sep/Oct onwards.
• But mindfulness is still a hard practice these days, due to stress, household situation.

Man… usually annual reviews feel pretty optimistic. But this year, it’s tough to look at. Can’t help but feel like I’m wasted a year, even though some of it were outside my control. My intentions at the start of this year meant well but were ways off in the end due to developing externalities, like lack of gigs, bad market etc.

So… That’s 2023 for me through these eight forms of capital.

How was your 2023?