2024 in 8 forms of capital

This intention-setting exercise using the 8 forms of capital framework is a yearly tradition for me now.

So what will 2024 look like?
What capital do I want to grow more in this year? And how?

Though to be honest, I wasn’t sure I wanted to do this again, after the disheartening review of my 8 forms of capital in 2023.

Like what’s the point if I don’t achieve any of them?

Processing it deeper, I realised, achieving it isn’t really part of why I set intentions. Those are called goals, or objectives, or KPIs. Sure, it’ll be nice to achieve what I intended to practice and do. But the whole point of setting intentions is to help frame my year in terms of what’s important, without any foresight into what can happen in the future. Sometimes shit happens, like in 2023. So priorities change, or lapses happen, because you’re called to be some place else, doing something else.

It sounds like excuses. But our conscience will know. And my conscience is clear.

So there. Moving on from self-flagellation to self-acknowledgement.

Circling back to my 8 forms of capital in 2024. This year, I want to keep my intentions simple. Simple to recall. Simple to practice to. Simple to dream about.

In 2024, I want to see if I can…

💵 Financial:
Escape my financial rut. For good.

• I think I’ve struggled enough with money for the past 3-4 years. I’m tired of it. No more stop gap measures. I need to find a way to solve this for good. For me, for my family.
• Growing my indie hacking revenue, $10k ramen profitability and all will still be important, but I’m not closed to the idea that I might have to make some tough trade-offs and sacrifices if a good opportunity presents itself for me to escape the rut.

⚒️ Material:
Spend money on tools that help me make more money.

• I desperately need a tech refresh. I’m getting notifications on my laptop and phone that say things like “X will stop receiving updates soon.” or “Memory running low”. Eyeing an M1 Macbook Air, and iPhone 12/13. Without these, I can’t run new software like local LLMs too. It’s starting to impede my progress and learning.
• Spend on digital tools/software that will help me make more money. Carrd Pro and ChatGPT Plus are good examples. More of such tools.

🌡 Living:
Rest. Heal.

• I’ve been working on my fitness, diet and sleep like forever. But TBH, all that is for naught if my stress levels are chronically high. When stressed, sleep gets worse. When stressed, I binge eat more. When stressed, exercise can only keep my head above water. So stress is the key.
• This relates to my intention for financial capital too, because solving the money problem would help reduce stress exponentially. But beyond the pragmatics, I got to rest and healing from all the stress from past years. And learn to take it easy. End the work day on time. Not over work. Not stress work. Breathe.

💡 Intellectual:
Learn more ‘passive’ sorts of marketing.

• I’ve started the ball rolling on SEO, ads and affiliates in 2023, but only scraped the surface.
• Would love to dive deeper into the marketing approaches that I’m ‘scared’ of in the past, especially SEO, affiliate and ads.

💪 Experiential:
Launch more.

• Launch more new products this year. With my 1 commit a day challenge, I should be able to do it. And hopefully, with luck and skill, one sticks.
• Also being real and realistic when assessing each product’s potential, and not letting my idealism get in the way of spending too much time on it.

👥 Social:
Build in public.

• I enjoy building in public, and connecting with folks who engage with my building in public journey. So time to tap on that strength and just go with it.
• This will also align with my 1 commit per day challenge, since I’ll have new things to share from building every day.

🎨 Cultural:
Travel with a toddler.

• I didn’t get to do this in 2023 due to money constraints. But it’s still a dream I have, of traveling to new countries and cultures with a toddler. Chiangmai, Taipei and Bali are possibilities.
• Stretch goal is to go live in Bali for 2-4 weeks with toddler during school holidays.

⛩️ Spiritual:
Sitting meditation.

• I’ve been coming back to sitting meditation towards the end of last year, and it’s been nice. It helps me come back to myself, feel less disembodied, and connect to deeper needs I might have, or to listen to what the mind and body is whispering.
• I want to continue to listen, first thing every morning.

Onwards to 2024!