Closing my open questions of 2023

A yearly tradition since 2021. I start the year with some questions and concerns I have no answers to, uncertainties and self-doubts I hold about the year ahead. Keep them open in my mind, consciously and subconsciously. Then look back at the end of the year to see how it panned out.

For 2023, these were my open questions:

• Survival: Will I earn enough, and survive yet another year being indie?
• Money: Will I hit $5k/m revenue this year? Will abundance return?
• Travel: Will we get to travel this year? Will we ever return to Bali?
• Health: Is this the year where I achieve a deep sense of well-being? Will my chronic ailments return? What would it take to feel fit and whole again?
• Stress: Can I manage my stress levels so that it’s not chronic?
• Sleep: Will I finally nail my sleep?
• Family: How do I better juggle family and work with more intention and mindfulness?
• Products: Will any of my indie products ever get to ramen profitability?

And here are the answers:

• Survival: Will I earn enough, and survive yet another year being indie?
  – ⚠️ I survived another year as an indie, yes. Still here. But I find myself at the tail end of my cash runway. Where my survival is still at stake. No jobs, no gigs, no ramen profitability on my products.
   
• Money: Will I hit $5k/m revenue this year? Will abundance return?
  – ❌ Nope I didn’t hit $5k/m revenue. I did hit $1k/month consistently, so it’s only 20% of that. Abundance didn’t return either. But I’ve worked hard at unblocking what could be blocking abundance. Went for some consulting sessions. Hoping to work on it more in the coming year.
   
• Travel: Will we get to travel this year? Will we ever return to Bali?
  – ❌ Nope we didn’t. We got everything done. Passports, talked about plans, even started researching. Then the money issues came and all travel plans went out of the window. I think until our financial situation is more optimistic, no travel is on the cards, sadly…
   
• Health: Is this the year where I achieve a deep sense of well-being? Will my chronic ailments return? What would it take to feel fit and whole again?
  – ✅ Finally one positive change at least. My health definitely got better this year. Chronic ailments from COVID faded off. I’ve been exercising daily. I switched to pillowless for sleep. Aches and pains from posture due to working from my desk are mostly gone. I don’t feel fit, but I can feel some sense of wholeness returning.
   
• Stress: Can I manage my stress levels so that it’s not chronic?
  – ⚠️ I got by, kept head above water, stayed functional. But the chronic stress from the financial situation was always just a corner turn away. It’s lurking, all the time. It won’t go until it’s solved.
   
• Sleep: Will I finally nail my sleep?
  – ❌ Sleep quality got worse actually, even though sleep posture was better from going pillowless. The kid is older now, no longer wakes up in the night. But my elderly parents’ health condition affected my sleep – that can’t be helped. I think sleep won’t get better from my current circumstances. Will just have to get by on 6h and 70% sleep scores. That’s the minimum I need.
   
• Family: How do I better juggle family and work with more intention and mindfulness?
  – ⚠️ I think I juggled somewhat. Not winning world’s best dad or husband award, but at least I’m present at home. I didn’t get better at juggling though. In fact, might even be working longer hours now.
   
• Products: Will any of my indie products ever get to ramen profitability?
  – ❌ No ramen profitability. This year, I also realised the goal posts had shifted. Ramen profitability is realistically $10k/m now, so at $1k monthly revenue, I’m just at 10% of target. FAR from ramen profitability.
   

Reviews like this truly puts a spotlight on you, blemishes and scars and all. Nobody likes to hear bad news, especially not at the end of the year. So naturally one tries to find good things to remember the year by. It’s our inherent hardwired nature to avoid the negative, I guess.

So while this review felt like a sucker punch to the gut, it’s… beneficial. Mostly losses, no wins that I can be truly proud of, scraped by with a pass for the rest.

But ALL learning.

Will try harder and smarter for my open questions for 2024 ahead.

Onwards!