Reframing my vision statement

I have two money habits going on in the morning – my daily verbal affirmation exercise on my money goal, and a tiny ritual of putting a $2 note into a jar. I would say the following words, then do the $2 note thing:

I will learn my way towards $5k MRR by 1 Jan 2022. In return, I will learn how to grow my indie products diligently, and adhere to a millionaire habit system.

It’s been more than a week since I started on the verbalisations, and something had always felt off about the statement. Today I realised what – the “millionaire” part. I think I wasn’t thinking too deeply when I wrote that down, because it was mostly borrowed from my previous moonshot goal from 2019:

I will learn my way towards $1mil ARR by end 2020. In return, I will learn how to grow my indie products diligently, and adhere to a millionaire habit system.

I loved setting huge, ambitious goals then. It fires me up. And the thinking went: even if I don’t land on the moon, I’ll still fly way higher up than I ever would if I aimed low. But that was then, before the pandemic, before fatherhood, before all the changes to lifestyle and the world came. Now, I find myself with priorities that’s vastly different. Just having enough is enough, for me. Enough, and with plenty other time and mindspace to be engaged in the other aspects of my life right now. Hence, from $1mil ARR to $5k MRR. And I’m no longer sure I identify with a “millionaire habit system”.

So, a reframing is very much in order. Here it is:

I will learn my way towards $5k MRR by end 2021. In return, I will have fun growing my indie products, and adhere to a healthy, happy habit system. And I will surrender.

The choice of words are intentional:

• I always enjoyed learning. Coding lets me learn new things everyday, that’s why I love doing it now. But I find I don’t know much about money and monetisation. So I got to learn my way towards it. Growth hacking, marketing, conversion, everything.
• Having fun. Maybe it’s age, or a change of perspective. But I can’t quite do the headlong rush towards a goal anymore. Life’s too short to be just a list of accomplishments, no matter how worthy or great they might be. Enjoying the scenic route along the way, needs to be a way of being.
• Habits are like programming for daily living. Like code, it can be used in a wholesome way, or unwholesome way. Some productivity habits might be great to get you towards success, but at the expense of health, for example. So, just like the previous point, I’m off that kind of unwholesome habits. I want to be happy and healthy even as I strive for financial freedom. So that means choosing and growing habits that at times might not necessarily be productive or efficient, but leads me towards a health and happiness that I want. For example, taking breaks and time-off from work to do hobbies, or nothing at all.
• Surrendering is something of a weird, last minute add-on. But it mirrors some of the thinking I’d been writing about, about “strong motivations, loosely held”, about rest being a mindset. It’s all about losing that death grip and over-identification with work.

New vision statement going forward! Will see how it goes, if it requires further revision as I work with it every morning.