As I keep on seeing a lot of goals get shared for the new year, it got me reflecting on what’s important to me. There are three themes that are important to me and I consistently work on improving on this everyday. I need to get 1% better daily in all I do around these three themes.
Financial Responsibility – I have to be a good steward of my assets for me and my family. I have made money mistakes in the past that led to unrecoverable losses. I should not be making such mistakes anymore and this financial responsibility is a guiding principle on how I spend money, what I invest into and how I treat what I own. I am seeing marked improvement in how I spend with how I do a critical review to be sure it’s a need vs. a want. Wants are great at masquerading as a need if you don’t watch out. A stranger took my bag during a recent trip and I lost some clothes, my make up bag and a sizable portion of my facial treatments. I have itched to replace everything so I can browse and do my former favourite action of “add to cart“. I paused, reflected and realised I actually do not need to spend money on replacements. I took stock of what I have by sorting my wardrobe and hanging up all my clothes which showed me I have more clothes than I need. It will take me some years to use up these clothes so I shut down the unnecessary need to acquire more stuff. I have gone without makeup for some weeks now and I don’t feel like I’m missing anything. What I have noticed is I freed up some time for me to be a bit more leisurely in the mornings vs. rushing to get everything done before I step out. For the facial treatments, I’m taking this as an opportunity to use up the other products I have before the expiry dates and I will not be buying up new products even if on sale. Financial responsibility is difficult when you have access to easy shopping and there’s an unconscious marketing effect pushing you to upgrade or buy new things. I noticed this week that this was creeping in so I moved all the random unexpected cash that flowed into my account into my brokerage. I got €5,000 of tax refund and an RSU residual payment of €1,500. In addition to these, I also converted and transferred all other currencies I had in my Revolut to my brokerage. This enabled me to invest €10,000 into my brokerage this week.
Get healthier – I look fit but I know I’m not fit. I’m an ectomorph who has added 8kg in a short time frame but still look skinny. It’s typical for people to advise me not to lose weight as I look good but I know this is not working for me. I feel heavy and sense that my metabolism has slowed down which puts me off my ‘Get Healthier’ theme. I need to consistently get healthier for current me, future me and for my child. I have switched up my nutrition and stepped up on portion control. I am also trying to get my daily steps in despite the weather working against this. I am fine to keep the weight but not as fat but rather as muscle build up which means I need to step it up on getting healthier.
Quality time with my family and friends – I will not compromise on quality time with my family and friends. I already mapped out and booked most of the vacations for the year including meeting up with friends in different countries. I’m intentional about this as I have noticed it’s easy to talk meetups and then nothing happens. I have the full year mapped out with family activities and vacations and it’s shaping up to be an exciting year for all of us.