Regaining Control of My Life
This post is hopefully going to mark a moment in my life, since when I will start taking it under my control again.
What Do I Mean?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not here to complain about how bad my life is. I actually have it quite good. I have a well-paid job, a great wife and we’re soon about to be parents (she’s due mid-December) of our firstborn son. I don’t have debts (okay, some, but I have enough savings to cover those). I am in my early thirties, with a bright future ahead of me. From the outside, it might actually look like I have it all figured out.
But that, unfortunately, is not really the case. Currently, a big part of my life is not controlled by me. I am disorganised. I procrastinate a lot. I do things that I tend to regret right after or even at the time of doing them. I am not particularly fit, even though I used to be not too long ago and I’m not doing anything about it. I had a few hobbies, but I dropped them due to the “lack of time”. I used to enjoy doing work-related projects outside of work, but from some time ago, I can’t force myself to do them anymore. I have a business idea which I think might be quite a profitable venture, but I postpone verifying it.
I waste time. And I really can’t afford it. With a kid on the way, I will only have less time to do stuff. But I still think, I will have just enough to pursue whatever I want. It’s just a matter of changing the approach.
Why Here?
While this will serve mostly as a diary to myself, I read multiple times that it’s helpful to declare your goals publicly. That is supposed to help you stick to doing what you should be doing, or else you might get embarrassed. Or to look at it from a more positive side, you can get a word or two of encouragement, when in time of doubt.
I don’t expect to get a broad audience here, but I very much hope that a few people might find my journey interesting. Maybe you are someone who is going through a similar time and this is just what you need to also start a similar process of changes. It would be a great feeling knowing that I’m not alone in this. But even if not, it’s great that I will have archive of my progress out there.
Writing about the changes I’m about to introduce in my life will hopefully also help my English writing skills, as it’s not my first language. So there is always an upside and I’m glad I have been able to convince myself of that (change number one!).
What is the Plan Here?
I’m going to introduce a series of positive habits, usually a new one each week. Thus, I also vow to write (at least) one update a week here on Medium. Sometimes it might be just a few words, but the plan is for each post to be an enclosed helpful piece of knowledge, with explanations of why I’m introducing a habit, why does it solve my problem, etc..
I suppose some habits I will eventually drop. Some might just not do what I expect of them as positive results, others might simply be too ambitious to keep up with. I have some in the pipeline already and am excited about introducing them (some of them back) to my life.
The key here is, though, to take it slow. I have tried getting my life under control in the past a few times, but it always ended up with just a short bursts of energy and motivation to make the change, that quickly evaporated. This time, I am giving myself a full year, after which I hope my life will be something I enjoy to the fullest. So if you want to join the ride, expect at least 52 updates during the next 12 months. Fasten your seat belts and let’s go!
Why Sloppy Joe, and not John Doe?
Oh yeah, so I’m writing this under a pseudo. Even though I agree that it would be more beneficial if I have written this under my real name (more shame when failing!) and as I already said, I don’t expect to gather too many followers here, I am a bit afraid that e.g. my employer finds these musings via a Google search. I plan to be really honest here, which involves writing about how I sometimes do nothing during a full day’s work. I might re-evaluate that, but for now, I’ll stay Sloppy Joe.
If you got as far as here, thanks a lot for reading. Subscribe, if you liked that gloomy introduction and want to join me for this journey. If you think my writing hard to read or chaotic, or whatever - let me know in the comments. And wish me luck!
Sloppy Joe
