I treat this day like a date with myself. A chance to remind myself how far I’ve come. To re-evaluate priorities, notice what’s changed, and understand why.

This year, I took it a step further and wrote things down. A plan for the year ahead.

The first question I asked myself: Where do I want to be before my next birthday?

Here’s what I ended up with:

Joy is how I spend my time

My time is something I’ve been fiercely protective of over the past two years. I’ve learned to keep it free rather than fill it with things that don’t meaningfully contribute to my goals. It’s been helpful. It’s kept me sane.

This is the opposite of who I used to be. I was the default YES person. When presented with an opportunity, I jumped on it without thinking. It served me well, until it didn’t. I was working 12-14 hours a day. When I wasn’t working, I was thinking about work. It was a mess.

That was then. Over time, I grew more protective of my time. I started treating it like my most valuable asset, even above money. Money spent, I can earn again. Time wasted is gone forever.

So what am I doing differently this year?

Building more meaningful relationships

I’ll be honest, I’ve struggled with this one for as long as I can remember. I’m the person who’s been terrible at keeping in touch. The one who wouldn’t call someone just to chat. This year, I want to change that.

It’s not about spending more time with people close to me. It’s about being more present and involved in the lives of people I care about.

I’ll admit, part of this is selfish. I don’t want to be perceived as emotionally unavailable. Hard truth, but there it is.

Learning and writing about things that interest me

I started this blog to do exactly that and never kept up with it. The idea was simple: I sometimes get intensely curious about something, and before I know it, I have 50 tabs open. A few months later, I can’t remember the specifics and kick myself for not writing it down.

This year, that changes. Consider this post the first step. Good progress, I’d say.

I’ve also identified the areas that interest me most. Here’s what you can expect from future posts: ideas for building financial freedom, product engineering, and my newest fascination, Web3. Well-researched, meaningful, and actionable content to help people unlock their potential. Plus some bits of my personal journey. I promise to make them less boring.

Financial freedom is a journey, not a destination

Western culture has sold us financial freedom as a state you achieve. I think of it more as a journey. What I need from life is constantly evolving, and so is the wealth it demands. Every year around this time, I reassess what financial freedom means to me. Downsizing where I can, upgrading where I need to.

For example, this year I decided not to stress about spending extra on travel and experiences. At the same time, I’m drastically cutting back on nights out drinking and partying.

I should mention: I run a bootstrapped tech company. Most of my income comes from this. I work with 10-12 founders every year to help them go from zero to one in their early-stage product journey. If you’d like to know more, go here.

Today, most of my take-home is tied to how well Webloom does in a given year, somewhere north of 20% of net revenue. Another 50-60% gets reinvested back into the business or our developer community initiatives. With my current projections, Webloom needs to 1.8x its revenue this year for me to call myself financially free enough to pursue other things I enjoy. Wish me luck. 🤞

Creating more meaningful impact

I often help companies and products graduating from Webloom build their in-house teams. When talented engineers apply to Webloom and we can’t hire them, I connect them with other founders hiring for similar roles.

I genuinely love doing this. It’s my way of staying involved and being a small part of multiple stories. It also lets me meet and work with some incredibly talented people.

This year, I want to take it further. It’s still a work in progress, but here’s the gist: I’m working on a new initiative at Webloom: a collaborative engineering community.

Think of it as a platform for people starting their engineering careers who are curious to learn and interact with others, and for experienced engineers who’ve already walked the path. A place to explore better engineering practices, discover tools for productivity, and level up technical skills.

I know this won’t be easy. But I’m optimistic.

I think I’ll call it DevStash. No? Suggest me a better name.

That’s all for today. Ciao.