I hit a point about a month ago where I was simply done being chained to a desk. I love what I do but I crave freedom: free to move and travel, free to earn as much income as I can. Given one of my core values is freedom, not having it irritates me. Because quite frankly, I want to be hiking mountains and travelling North America in a van, or spending three months mountain biking in Tasmania. I want to having unlimited earning potential and take risks.
So, as a result, I spent most of last year coming up with what I can do from my laptop that can be done from anywhere and doesn’t require another degree.
I started Sage Resilience, my disaster management education and consultancy business and earlier this month I started a second business. The second one is still very much in its infancy, with name registrations and the like still in process so until things are firmed up, I won’t share just yet.
I’m giving myself 12 months to get them both at a place where I am earning enough money to leave my ‘9-5’. I’ve done it before. In 2015, sick with adrenal fatigue and burnt the fuck out, I gave myself three months once I made the decision to leave. I had spent most of a year listening to podcasts and audiobooks on how to start a business and freelance marketing every day on the Skytrain to and from work in Vancouver. When I made the decision I would leave, I gave myself three months to build my business. I had some savings, but only enough that after three months I would have run out. That said, I did return to lululemon part time as a safety net but only for those three months as by the end of that time… I was making enough to go completely out on my own.
So, I figure 12 months is plenty good. Part of me wants to give it until the end of May, which is when my current contract finishes up unless I reapply for a permanent spot however I don’t want to cut my nose off to spite my face. I feel like at *almost* 37 years of age and with my frontal lobe fully developed now, that I can be more calculating and less reckless.
Other goals:
Spend the next winter in Canada
Invest at least $5000
Save $10,000 minimum
Update the kitchen and bathroom for under $2500 combined
Update the front yard for under $2500
Shave off another year of my psych degree, leaving me with only one semester to finish in 2025 to be finally done
Have at least 100 paid subscribers to Substack by June, 500 by December
Start that damn podcast that has been on my mind for over a year
Have at least 7 streams of income to match what I am currently getting now
Budget. Actually, budget. Actually have a low spend year.
Run the Noosa Half
Run the Queenstown Half
Spend a weekend in Tassie, maybe even twice
See Drake live on my birthday (!!!!)
Become a volunteer firefighter
This year will be a building year and next year will be the year to see the fruits of my labour. Next year will be even bigger things, but I have to lay the foundations this year first and foremost.
I want this year to also be a year of nourishment. Nourishment in every way. Setting more boundaries, saying no, saying yes to myself, nurturing myself, being more loving to myself. A year all about me, really. A perk of not having kids is that I can do that.
That means a return to writing on here more frequently, as writing has always been most nourishing to me for decades now. So, I hope that you’ll continue to follow along as I navigate this next, exciting new chapter!