I'm going on a solopreneur sabbatical - follow the plan, fuck your mood.

Everyone needs a mantra and I never thought I'd find one that just gets to the point -

Fuck your mood.
Follow the plan.

It was Leila Hormozi that said it. I knew of Alex Hormozi (even got his book - $100M Leads) but never really paid much attention to his wife.

Then she started popping up as clips and snippets on TikTok and not that long ago, I decided to cave to the algorithm and listened to one of her YouTube videos.

And boy, I'm a convert.

Her story is basically brat turned half a billionaire net worth. She was fat. She got arrested. At some point, she got her shit together, and now she's living the life that everyone dreams about but never quite has the commitment or follow through to make it happen.

I'm one of those people.

At some point in my life, I turned into an NPC. I'm not sure when it happened, but it happened.

A remote working NPC that thought 'freelancing' equated to freedom - until you realize that you're as disposable as being an employee.

It's all the same - just a different title and contractual terms for payment. It's still all modern-day serfdom, but (sometimes) without the geographical boundaries.

The solopreneur sabbatical year gameplan

Here's what I want -

• $5 million ARR by the end of October 2025.
• Jennie Kim aesthetics.
• 20kgs lighter.

How I'm going to get there -

• MVP a product every quarter and make it stick.
• Research, understand, and emulate Jennie's aesthetics.
• Get my shit together and figure out what I should be eating, how I should be eating, and when I should be eating.

How I'm going to track my progress -

• right here on this blog. Updates, musings, internal monologues - published right here.
• Create measurable goals, assess and reassess

And the gameplan is not the let excuses, how I'm feeling and everything else in between get in the way.

Why is the sabbatical so outward-focused?

For many, a sabbatical is for recharging and internal discovery. Mine is more about looking good, feeling good, and having a wallet that's not empty.

Why? Because my version of wealth is to be able to take my kids to to supermarket and not have to worry if the card is going to decline or not.

Well, I know there's enough in there - but if I spend too much there, I won't have enough for the other stuff like, you know, power bill, council rates, the mortgage, internet connection and general social taxes that comes with having 3 kids (thanks, petrol tax of 77.284 cents per litre, but that's a different story).

Manslow hierarchy of needs has a pyramid that puts physiological and safety needs as the foundation of our sanity and ability to thrive. Only when these things are met, you can grow your sense of self-esteem and figure out how to self-actualize - which is the process of being the best version of who you can potentially be.

Money doesn't solve everything but it solves a lot of things.

Whoever said money can't solve our problems, must not have had enough money to solve'em.

Let's be honest - Ariana Grande is right.

You need $114,000-ish US dollars to be happy

That's just for New Zealand - where I'm currently living. This equates to about $193,741 New Zealand dollars to be happy. Even with inflation accounted for and minimum wage being ridiculously high, a majority of the population isn't on that for a single income.

Personally, I'm not even close to that figure (yet).

Here's a graph that maps it out the relationship between wealth and happiness for a majority of countries.

Here's the dollar figure of how much you actually need to be happy in each country. Lucky for me, New Zealand ranks at number 7.

According to SMoney, Coastal U.S. Cities Set Highest Price for Happiness.

The price of happiness leaps by 85% between the U.S. city where happiness is most affordable (Knoxville, Tennessee, $88,032) and the one where it costs the most (Santa Barbara, California, $162,721). This difference is based on the cost of living in U.S. cities as indexed on Numbeo. Coastal cities like Santa Barbara endure a higher cost of living — ergo of happiness — due to the concentration of both high population numbers and wealth.

Productivity hacks, books, TikTokers, Instragram Inspos, YouTubers all say the same thing

When it comes to productivity, everyone says the same thing (well, more or less of some variance). Here's the general list:

• consistency
• reduce your distractions
• focus on the things that matter

When you eliminate the unecessary, you leave space for the things you want and need. This includes all kinds of clutter - physical, mental, social and societal.

Consistency is doing the things that you need to do over a long period of time until it's done.

The thing is, some things are never truly done - like the dishes, and laundry - but they need to be done nevertheless. Skip too many rounds and that becomes your new consistency.

It's not that you're being inconsistent. It's just that the thing you're doing in its space is your actual consistency.

So, what the gameplan, exactly?

Step 1 (whatever is left of October edition):

• Get the MVP up and running ASAP.
• Get researching Jennie Kim to get my aesthetics and vibe right.
• Understand food and how I should be consuming it.

And,

Fuck your mood.
Follow the plan.

We fail because our consistency is focused on the wrong thing. This is my game plan for now to move me towards the goals I've set for myself.

So there's to aimin' high and the end of the first post to document my internal monologue.