Almost 35, and Finally Slowing Down
I’m almost 35 years old, and somehow I’ve realized that, until now, I’ve been living most of my life on autopilot. Nothing special, just one day after another, without any real direction or concrete goal. Just like the name of this website suggests: an unsorted life. And right now, honestly, it feels like a complete mess.
I don’t want to say that I’ve suddenly reached some major turning point where I know exactly what I want or how I want to live. I haven’t. But I have definitely reached a point where I want to start changing things. Not because I have to, but because I want to get back on my feet and stop, for lack of a better word, going wild with every decision I make in life.
For the past few years, I’ve basically resisted everything. Whenever someone had an idea about how I could improve my life, I simply didn’t listen. On top of that, several things happened that pushed me pretty far backwards.
But I haven’t lost my will to live, my desire to change things, or my willingness to keep going. Quite the opposite. Somehow, I constantly find a new source of energy that helps me come back from whatever life throws at me.
So I’ve set myself a few simple rules for the way I want to live from now on.
The main idea is to remove as much unnecessary stress from my life as possible. Not because I’m lazy or because I don’t like working. Quite the opposite, I actually enjoy working. I just don’t want the constant rushing, pressure, anxiety, and everything else that comes with living in that state.
One of those changes is this blog.
I’ve committed myself to posting something here every single day, and I plan to continue doing that for at least the next 1,000 days without stopping.
Even when I’m away, working in the field, traveling, or simply unable to write something that day, I want to have at least five to ten posts prepared in advance. Whatever happens, the goal remains the same: for the next 1,000 days, this blog gets updated every day.
The second thing is commitment.
From now on, I want to give my full attention to whatever I’m doing. At home, I’m currently setting up a small office where I’ll probably spend most of my waking time, maybe 90% of the time when I’m not sleeping.
It will be my little headquarters for everything: creating content, working on different projects, reading, learning, and yes, watching a ridiculous amount of movies and TV shows.
The third thing is simplifying my life.
And when I say simplifying, I don’t mean sitting inside and doing nothing. I mean reducing my expenses and getting rid of unnecessary spending.
After doing the math, I realized that changing a few habits could save me more than $600 every month. That’s a serious amount of money to waste on things that don’t really improve my life.
The fourth thing is my family.
I have a child who has had a disability since birth and faces significant developmental challenges. I want to dedicate more of my time, energy, and resources to his rehabilitation and give him opportunities and support that I simply wouldn’t be able to provide if I continued living and spending the way I have been.
That alone gives me a pretty strong reason to rethink my priorities.
The fifth thing is technology.
I’m a tech geek and, admittedly, a bit of a tech freak. Over the years, I’ve spent far too much money on things I definitely didn’t need.
I want that to stop.
The truth is, I don’t need all that stuff. A decent computer, a solid internet connection, and a few reliable tools are pretty much everything I actually need. Everything beyond that has increasingly become money thrown into a technological black hole.
The funny part is that I’ve already found things like a keyboard and mouse that work perfectly for me. As long as they remain available, I’ll probably keep buying the same models whenever I need replacements. I’m so used to them, and they make my work so much easier, that I honestly have no desire to leave that particular comfort zone.
Those are some of the basic principles I’ve decided to follow from now on.
I don’t have much desire for extravagant things. Ordinary is perfectly fine with me. A roof over my head, financial stability, my family taken care of, and enough freedom to spend my time the way I want.
That’s enough.
Sometimes I don’t even know why I chase certain things in the first place, because when I really think about it, I have no ambition to own yachts, ridiculously expensive cars, luxury houses, or any of that.
What I actually want is much simpler.
I want enough monthly income that I don’t have to worry about my next paycheck. I want my expenses covered, my family secure, and ideally another 5–10% left over every month for emergencies and whatever life decides to throw at us.
That’s really it.
So I’m slowing things down.
I’m simplifying.
And I’m slowly trying to build something that can give me that kind of life: a situation where I don’t constantly worry about my job, where a little income keeps coming in from different things on the side, and where, at the end of the day, I can go to bed and actually sleep peacefully.