Prepping for my 2025 navel gazing
A simple rule of life is that whatever you’re passionate and working on will tend to be the most important thing in the world to you…. and basically meaningless to 99.99% of the world’s population. So I am frequently shocked to discover how few people care about that random legal case in Mexico I spent all day researching (or that my wife isn’t interested in spending two hours discussing my detailed workout and diet plan to add 5 pounds to my squat max while losing two pounds of fat over the next three months).
I am obviously very passionate about this blog and podcast (what I somewhat jokingly but somewhat seriously refer to as my Yet Another Value Empire, or YAVE). However, while I know/hope many readers are passionate about the content of the blog/podcast, I doubt many people care about my plans to improve them / my plans for them in the coming year. You just want that sweet, sweet content!
Given all of that, I have a simple rule when it comes to the blog and podcast: no navel gazing.
However (as I mentioned in my 2024 outlook for the empire), I give my self permission once a year to break this no navel gazing rule and write a post detailing my plans, hopes, thoughts, and dreams for the empire in the coming year.
My three rules for YAVE are simple; YAVE has to be:
Enjoyable: I have to enjoy the time I spend writing the blog and doing the podcast (and communicating with readers and such)
Help me improve as an investor: The blog and podcast can’t just be enjoyable; I have to think they somehow contribute to my day job by helping me improve as an investor.
Profitable: whether it’s literally profitable in monetary form from the premium side of the blog, or just profitable in terms of the benefits of the knowledge gain / exposure / notoriety from having a thinly followed finance blog, the blog has to somewhat pull its own weight.
So I’m planning my 2025 vision / navel gazing post now…. but I wanted to mention it in advance, because I’d love feedback / help crafting the empire to be maximally effective. If there are particular posts / podcasts that you love / hate, or ideas you have for posts / podcasts / series that you’d love (and that fit the three criteria above), please feel free to drop me a note so I can try to incorporate them!
PS- one funny thing about “no navel gazing”: it literally means no staring at your belly button, and one of my goals for 2025 is to make it a bit easier to look at my belly button…. I’ve got a full year of big fitness and diet plans (culminating in Turf Wars at my favorite gym, Tonehouse… if you live in NYC and want to try them out, you can get a discounted pass through my referral code here, and there’s a decent chance you’ll see me in class); for example, I’m planning a Whole 30 beginning Feb 1 (I’ll be good and cut out sweets in January, but I have a few events and travel that would not be whole 30 conducive and I’d rather do a real whole 30 and enjoy the events versus worry about one or the other). If you’ve got any interest in joining / any thoughts for fun fitness plans, let me know!