This year has been a roller coaster for me. To name a few of the changes, I moved back to the Bay Area, took a full-time position, bought a car, and started renting in south bay.

After coming back from traveling for 2 years I’ve realized the following:

• Staying creative is important for me. This is where I experience the most “flow”
• I want to build a brand rather merely create small income streams
• I feel better when I make decisions quickly and try to listen to my inner callings

I’ve decided this year’s theme will be about MASTERY. I want to become skilled in the following: marketing, music production, and real estate investment. Even though we’re already halfway through the year, I’ve decided to write up a list of goals to hold myself accountable.

My Goals for 2018

Marketing

I’m quite decent at marketing but want to get better at “growth hacking”. I’d like to successfully build a brand – whether it be my own (maybe DigitalNomadQuest or MeWantTravel?) or my friend’s blog. I’m starting to research via podcasts and posts as well as experiment with different tools. My metric for success will be to make any one brand I build profitable, in some way.

Music

I’ve been extremely inspired with music lately. I decided to buy a bundle of sounds (Komplete 11) and this purchase created a burst of motivation. One of my roadblocks with production was my interface and my sounds, and I always had this qualm about purchasing expensive software. For some reason I’m way more okay with buying hardware than software, maybe cause I can actually physically see the equipment. But anyway, I’m glad I finally decided to make some moves in this area. I also decided I needed to transition from FL Studio to a new DAW (this might not make sense to y’all). I moved to Logic Pro X for production, and I’m ready to really grow my skills around it.

While making music with my friend, I kind of realized that this is one of the main ways in which I feel that “flow” state, where I lose track of time, don’t really care about the objective of completing a song actually, and am just doing it for the fun of it. In the past, I was a little too objective-oriented, and not immersed in the joy of just being present. I spoke to a friend about how dance, when turned into career, made his passion less fun and more goal oriented. I don’t want to just do something for the pride that comes AFTER the completion of it. I want to enjoy the process as well, if that makes sense.

The main reason for building up passive income was to create time for things I love, and I like that if I’m able to generate more income passively and free up time, I would be able to sit in a studio for weeks without too much concern about making money from it. Building up income streams is a way to allow you to immerse yourself in your flow state and passions.

So for goals…my metrics for success will be:

• Produce 2 complete songs with advanced mixing and mastering techniques.
• Release 2 music videos on YouTube

Real Estate Investment

In terms of real estate investment, I’m currently building up capital and have gone to a few meetups here and there to educate myself. I’ve decided to wait until Fall/Winter to see if there are any opportunities out there, either in the Bay (so I can actually live there and rent out rooms) or out-of-state. My REI/house hacking goal kind of depends where I’m at and how the prices are, as well as my risk tolerance and outlook by end of year. For example, out of state seems to have more opportunities for less capital but may have a larger learning curve as it require knowledge about a new market as well as remote management.

I’d like to say my metric for success would be to purchase a property by end of year, but I also know I can’t really rush this process and should only buy when there’s a presentable opportunity.

Reading

Random, but on top of the handful of books I’ve read so far this year, I’d like to read at least 5 more books by end of year, which shouldn’t be hard.

Overall Picture

As compared with last year, my goals have definitely shifted from higher quantity and extremely numeric to being fewer but still measurable. And as you can see, I’ve shifted from the idea of creating tons of passive income streams (which I’m still grateful for), to building a bigger brand and getting good at certain skills. I believe the first step of passive income was still crucial for me, and these goals are sort of a next step for me (and they can also lead to more passive income).

As much as it may not seem like it, I think I forgot to take care of myself and focus on my selfish needs, passions, and growth, which ultimately created this loss of identity I suppose. I’m happy to say that I feel a lot more in touch with myself and I want to continue this year with that mindset – to just be unapologetically me. So on top of this theme of mastery, there’s another area of self care, presence, and DGAFing that I want to achieve (that isn’t as measurable).

I’m excited to create these paths for myself and am on the lookout for educational materials to help me along the way. I want to be a student for life! There’s still so much to learn, and I have a long way to go. Now that I’ve defined these overall goals, I’m happy to say that every day has become super eventful and on track towards my bigger picture.

If you have any recommendations on learning materials, let me know :).