Achieving Freedom

Where are you and where are you going?
freedom86
Posts: 108
Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2019 4:50 am

Achieving Freedom

Post by freedom86 »

Subject: Introduction

---

Hey folks,

my name is Freedom86.
I am 33yrs old and living in Europe.

A few years ago, I graduated with a bachelor's degree in Social Sciences and Liberal Arts.
After working in this area for a few months, I realized that it didn't fit my strengths.
It was very interesting, but moving data in Excel sheets and creating powerpoints didn't/doesn't fit my strengths.
I like being challenged in all kind of analytical stuff (IQ 130), therefore I taught myself how to develop software,
so I am currently working as a Software Developer.

I started to teach myself in 2017/06 and I got my first job 2018/01, had two ok-paid jobs, I quit both jobs after 4 months, after being very close to burnout. With the scrum methodology in our startup, the pressure to perform at my best every day was enormous, I just felt like a code monkey.
Many colleagues worked at weekends and I felt the pressure to do the same.
After realizing that I had given up almost all my hobbies, I decided to quit my last job.

Because I am living a very frugal life, money never was a reason to endure my suffering of working 60-70hrs/week with the feeling of no purpose in my work.
Last edited by freedom86 on Sun Jul 14, 2019 4:08 am, edited 2 times in total.

freedom86
Posts: 108
Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2019 4:50 am

Subject: My Approach

Post by freedom86 »

Subject: My Approach

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All Life Goals: I've created a Vision List (https://agileleanlife.com/goal-setting) with currently ~50 life goals. This is a dynamic list, so I will update the list every ~3-4 months.

Current Prioritized Goals: I prioritize all Life Goals and pick 4 of them. I will take some stuff into account, e.g. my current environment, opportunities, synergy effects, struggles etc.

Chosen Goals:
- I will be more proactive and reliable
- I will communicate more honestly, directly and explicitly
- I will save up my 1x annual expenses
- I will weigh 85kg

I will hold a Sprint Review every monday morning, where I will review my last week and the upcoming week. I will talk about the things I did, what went well, what went not so well, my struggles and some other stuff.

I will hold a Daily Scrum every day, where I will review what I did yesterday, what I will do today and what is blocking me from achieving my goals.

---

The next post will be about my Current Life Goals In-Depth

freedom86
Posts: 108
Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2019 4:50 am

Re: Achieving Freedom

Post by freedom86 »

Hey bigato,

thanks for your suggestions.
bigato wrote:
Sun Jul 14, 2019 6:55 am
So you got burned out by scrum metodology in your startup, so you're going to apply it to your life? Makes sense :p
I guess I didn't express myself correctly.
I got burned out, because the manager decided what we have to do and this amount of work was too much for me.
Most weeks I worked for around 60hrs and couldn't finish all tasks and got beat up.
I like the scrum methodology, and now I can decide my own tasks, I planned for ~30-40hrs/week.
bigato wrote:
Sun Jul 14, 2019 6:55 am
To play along, the first two goals are useless because they are not quantifiable. You have to write down how is it objectively that you will know when you meet them and it should have numbers.
Thanks for pointing out, that this wasn't clear.
You are right about that, therefore I wrote "The next post will be about my Current Life Goals In-Depth",
where I will write about my smart milestones, my daily habits to achieve them and my workflow.
bigato wrote:
Sun Jul 14, 2019 6:55 am
That said, for a different view regarding improvement, you may like Ray Dalio's book "Principles".
Thanks for this book suggestion.
What makes the book extraordinary compared to all other books on this subject?

freedom86
Posts: 108
Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2019 4:50 am

Re: Achieving Freedom

Post by freedom86 »

Subject: Current Life Goals In-Depth

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I will be more proactive and reliable:

Currently I often wait for the right moment. This means that I postpone until I feel like it.
That's why I postpone many appointments with myself.
Oftentimes I see exciting opportunities, but then I remain passive, so that I don't have to make a decision, so that the world makes the decision for me.

I am using my schedule extensively,
e.g. sleeping, eating etc. is in there
but I move a lot of appointments around,
especially appointments, that I have to do alone and aren't that pleasurable,
e.g. going to the gym.

Daily Habits:
I will write down every appointment, that I move around.
I will write down every opportunity, I see, but don't use.

First Milestone:
I start by only allowing myself to have 10 of these situations/week.

---

I will communicate more honestly, directly and explicitly:

In my last job, I rarely dared to talk honestly and directly,
because my manager reacted very angry and gave me shitty tasks on purpose.
I always tried to use nonviolent communication, because I am a really humble and patient guy,
but this also didn't work, because I couldn't connect to him.
So in the end, there was no teamwork and the communication was very bad,
because everyone chickened out, including me.

Daily Habits:
I will write down every situation, in which I chicken out instead of talking/writing honestly, directly and explicitly.
Example: Instead of writing "Let's meet next week" (won't happen),
I will write "Hey X, let's meet next week at Friday, 8pm. alternatively Saturday, 7pm."

First Milestone:
I start by only allowing myself to have 10 of these situations/week.

---

I will save up my 1x annual expenses:

While developing software for customers, I found out, that I really like to teach software development. I started 2019/01 to hold workshops, in the meantime I have already held 7 additional ones.

I think building products and holding workshops is very scalable, currently I am holding the workshops for free, most of the time there are 10-15 participants.

My current step by step plan is this:
1. Create free content (Audience Building): blog, podcast, video, workshops
2. Distribute free content (Audience Building): personal page, linkedin, dev.to, youtube, spotify, github
3. Create paid content (Money Making): courses, workshops
4. Distribute paid content (Money Making): personal page

Daily Habits:
I will write content for 4hrs/day.

First milestone:
I will create content for 25 hrs/week.

---
.
I will weigh 85kg:

I have a height of 1,90m/6,2in.
When I was younger, I weighted 130kg/290lbs.
Now I am at 93,5kg/205lbs (average of last 7 days)
I'm athletic and I like a lot of sports.
I now want to reach the next level, especially for better performances in my sports (soccer, basketball, volleyball).

Next steps:
I have multiple daily tasks in my schedule, e.g. cardio, meals, soccer etc.

First Milestone:
I start by losing weight down to 92,9kg.

freedom86
Posts: 108
Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2019 4:50 am

Re: Achieving Freedom

Post by freedom86 »

Current Schedule:

6.30: Alarm
6.30-7.30: Shaving, Shower, Mobility, Walking
8-10.30: Most Important Task: Creating Content
11-12: Walking, Meal
1-3: Most Important Task: Creating Content
4-5.30: Strength, HIIT, Walking, Meal
6-10: Team Sport (5x/w) / Socializing (2x/w) / Workshop (1x/w) / Leisure (2x/w)

Notes: I'm feeling "guilty", because the schedule doesn't look that "intensive". Seems like only 4,5hrs of "real work" daily. But instead of switching from 0 to 100%, I want to improve a little bit every day to make it work in the long run, especially in combination with my health/fitness tasks during the day.

------------------------------------------

Subject: Daily Scrum: 19/07/16

What did I do yesterday? 4h Content Creation (List of 100 items to create content about & prioritizing), meals & exercises.
What do I plan to do today? 3-5 MITs: Playing 1,5h as a reward, 4h Content Creation, Full Day of Fasting, 1,5h Walking, 0,5h Strength, 1h Team Sport
What is blocking me from achieving my goals? Nothing
Notes: I am doing my sports in the evening until ~10pm, therefore it is difficult to sleep at 10.30pm. Therefore I will move my alarm to 6.30am.

------------------------------------------

I am open for all kind of questions, suggestions and opinions,
because this helps me a lot to train my self-awareness.

freedom86
Posts: 108
Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2019 4:50 am

Re: Achieving Freedom

Post by freedom86 »

Subject: Daily Scrum: 19/07/17

What did I do yesterday? Playing game as reward, 2hrs Updating Distribution Homepage (necessary for Content Distribution), Full Day of Fasting, Exercises, Sports
What do I plan to do today? 3-5 MITs: Fix domains (for Distribution later), fix virtualbox (to create content), add email plugin to homepage, test video creation in virtualbox
What is blocking me from achieving my goals? nothing
Last edited by freedom86 on Thu Jul 18, 2019 1:35 am, edited 1 time in total.

freedom86
Posts: 108
Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2019 4:50 am

Re: Achieving Freedom

Post by freedom86 »

Subject: Daily Scrum: 19/07/18

What did I do yesterday?
- 3,5h fixing homepage stuff (updating, adding newsletter plugin)
- normal eating, walking, strength training (short)
- meeting a friend and talking about business and life

What do I plan to do today? 3-5 MITs
- Full Day of Fasting
- finish fixing domains (for Distribution later)
- finish adding email plugin to homepage
- fix virtualbox (to create content)
- test video creation in virtualbox

What is blocking me from achieving my goals?
- yesterday, I couldn't receive a verification email to setup the email & domain thing. Really annoying, because this stuff is intertwined and I felt stuck. But yeah, that's life and I have to deal with it.

---

Notes: Losing Weight: In the past, it was hard for me to keep to my weight loss diet. I tried to diet with a caloric deficit of ~500kcal, but one bad day was a major setback, because it destroyed the progress of the prior days. Besides, I often thought about food. My current diet is very easy. On normal days, I just eat my default healthy stuff (veggies, fruits, meat, dairies etc.), on fasting days I drink 5-7L of water and 3 whey shakes at 1/4/8pm to get my proteins. It also trains my mental skills. Moreover, I can meet friends without thinking about healthy food.

Stahlmann
Posts: 1121
Joined: Fri Sep 02, 2016 6:05 pm

Re: Achieving Freedom

Post by Stahlmann »

I hope you will be as much anally compulsive during execution phase as in planning. (treat this more as motivation than cynic's opinion)

prolly creating systems/habbits is more effective in the long run.

also see: Atomic Habits by James Clear or Power of Habit by Duhig

freedom86
Posts: 108
Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2019 4:50 am

Re: Achieving Freedom

Post by freedom86 »

Subject: Daily Scrum: 19/07/19

What did I do yesterday?
- Full Day of Fasting
- finish fixing domains
- finish adding email plugin to homepage
- fix virtualbox
- test video creation in virtualbox
So I did all my tasks from yesterday's daily scrum.

What do I plan to do today? 3-5 MITs
- add newsletter component to homepage
- test newsletter (signup/receiving/etc)
- find out how to properly run windows in VM (yesterday Linux)
- create collage of current life goals
- print out card with current life goals to keep with me
- fill out form for coaching at a big workshop
- publish one small post with link to my homepage to test some numbers

What is blocking me from achieving my goals?
- nothing

freedom86
Posts: 108
Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2019 4:50 am

Re: Achieving Freedom

Post by freedom86 »

bigato wrote:
Sun Jul 14, 2019 12:03 pm
It's not specifically focused on goals, but may present you with a different view on that. Ray Dalio is a billionaire hedge fund manager and this book presents what he considers to be his principles to life. I was attracted to it when listening to a podcast when he mentioned that instead of setting goals, instead he prefers to setup a system in place so that he will inevitably move in the direction he wants.
Thanks, I will have a look at it.
Stahlmann wrote:
Thu Jul 18, 2019 4:10 pm
I hope you will be as much anally compulsive during execution phase as in planning. (treat this more as motivation than cynic's opinion)

prolly creating systems/habbits is more effective in the long run.

also see: Atomic Habits by James Clear or Power of Habit by Duhig
Thanks for your opinion.

I think I've already read most of the books about habits (Duhigg, SJ Scott, Ariely, Pink, Burchard etc.)
and I think new knowledge isn't that useful/important for me at the moment,
because it is using time that I should use for executing.

I had a look at a summary of Atomic Habits.
I already built a system like that, but it was very complex and time-consuming,
especially because I like to have software automation.

Because habits and systems are very helpful and useful, my system is a mixture of effectiveness and user-friendliness:
- I use Google Calendar for my schedule, KanbanFlow to organise my projects and actionable tasks & Google Sheets to reflect my work
- my most important habits are my morning routine (Shaving, Shower, Mobility, Walking) and my connection of walking & eating

My current challenges are:
- my money mindset: I've been socialized in a rich family, my parents worked all day long and "loved" me by buying stuff. So I spend most of my money by donating it to charity. I also contribute to open source software. When I was a kid, many of my friends didn't have much money and therefore were excluded from activities like summer camp. That always seemed unfair to me. So demanding money for services or work doesn't feel right, because I exclude people. I'm working on my mindset right now. I listen to the podcast of Naval Ravikant, so my money mindset changed a little bit. If I had enough money, I could invest more time into making the world a little less unfair.

freedom86
Posts: 108
Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2019 4:50 am

Re: Achieving Freedom

Post by freedom86 »

Subject: Daily Scrum: 19/07/20

What did I do yesterday?
- add newsletter component to homepage
- test newsletter (signup/receiving/etc)
- find out how to properly run windows in VM (yesterday Linux)
- create collage of current life goals
- fill out form for coaching at a big workshop
- publish one small post with link to my homepage to test some numbers

- print out card with current life goals to keep with me
So I did 6/7 tasks from yesterday's daily scrum.

What do I plan to do today? 3-5 MITs
Today I'm going on a trip. That's an exception to my everyday saturday.
Thererfore I am only doing this stuff:
- strength training
- print out card with current life goals to keep with me

What is blocking me from achieving my goals?
- nothing

freedom86
Posts: 108
Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2019 4:50 am

Re: Achieving Freedom

Post by freedom86 »

bigato wrote:
Fri Jul 19, 2019 8:30 pm
What are some of the ways you think the world is unfair and how is it that you could possibily contribute towards improving it if you had most of your time free from any obligations?
That is a great question, thanks.

I think it's unfair to exclude people from education and social activities.
Therefore I am giving away my content for free and I oftentimes feel ashamed to ask to get paid for holding a workshop.
I know that this is irrational.
I am currently working on a mindset shift.

If I would be free from monetary obligations, I could build more educational stuff for free,
so that not having enough money wouldn't be a problem for poor people.

freedom86
Posts: 108
Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2019 4:50 am

Re: Achieving Freedom

Post by freedom86 »

Subject: Sprint Review: Week 29, 19/07/15.-21.

Life Goals Check
I will be more proactive and reliable:
- Past Milestone: I allow myself to move around 10 appointments/week. Failed. This didn't work at all. I had some sleeping problems, because it was very warm at night, so I felt trashed most of the mornings, so I laid in bed. I have to pro-actively tackle this, because weather is a really bad excuse, therefore I cancelled my evening appointments for wednesday and thursday. I'm gonna move a pleasurable task to the beginning of the day, so I will leave bed.
- Next Milestone: I allow myself to move around 10 appointments/week, and I will add some time blocks to compensate for the lost time.

I will communicate more honestly, directly and explicitly:
- Past Milestone: I allow myself to chicken out instead of talking/writing honestly, directly and explicitly 10 times/week. Passed. This worked very well, I've had fantastic experiences. In the past, I thought being direct would cause problems. But all my behaviours ended in positive outcomes. Nobody started arguing or fighting, instead many seem to have been happy that I was addressing things directly so that they could remain passive.
- Next Milestone: I allow myself to chicken out instead of talking/writing honestly, directly and explicitly 8 times/week. I think I will unconsciously stretch upcoming situations.

I will save up my 1x annual expenses:
- Past milestone: I will create content for 25 hrs/week. Failed. I created content for 15hrs. I hold a workshop for 3hrs. Sometimes I didn't know what to do, because my list of opportunities is/was big, so some paradox of choice. Therefore I will create a list with all todos today, where I prioritize my business tasks.
- Next milestone: I will create content for 20 hrs/week. I held a workshop yesterday.

I will weigh 85kg:
- Past Milestone: I start by losing weight down to 92,9kg. Passed. On Point, 92,9kg. The 2 Full days of Fasting were easy.
- Next Milestone: 92,0kg.

What worked well?
- When I saw some motion, e.g. dieting and being direct, it was very easy for me to keep it moving. (motion through motion)

What could be improved?
- When things didn't work out, I was frustrated, so I will decrease the milestone for these goals.

freedom86
Posts: 108
Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2019 4:50 am

Re: Achieving Freedom

Post by freedom86 »

Subject: Daily Scrum: 19/07/24

What did I do yesterday?
- Full Day of Fasting
- finish adding newsletter
- started working on notes for first course

What do I plan to do today? 3-5 MITs
- finish creating notes for first course

What is blocking me from achieving my goals?
- nothing

wolf
Posts: 1102
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2017 5:09 pm
Location: Germany

Re: Achieving Freedom

Post by wolf »

I had a look at your blog and I found some useful content and I liked what you wrote.

What are your ERE plans and goals? Please forgive, if that sounds too direct: Why are you here at ERE? I am honestly interested in it. Maybe you have some ERE-specific questions and I/we can help you with those.

...and I gotta say (after reading your journal) that I want to learn more about the scrum methodology applied to life goals. Thanks for sharing that.

freedom86
Posts: 108
Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2019 4:50 am

Re: Achieving Freedom

Post by freedom86 »

Hey wolf,

thanks for your post.
wolf wrote:
Wed Jul 24, 2019 4:27 am
I had a look at your blog and I found some useful content and I liked what you wrote.
If I understand this correctly, you are talking about the blog: https://agileleanlife.com.
This isn't my blog or my writing, I only used the information for the system I am using.
wolf wrote:
Wed Jul 24, 2019 4:27 am
What are your ERE plans and goals? Please forgive, if that sounds too direct: Why are you here at ERE? I am honestly interested in it. Maybe you have some ERE-specific questions and I/we can help you with those.
Great question.
I think ERE is a great community of like-minded people,
where I can contribute to by writing about my journey,
perhaps someone can use something from my journal for his/her life.

Moreover I think the commitment to post here increases my level of adherence to my approach.
wolf wrote:
Wed Jul 24, 2019 4:27 am
...and I gotta say (after reading your journal) that I want to learn more about the scrum methodology applied to life goals. Thanks for sharing that.
Do you have some specific questions?
I am not an expert on this topic, I am only trying to create a successful approach that fits to me as a person.
So it is and will be a lot of trial and error.

wolf
Posts: 1102
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2017 5:09 pm
Location: Germany

Re: Achieving Freedom

Post by wolf »

Ah, I understand. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

...Scrum...no specific question yet.
Well, first I'll also read the blog post about it.

And your first ERE goal is to save 1 year expenses, based on marketable content?

freedom86
Posts: 108
Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2019 4:50 am

Re: Achieving Freedom

Post by freedom86 »

Subject: Daily Scrum: 19/07/25

What did I do yesterday?
- finished creating notes for first course
- strength training

What do I plan to do today? 3-5 MITs
- full day of fasting
- write post and publish it
- create videos for ~3hrs (I planned for 6 small ones)
- fix my printer
- print out all left-over stuff
- strength training

What is blocking me from achieving my goals?
- nothing

freedom86
Posts: 108
Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2019 4:50 am

Re: Achieving Freedom

Post by freedom86 »

Subject: Daily Scrum: 19/07/26

What did I do yesterday?
- full day of fasting
- write post and publish it
- create videos for ~3hrs (I planned for 6 small ones) needed 3hrs for 3 videos
- fix my printer
- print out all left-over stuff
- strength training

What do I plan to do today? 3-5 MITs
- create audio for 1hrs (video 1-3)
- create videos for 2hrs (video 4-6)
- strength training

What is blocking me from achieving my goals?
- nothing

freedom86
Posts: 108
Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2019 4:50 am

Re: Achieving Freedom

Post by freedom86 »

Subject: Sprint Review: Week 30, 19/07/22.-28.

Life Goals Check

I will save up my 1x annual expenses:
- Past milestone: I will create content for 25 hrs/week. Failed. I created content for 11hrs. I hold a workshop for 4hrs, commuting etc. cost me the whole monday. The nights were extremely hot. I had to chose between darkness and cooler air and I think the decision for cooler air was bad. Therefore I will close down the shades at night. This week, I wll only have one appointment on Thursday, so I will try again to hit 20hrs/week.
- Next milestone: I will create content for 20 hrs/week.

I will weigh 85kg:
- Past Milestone: I start by losing weight down to 92,0kg. Failed. I am currently at 92,5kg. The 2 Full days of Fasting were easy. The other 5 days were good, no overeating, very healthy.
- Next Milestone: 92,0kg.

I will be more proactive and reliable:
- Past Milestone: I allow myself to move around 10 appointments/week. Failed. Did most of my stuff, but moved it to the evenings, because it was very hot. Only one appointment this week.
- Next Milestone: I allow myself to move around 10 appointments/week, and I will add some time blocks to compensate for the lost time.

I will communicate more honestly, directly and explicitly:
- Past Milestone: I allow myself to chicken out instead of talking/writing honestly, directly and explicitly 10 times/week. Passed. Great improvements. I don't have to think about it that much. The workshop was great, I was direct and explicit and the students responded very well.
- Next Milestone: I allow myself to chicken out instead of talking/writing honestly, directly and explicitly 6 times/week. I think I will unconsciously stretch upcoming situations.

What worked well?
- After starting, things are rolling.

What could be improved?
- Starting is the most difficult task for me. So I'm gonna cut the caffeine and will try to find a working replacement.

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