10 Current Projects I'm Working On

I live in an area that has a decent population of Spanish speakers and a large population of those I work with live in Spain or come from LATAM countries. Plus, I love traveling and would like to make conversation in the local language whenever I can. Currently at the A1 level, but my end goal is to get to B1 or B2. I practice daily using several different methods.

An old fashioned write your shit down and check it off planner. Online planners have not worked for me in the past, but the art of putting pen to paper and physically seeing the list - that works. When it comes to my current job, I need it.

Maximizing investments, ESPPs, ladder conversions, and all of the fun things to hit the magic number we have to be financially independent (FI) and if either of us desired, retire early (RE). It's not a project we dwell on by any means, but we keep an eye on what we need, make any necessary adjustments, and hired the best fucking CPA/PHD genius to help us along the way. This leads to...

Not quite a current project, more like getting the rails in place to put this one into practice in the future. I have the ability to work wherever I'd like in my current role, and I don't plan on ever giving that option up if I were to change jobs. The current holdup: my partner's job is landlocked and our kid is still in school. Once my partner changes roles (and he plans to within the next several years) and our graduates, the world is our oyster and we plan on spending about a month or so in various locations as we please. We'll still have our home, because we love our town, but the flexibility to spend a month in other U.S. areas or countries like Vietnam, Mexico, Peru, etc...it excites me.

Without writing a novel, physical activity prior to covid halted due to injury, became non-existent throughout covid, and I've been exceptionally slow at getting back to it. Now I make an effort to get to the gym 2-3 times a week, to establish the habit but the next step is to up my game. Track what I'm doing, make a plan, include other activities. I wrote it out, so it will happen.

Awhile back, I was not in a good way. My relationship was on the verge of collapse and so was I. Years of untreated trauma compounded into terrible coping mechanisms, problematic behaviors, and a core with this never-ending abyss of nothing. Two major things happened in a short time that provided me with the push to seek out therapy and be open to where it would take me. Years later, with the help of some astounding therapists and doctors, I have fought my way out of that abyss. The task of rewiring one's brain, to step out of the ingrained survival tactics created from a young age and redefine perception, value, everything hasn't been easy. It's ongoing. It's my lifelong project, but one I've found immensely worthwhile.

A year ago I gathered up the courage to make an appointment with a dietitian. After spending years eliminating bad coping mechanism after bad coping mechanism, I was ready to tackle one of my biggest secrets and face facts. I have an eating disorder and not a single soul knew about it because I hid it so well. My intention of going to the dietitian was to establish a better understanding of healthy foods and tracking. What I got was a big wake up call that I could be one step away from giving myself a massive heart attack or develop significant lifelong damage that can't be undone. My dietitian has challenged every food rule I have created, shouted against the echoes of taunts, worked with my therapist and doctor to provide a holistic approach to food. And reassure me that even the slowest of progress, is still progress. And progress is often not linear.

I haven't purged in 2 months. I'm still working out the whole eating at least 3 meals a day, but I no longer spend ages agonizing over labels at the store or the macros of my meals. I have begun to recognize hunger queues, and hopefully in time, I'll begin to love and accept my reflection despite not conforming to society's standards.

I pop into the office whenever I feel like, but primarily work from home. Recently, I've claimed a corner of our nerd room (it's like Star Wars, Star Trek, Lego, board games, video games, and so many other things threw up in here) as my workspace. Now I want to make this space into an efficient, productive, get shit done spot. I've got ideas - perhaps I'll make those into a list.

I'm one of those assholes that sits on the HOA board. Hear me out:

• There are less than a dozen homes
• Nobody else other than my neighbor wants to be on the HOA. We can't have a party of one.
• Most of the HOA rules were written well before the majority of us bought, and they're dumb so we don't enforce the dumb rules
• There are no fines. Unless you don't pay your HOA dues, in which case our property manager deals with that...
• But the property manager sucks. The options are to deal with his useless company, do it ourselves, or find a more competent company. Research and discussions and things are happening.

Not my favorite project, but a project.

There are 2 of us that work on one project for the company. We've made it wildly successful, it gets brought up during earnings calls pretty regularly, interest is growing, cool cool cool. However, a lot of these tasks I don't aren't yet scaleable in their current form. I'm fixing that so I can focus on the fun stuff, smash goals, make more money, and learn new things.