{"id":818,"date":"2008-08-19T10:00:27","date_gmt":"2008-08-19T17:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2008\/08\/19\/im-20\/"},"modified":"2018-04-03T09:00:02","modified_gmt":"2018-04-03T16:00:02","slug":"im-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2008\/08\/19\/im-20\/","title":{"rendered":"I’m 20"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today is my twentieth birthday.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u2019ve made it an annual<\/a> habit<\/a> of writing a rather self-indulgent post about myself on my birthday.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u2019m going to take that opportunity to write about my last year, things that I have improved on, setbacks and future goals.\u00c2\u00a0 If you were hoping to read an article about productivity or self-improvement, you can skip this post and I\u2019ll have another entry later in the week.<\/p>\n

Last year was a great one.\u00c2\u00a0 There weren\u2019t as many changes as the year before (when I moved to University) or the year before that (when I started this blog), but I still reached some important milestones.\u00c2\u00a0 Most of all, I had a lot of fun, and if you can\u2019t do that, what\u2019s the point?<\/p>\n

School<\/h2>\n

In University, I kept up my average of between A and A+ for a GPA.\u00c2\u00a0 However I\u2019m starting to take more courses which are based on participation and projects, which means keeping a spotless GPA will take more work.<\/p>\n

Honestly, grades aren\u2019t that important to me.\u00c2\u00a0 Although I\u2019ll work on keeping them (a guy who wrote a book on studying, should still have a high GPA), I consider learning something valuable to be more important.\u00c2\u00a0 My lifelong goals are for entrepreneurship, where GPA and paper degrees aren\u2019t going to matter, so grades have never been a focus of my effort.<\/p>\n

Fitness<\/h2>\n

I\u2019ve kept up with regular exercising and gym-going.\u00c2\u00a0 Aside from a sprained wrist in March and my bout with mononucleosis a few weeks ago, I\u2019ve been in great shape (far better than 4-5 years ago).\u00c2\u00a0 I\u2019m still making improvements in fitness, but it\u2019s more about being healthy and staying active than reaching a specific goal.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u2019m happy with my physical health, so I mostly want to keep it that way.<\/p>\n

Dating<\/h2>\n

I\u2019ll keep my dating life private, to protect the innocent, but I\u2019ve also been happy with this in my last year.\u00c2\u00a0 It can sometimes be hard to find the right balance between social life\/relationship and your other goals, but it is worth the effort.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u2019m still figuring out a lot of these questions myself, so I wouldn\u2019t expect any articles on relationships for awhile.<\/p>\n

Finances<\/h2>\n

A big area of improvement was in running this website.\u00c2\u00a0 I started this with the goal of earning a livable income.\u00c2\u00a0 Perhaps that\u2019s a little presumptuous for a then-17-year-old, but I wasn\u2019t going to wait until I was thirty to start doing what I love.\u00c2\u00a0 This past year has marked the start where I\u2019ve actually been able to enjoy the income this website earns.<\/p>\n

One immediate benefit was being happily unemployed for this summer.\u00c2\u00a0 I worked the year before, to raise money for tuition and living expenses.\u00c2\u00a0 However, as I\u2019ve been earning more with this website than an entry-level full-time job for the summer, I\u2019ve been able to enjoy a fun and relaxing four months between classes.<\/p>\n

My 2008 income goal was $20,000 before taxes.\u00c2\u00a0 Based on my income so far this year, I\u2019m nearly on schedule.\u00c2\u00a0 I have some plans to hit the target before the year end.\u00c2\u00a0 The specific number isn\u2019t that important, but I believe it marks an important step in being able to live entirely off the income from this website.<\/p>\n

Reading<\/h2>\n

My reading (in terms of total volume) is not nearly as high as was a few years ago, when I was reading 70+ books in a year (I expect 30-40 this year).\u00c2\u00a0 Part of this can simply be explained by reading longer books.\u00c2\u00a0 I read several books nearing 1000 pages, whereas my previous reading habits focused on shorter books between 300-500 pages.<\/p>\n

Another factor might have been my switch off Amazon books.\u00c2\u00a0 I decided to switch to the library to save money.\u00c2\u00a0 Unfortunately, even a large University library makes finding the book you want to read a pain.\u00c2\u00a0 Amazon may be more expensive, but I can read exactly what interests me.<\/p>\n

Still the drop in reading might just be a side effect of the busier lifestyle I\u2019ve taken on.<\/p>\n

Volunteer<\/h2>\n

A big time investment for this summer and the upcoming fall has been volunteering.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u2019m doing work as part of a fundraising team, getting corporate sponsorship for student events.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u2019m also running the website for the Commerce Business Banquet, in November.\u00c2\u00a0 Although these take away time, there are a lot of rewards.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u2019ve had a chance to learn skills that would be difficult to practice normally, and I\u2019ve made many great friends I might not have otherwise.<\/p>\n

Future Goals<\/h2>\n

Looking back is useful, but I\u2019ve always been focused on the future.\u00c2\u00a0 I have some important goals, and there are many other experiences I want to get that don\u2019t fit on a timetable.\u00c2\u00a0 As always, I\u2019m going to continue working hard on improving myself, which I think is the most important step in reaching any other ambition.<\/p>\n

Thoughts on Goal-Setting<\/h2>\n

A lot of my goal setting philosophy has changed from when I first started around 5 years ago.\u00c2\u00a0 When I started, I was intensely motivated to reach my goals.\u00c2\u00a0 And when a goal didn\u2019t look like I would make it, I would work even harder to reach it.\u00c2\u00a0 Often this meant stressing myself out trying to make impossible targets.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve since changed my perspective.\u00c2\u00a0 Working hard and persisting towards goals is important.\u00c2\u00a0 Having goals is especially important, even if you can\u2019t reach them.\u00c2\u00a0 But, a lot of life is outside my control.\u00c2\u00a0 Stressing over goals that you couldn\u2019t reach isn\u2019t the point.\u00c2\u00a0 The point of having goals is to stay focused, motivated and feel alive.\u00c2\u00a0 I feel if I can accomplish that, I\u2019m not going to worry that life isn\u2019t conforming to my timeline.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve found that if you set goals, come up with a strategy, and work your ass off, you tend to reach them.\u00c2\u00a0 However, it often isn\u2019t on your deadline, so you need patience to keep going even when progress is slow.<\/p>\n

Going Digital<\/h2>\n

My biggest goal (although it\u2019s more a lifestyle than a goal) is to live completely off my laptop, and travel around the world learning new things and having new experiences.\u00c2\u00a0 I expect that this will need around $30,000-$40,000 per year to be comfortable.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u2019m sure I could do it with less, but this is my comfort zone.<\/p>\n

So my first goal is to move my income from slightly below $20,000 per year to twice that.\u00c2\u00a0 I have another two years of University with my degree in commerce.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u2019ve also been considering another degree in computer science, an passionate interest of mine for the last several years.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u2019m planning on reaching that ambitious financial goal by the time I\u2019m done University.<\/p>\n

My ideal lifestyle needs more than just money.\u00c2\u00a0 I think it needs a lot of other skills and qualities that are hard to pin down.\u00c2\u00a0 Languages, travel experience, being socially outgoing and independent are all just as important.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u2019m looking into doing a student exchange in another country to get some experience before I graduate.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t have any other big goals that I\u2019ll be working on in the near future.\u00c2\u00a0 I think splitting my focus between many different goals will mean that I won\u2019t accomplish any of them.\u00c2\u00a0 And a digital lifestyle requires many minor goals across different areas, so I\u2019m not worried that part of my life will be neglected to reach my ambition.<\/p>\n

Overall Thoughts<\/h2>\n

All of this doesn\u2019t really matter.\u00c2\u00a0 What matters is that I get to wake up each day, do what I love, learn something and feel like my energy was invested wisely.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u2019m lucky enough that I get to do this most of the time.\u00c2\u00a0 I definitely have bad days, and things are never perfect, but most of the time, I’m having fun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today is my twentieth birthday.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u2019ve made it an annual habit of writing a rather self-indulgent post about myself on my birthday.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u2019m going to take that opportunity to write about my last year, things that I have improved on, setbacks and future goals.\u00c2\u00a0 If you were hoping to read an article about productivity or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[681,2],"tags":[181,665],"class_list":{"0":"post-818","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-nc-mindset","7":"category-news","8":"tag-birthday","9":"tag-news","10":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nI'm 20 - 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