Life is finally beginning to settle for J.D., the voice behind the personal finance platform Get Rich。) Slowly. Two months after the death of his mother, the lingering fog of grief has begun to lift, leaving behind a renewed sense of motivation to pursue productive endeavors once more.
Reflecting on the past several weeks of deep soul-searching, J.D. has arrived at a clear conclusion—one shared by his partner, Kim—that above all else, he needs to dedicate the upcoming period entirely to his own well-being. The result is a deliberate shift in focus, which he has coined "2023 — The Year of Me."
For more than a decade, J.D. maintained a personal tradition of assigning themes to his years and months. Describing the practice as both fun and fruitful, he recalled how dedicating specific spans of time to singular focuses—whether fitness, writing, or dating—yielded remarkable results. However, that habit eventually fell by the wayside as the demands of daily life took over.
Reflecting on the trajectory of his routine, J.D. acknowledged that he had spent far too long placing himself second, third, or even ninth in his own priorities. Beginning recently, his explicit aim is to put himself first for the foreseeable future, extending through the coming year and potentially beyond.
Admitting that this mindset shift feels uncomfortable, he noted that prioritizing himself initially carries the uncomfortable weight of feeling selfish or wrong. Yet, he recognizes that he has allowed external distractions and obligations to interfere with his physical and mental health for far too long, frequently relying on excuses. For the foreseeable future, taking care of J.D. is job one, marking the commencement of an intentional period of self-preservation.
At the same time, J.D. emphasizes that prioritizing his own needs is not inherently detrimental to those around him. In fact, he notes that by finally putting himself first, he is almost certain to become a better person for others, including his readers and loved ones. While this is a piece of advice he has frequently offered to others over the years, acknowledging it as a universal truth, bridging the gap between that knowledge and personal action has proven difficult until now.
For readers of Get Rich Slowly, J.D. suspects there will be no radical external changes. The transformation will be primarily internal. By granting himself permission to place his own needs and desires ahead of everything else throughout 2023, he anticipates that this renewed mental clarity will naturally translate into richer fodder for future articles, alongside the long-awaited completion of the site’s ongoing de-design.
As part of this personal year of focus, J.D. is deliberately stepping away from rigid publishing or production schedules. If he has something meaningful to say, he will share it; if not, he will refrain from forcing content. This measured approach mirrors how the recent update came to be—crafted during a brief window of free time following a Designing Your Life exercise, just before a scheduled call with a friend. While he recognizes that this is largely an internal evolution, he maintains that it is a vital one.
The Courage to Be Disliked
The seeds for this renewed perspective were further reinforced during a Thanksgiving road trip to California, where J.D. and Kim visited her brother’s family. To pass the time during the journey, the couple listened to The Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga. The book, which J.D. suggests might be more accurately titled The Courage to Be Happy, explores the foundational psychological worldview of Alfred Adler.
Packed with substantial philosophical wisdom, the book resonated deeply, though J.D. humorously noted the minor frustration of being unable to easily highlight passages while listening to an audiobook format. Because the volume is structured in the classical tradition of a Socratic dialogue, he plans to revisit the material digitally, skimming through the text to extract the most impactful takeaways rather than sitting through the entirety of the conversational exchanges. He has also floated the possibility of publishing a comprehensive review and summary of the book on Get Rich Slowly at a later date.
A Values-Driven Life
The philosophical themes of the book were further compounded by a digital reminder from his Readwise highlights, pulling forward a pertinent passage from Stephen R. Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The highlighted quote reads: "The ability to subordinate an impulse to a value is the essence of a proactive person. Reactive people are driven by feelings, by circumstances, by conditions, by their environment. Proactive people are driven by values—carefully thought about, selected, and internalized values."
Encountering this passage brought into sharp focus why J.D. had reached a point requiring a dedicated year of personal realignment: he had somehow lost the ability to control his immediate impulses while simultaneously drifting away from his core values. Recognizing the need to flip the script, he has already taken proactive steps to curb micro-distractions, such as uninstalling the applications Reddit and Hearthstone from his iPad, paving the way to bring his actions back into alignment with his foundational principles.
While this update represents a departure from traditional, highly structured financial guides, J.D. intends to lean into a more conversational, episodic style of blogging for the duration of his personal year. Rather than forcing diverse thoughts into a single cohesive package, he envisions future updates arriving as shorter, more intimate dispatches whenever inspiration strikes. Longer, focused articles are far from gone for good, but for J.D. in 2023, embracing a more fluid and honest approach to writing simply feels right.
