After navigating a challenging period marked by personal grief and intense soul-searching, J.D., the founder of the popular personal finance blog Get Rich Slowly, has announced a major shift in focus. Two months after the passing of his mother, J.D. reports that the mental fog is finally lifting, inspiring him to renew his focus on productive pursuits. However, rather than diving straight back into the relentless grind of content creation, he has made a conscious decision to prioritize his own well-being. With the support of his partner, Kim, J.D. has officially declared 2023 to be "The Year of Me."
The announcement marks a significant departure from how J.D. has historically managed his life and career. For a stretch spanning more than a decade, he regularly practiced the habit of assigning themes to his years and months. Whether dedicated to fitness, writing, or dating, these intentional time blocks consistently yielded positive, fruitful results. Over time, however, that structured habit faded into the background, and J.D. found himself sliding down his own priority list—placing his own needs second, third, or even ninth behind a myriad of other obligations and distractions.
Beginning yesterday, that dynamic is slated to change. J.D. has set an intentional course to put himself first for the foreseeable future, a concept that he admits initially felt uncomfortable, even verging on selfish. For someone accustomed to constantly accommodating external demands, acknowledging the necessity of prioritizing one’s own physical and mental health can feel like a transgression. Yet, he recognizes that years of making excuses have taken a toll. For the immediate future, his own well-being is job one.
At the same time, J.D. emphasizes that prioritizing his own needs is not an act of isolation, but rather a foundation for becoming a better presence for others, including his readers. It is advice he has frequently offered to friends and followers over the years, though he acknowledges the difficulty he has faced in applying it to his own daily life.
For the dedicated readership of Get Rich Slowly, the shift is expected to be largely internal rather than disruptive. While the core mission of the platform remains intact, J.D. is granting himself the explicit permission to put his personal desires ahead of external pressures throughout 2023. He anticipates that this renewed clarity will ultimately feed back into his writing, providing fresh fodder for future articles and finally bringing closure to the long-standing site redesign project.
Crucially, this new chapter comes with a relaxation of traditional production schedules. J.D. is deliberately stepping away from holding himself to strict publishing quotas or rigid content calendars. Moving forward, if he has something meaningful to say, he will share it; if not, he will refuse to force the output. This transparent approach mirrors the very nature of his latest update, written spontaneously during a pocket of free time after completing a life-design exercise and prior to an upcoming phone call with a friend. While he acknowledges that the change is fundamentally internal, he views it as a vital and necessary correction.
The Courage to Be Disliked
The intellectual foundation for J.D.’s pivot has been reinforced by recent experiences and readings. During the Thanksgiving holiday, J.D. and Kim drove to California to visit her brother’s family. To pass the time on the long drive, the couple listened to the audiobook The Courage to Be Disliked by authors Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga. The book, which J.D. notes might be more accurately titled The Courage to Be Happy, explores the psychological worldview and interpersonal theories of renowned Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler.
The audiobook resonated deeply, offering a wealth of perspective despite the limitation of not being able to physically highlight passages on the fly. The book is structured around a Socratic dialogue format—a stylistic choice that presents both benefits and drawbacks for the reader. While the conversational format provides thorough context, it also means wading through lengthy exchanges to unearth core insights. Consequently, J.D. plans to revisit the material in a digital Kindle format, selectively skimming for the standout principles that sparked his interest. He has also hinted that a comprehensive review or summary of the book could eventually find its way onto the pages of Get Rich Slowly.
A Values-Driven Life
The themes of intentional living and psychological realignment were further underscored by a digital highlight that recently resurfaced in J.D.’s Readwise feed. Pulled from Stephen R. Covey’s seminal work, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, the quote struck a particular chord given his current life stage:
“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.”
Reflecting on Covey’s words, J.D. realized that a primary reason he arrived at a point requiring a dedicated "Year of Me" was his temporary loss of impulse control, coupled with a drift away from his core values. Recognizing the misalignment, he has already begun taking concrete steps to curb reactive habits, such as removing distracting applications like Reddit and Hearthstone from his iPad. The next phase involves actively translating his foundational values back into daily practice.
While this update represents a departure from traditional, long-form financial guides, J.D. assures his audience that he is not abandoning comprehensive reporting. However, for the duration of 2023, the format of his output may lean more toward conversational, episodic reflections of this nature. Embracing the philosophy of his new year-long theme, he is content to let the process unfold organically, one thoughtful step at a time.
