After navigating a period of profound personal grief and deep introspection, J.D., the founder of the personal finance community Get Rich Slowly, has announced a major shift in focus for the year ahead. In a candid update to readers, he declared that 2023 will officially be designated as the "Year of Me," marking a deliberate pivot toward prioritizing his own mental and physical well-being after months of emotional recovery.
The announcement comes roughly two months after the death of his mother, an event that plunged him into a heavy fog of grief. Writing to his audience, J.D. shared that the initial numbness and disorientation have finally begun to lift, allowing a renewed sense of motivation to take root regarding productive pursuits. However, rather than immediately diving back into the relentless pace of content creation and digital project management, he realized that a fundamental realignment was necessary.
Following weeks of serious soul-searching conducted alongside his partner, Kim, J.D. arrived at the realization that he has spent far too many years placing his own needs at the bottom of his priority list. Whether ranking second, third, or even ninth behind various external obligations, his own health and self-care have consistently been sidelined. Moving forward, he has resolved to flip the script, stepping into a period where he places his own health, desires, and personal growth first for the foreseeable future.
For someone accustomed to prioritizing work, readership expectations, and external demands, adopting this mindset has not been entirely intuitive. J.D. admitted that putting himself first initially feels uncomfortable, verging on selfish or wrong. Yet, he recognizes this internal resistance as a byproduct of years of making excuses and allowing distractions to interfere with his physical and mental health. Embracing this new chapter means breaking old patterns and letting go of the guilt associated with self-preservation.
Furthermore, he points out a well-established psychological truth: by prioritizing one’s own well-endowed health and happiness, an individual ultimately becomes better equipped to serve and care for others, including the community of readers who follow his work. While this is advice he has frequently offered to others in the past, acknowledging it intellectually is quite different from successfully putting it into practice—a gap he is finally determined to bridge.
2023 — The Year of Me
The concept of thematic living is not entirely new to J.D.’s routine. More than a decade ago, he established a habit of assigning specific themes to individual months and years, a practice he recalls as both immensely fun and remarkably fruitful. Whenever he dedicated a distinct span of time to a singular focus—whether that meant physical fitness, creative writing, or dating—the results were consistently positive. Eventually, however, this constructive habit fell by the wayside, displaced by the chaotic demands of everyday life.
Reintroducing the concept of a thematic year is his way of reclaiming intentionality. For 2023, the overarching theme is unapologetically centered on J.D. himself. For regular readers of Get Rich Slowly, the shift will likely manifest more internally than externally. The core mission of the platform remains, but the creator behind it is granting himself explicit permission to put his personal needs ahead of everything else. This internal realignment is also expected to provide fresh fodder for future articles, while finally clearing the path for the completion of the site’s long-awaited de-design.
As part of this self-focused era, J.D. is deliberately stepping away from rigid publishing schedules and production pressures. Rather than forcing content to meet arbitrary deadlines, he plans to write organically, sharing thoughts only when he genuinely has something to say. This spontaneous approach is reflected in his recent workflow, which often involves moving directly from personal exercises, such as those found in Bill Burnett and Dave Evans’s book Designing Your Life, straight into reflective writing before heading off to other daily commitments.
While long-form, deeply focused articles will not disappear entirely from the site, readers should expect a more conversational, stream-of-consciousness style in the near term. J.D. notes that the very structure of his recent updates—which naturally span personal reflections, literary discoveries, and philosophical insights—might traditionally have been broken down into three entirely separate blog posts. Instead, during the Year of Me, embracing a fluid, lower-pressure format feels like the most authentic path forward.
The Courage to Be Disliked
A significant catalyst for J.D.’s recent philosophical shifts occurred during a Thanksgiving road trip to California with Kim and her family. To pass the hours on the road, the couple listened to the audiobook The Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga. The book explores the psychological theories of Alfred Adler, reinterpreting them through a dialogue-driven narrative that challenges conventional wisdom about happiness, interpersonal relationships, and personal autonomy.
Although some of the book’s provocative statements initially sounded counterintuitive or confusing without their broader context, the underlying themes resonated deeply with J.D. and Kim as they listened to the detailed explanations. The experience left such a strong impression that J.D. plans to revisit the material in Kindle format, specifically skimming through the text to extract the most impactful passages rather than sitting through the entirety of the Socratic dialogue a second time. He has also hinted that a comprehensive review or summary of the book could eventually make its way onto Get Rich Slowly.
The insights gained from Adlerian psychology tie directly into J.D.’s ongoing efforts to break free from reactive habits and external validation. By examining the courage required to pursue genuine happiness—even when it means courting disapproval from others—he has found additional validation for his decision to carve out a year entirely dedicated to personal realignment.
A Values-Driven Life
To anchor these reflections, J.D. highlighted a passage from Stephen R. Covey’s foundational work, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, which recently resurfaced through his Readwise digital highlights. Covey writes: "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 this quote, J.D. recognized that he had temporarily lost his grip on that crucial distinction. Over time, he allowed himself to be driven by fleeting impulses and environmental pressures rather than anchoring his daily actions in carefully chosen core values. Acknowledging this drift was the first step toward correcting course.
Already, practical steps have been taken to curb reactive tendencies and regain control over daily distractions. Among these early measures, J.D. noted that he has uninstalled time-consuming applications like Reddit and Hearthstone from his iPad, effectively removing immediate digital temptations to clear space for more intentional living.
As the Year of Me unfolds, these behavioral adjustments are designed to help him reconnect with what truly matters. While future updates on the site may be brief, conversational, or entirely unstructured, they will stem from a place of renewed personal clarity and values-driven purpose.
