After spending the past several months navigating the heavy grief following the death of his mother, J.D., the creator of the popular personal finance blog Get Rich Slowly, has announced a major shift in his personal and professional focus. Two months after the loss, the lingering fog has finally begun to lift, leaving him with a renewed sense of motivation to pursue productive endeavors. Following a period of deep soul-searching alongside his partner, Kim, J.D. has declared that he is making 2023 the "Year of Me."
For more than a decade, J.D. was known for a habit of assigning themes to his years and months—a strategy he found both fun and remarkably fruitful. Whether he was dedicating a specific span of time to improving his physical fitness, focusing on his writing, or navigating the world of dating, treating time with a clear, singular theme yielded great results. However, this productive habit eventually fell by the wayside, and in the years that followed, J.D. found himself consistently placing his own needs second, third, or even ninth behind the demands of everything else.
Starting immediately, his primary objective is to reverse that pattern and prioritize his own well-being for the foreseeable future. Recognizing that this shift may initially feel uncomfortable, selfish, or even wrong to someone accustomed to accommodating others, J.D. acknowledged that he has spent too long making excuses and allowing external distractions to interfere with his physical and mental health. For the upcoming year, he is placing himself firmly at the top of his priority list, emphasizing that this internal pivot is designed to help him become a better person for those around him—including his readership.
2023 — The Year of Me
The decision to focus inward is expected to bring subtle changes to Get Rich Slowly, though the core experience for readers will largely remain intact. The transformation will be primarily internal, granting J.D. the explicit permission to put his own needs and desires ahead of external pressures. He anticipates that this renewed focus will naturally generate fresh material for future articles and finally bring closure to the long-standing site redesign project.
However, as part of this deliberate commitment to his own well-being, J.D. is stepping away from rigid publishing schedules and production quotas. Moving forward, he plans to write only when he genuinely has something to say, refusing to force content simply to meet an arbitrary deadline. This spontaneous approach is reflected in his latest update, which was written after completing a personal exercise from the book Designing Your Life during a brief window of free time before a scheduled phone call with a friend.
While he recognizes that this change originates entirely within himself, he views it as a vital step toward reclaiming his focus. Rather than feeling pressured to maintain a high-volume output of content, J.D. is choosing to honor his current mental space, ensuring that whatever he publishes is authentic and reflective of his actual experiences.
The Courage to Be Disliked
The thematic shift toward self-prioritization was further reinforced during a Thanksgiving road trip to California with Kim to visit her brother’s family. To pass the time during the 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 of the influential Austrian psychiatrist Alfred Adler.
The audiobook resonated deeply with J.D., filling the journey with profound insights, though he humorously lamented the inability to easily highlight passages while listening to an audio format. Finding the conversational, Socratic dialogue structure of the book both engaging and occasionally cumbersome for reference, he plans to revisit the text in a Kindle edition to skim through the most impactful sections and gather the best highlights. He also noted that the book’s rich philosophical framework could potentially serve as the foundation for a more detailed review and summary on Get Rich Slowly at a later date.
A Values-Driven Life
The themes of self-reflection and intentional living were further underscored by a saved passage from Stephen R. Covey’s foundational work, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, which surfaced through J.D.’s Readwise highlights. The passage emphasizes that the essence of a proactive person lies in the ability to subordinate a passing impulse to a deeply held value, whereas reactive individuals are driven entirely by fleeting feelings, external circumstances, and environmental conditions.
Reflecting on Covey’s words, J.D. realized that a key contributor to his recent burnout and the necessity for a "Year of Me" was a gradual loss of impulse control, compounded by a failure to actively honor his core values. Recognizing the need to flip the script, he has already taken proactive measures to curb digital distractions by removing apps like Reddit and Hearthstone from his iPad.
By taking these preliminary steps to manage his impulses, J.D. is laying the groundwork to reintegrate his core values into his daily life. While his future posts may vary in length and style—ranging from short, spontaneous notes to more conversational reflections—his overarching commitment to personal growth and authenticity remains unchanged as he steps into this new chapter.
