Following a challenging period marked by personal loss and deep introspection, J.D., the founder of the prominent personal finance platform Get Rich Slowly, has announced a significant shift in his personal and professional trajectory. Two months after the passing of his mother, J.D. shared with his readers that the lingering grief has finally begun to clear, restoring his motivation and inspiring a renewed commitment to his own physical and mental well-being.
In a candid update to his community, J.D. revealed that after extensive soul-searching alongside his partner, Kim, he has made the deliberate choice to designate the upcoming months as "The Year of Me." This strategic pivot marks a conscious decision to step away from chronic self-neglect and prioritize his own foundational needs above all else for the foreseeable future.
For longtime followers of Get Rich Slowly, the concept of thematic periods will sound familiar. More than a decade ago, J.D. frequently employed the practice of dedicating specific spans of time to distinct life themes—a strategy that yielded measurable success across various domains, including fitness, writing, and dating. While this habit eventually fell by the wayside, J.D. admits that he spent far too many subsequent years relegating his own health and wellness to the background, often ranking his personal needs second, third, or even ninth behind external demands and obligations.
Recognizing that he had accumulated endless excuses for neglecting his physical and mental health, J.D. decided that the pattern must end. Acknowledging that embracing this self-focused mindset initially feels counterintuitive, selfish, or even morally wrong, he has chosen to push past that discomfort. In his view, putting his own well-being first is not an act of isolation, but rather a necessary prerequisite to becoming a better resource and partner for others. By investing in his own health, he believes he will ultimately generate greater value for his readership and the people around him—a principle he has frequently recommended to others but struggled to apply to his own life.
2023 — The Year of Me
The decision to embark on "The Year of Me" carries practical implications for the structure and publishing schedule of Get Rich Slowly. J.D. has explicitly reassured his readers that the core identity of the platform will remain intact, with the primary transformation occurring internally. Rather than adhering to rigid publishing quotas or forced content production schedules, he intends to operate with complete creative freedom. Future updates will be published organically, driven by genuine inspiration rather than algorithmic pressure or artificial deadlines.
This relaxed approach was reflected in the creation of his recent announcement itself. Crafted during a moment of free time following a structured life-design exercise and prior to a scheduled phone call with a friend, the update exemplifies the spontaneous nature of the content he plans to produce moving forward. While he acknowledged that the various themes addressed in his announcement could easily have been expanded into three separate, standalone articles, he opted to present them in a more conversational, unified format.
Readers can still expect long-form, focused articles in the future, but J.D. has made it clear that rigid productivity metrics will take a back seat to authentic expression and sustainable self-care. Furthermore, this period of personal alignment is expected to finally bring about the completion of the long-awaited site redesign for Get Rich Slowly, bringing closure to a lingering technical project.
The Courage to Be Disliked
The intellectual foundation for J.D.’s current outlook was reinforced 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 authors Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga. The book, which explores the psychological framework and worldview established by Austrian psychiatrist Alfred Adler, offered profound insights that deeply resonated with J.D.
Although the text is structured as a Socratic dialogue—a format that can occasionally prove cumbersome during a continuous listening experience—J.D. found the underlying wisdom transformative enough to warrant a return visit through the Kindle platform. Rather than enduring the back-and-forth dialogue of the complete text a second time, he plans to skim the digital pages specifically to extract and review the core philosophical gems.
The psychological principles outlined in Adlerian psychology dovetail neatly with J.D.’s current efforts to dismantle years of reactive habits. By confronting the fear of social disapproval and learning to separate one’s own tasks from the expectations of others, the book provided a theoretical framework that supported his transition toward prioritizing personal health and boundaries. J.D. noted that he may eventually publish a comprehensive review or summary of The Courage to Be Disliked on Get Rich Slowly once he has fully integrated its lessons into his writing and daily routine.
A Values-Driven Life
To contextualize the deeper behavioral shifts required for "The Year of Me," J.D. highlighted a passage from Stephen R. Covey’s foundational work, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, which resurfaced through his Readwise application. The excerpt emphasizes the fundamental distinction between reactive individuals—who are driven by passing feelings, immediate circumstances, and external environments—and proactive individuals, whose actions are dictated by carefully considered, internalized values.
Reflecting on Covey’s words, J.D. realized that a primary driver behind his recent struggles was a temporary loss of impulse control coupled with a detachment from his core values. Recognizing the need to reclaim agency over his daily life, he has already begun implementing practical countermeasures. These initial steps include removing digital distractions, such as uninstalling the Reddit and Hearthstone applications from his iPad, to minimize reactive consumption of time and energy.
As "The Year of Me" gets underway, the overarching objective is to bridge the gap between intention and action, bringing his daily behaviors back into strict alignment with his core values. While the immediate manifestation of this shift may look like shorter, more conversational blog posts rather than meticulously scheduled columns, J.D. remains confident that the internal reset will ultimately benefit both his personal life and the community he has built around Get Rich Slowly.
