After a challenging period marked by personal loss and profound soul-searching, J.D., the founder of the personal finance community Get Rich Slowly, has announced a major shift in focus for the upcoming year. In a personal update shared with readers, J.D. revealed that after spending the past two months recovering from the death of his mother, the lingering emotional fog has finally lifted, inspiring a renewed motivation to pursue both personal well-being and productive endeavors.
For J.D. and his partner, Kim, the realization has become clear: above all else, 2023 must be designated as "the year of me."
The decision marks a conscious departure from years of putting his own needs on the back burner. For the foreseeable future, making his physical and mental health the top priority is the primary objective, a shift that J.D. admits feels unusual and momentarily uncomfortable, yet entirely necessary.
2023 — The Year of Me
The concept of thematic periods is not entirely new to J.D.’s life. More than a decade ago, he established a habit of assigning themes to specific years and months, a practice he recalls as both fun and remarkably fruitful. Whether he dedicated a span of time to fitness, writing, or dating, focusing his energy on a singular objective consistently yielded positive results. However, despite its early success, the habit eventually fell by the wayside as other responsibilities took precedence.
Reflecting on the years that followed, J.D. noted that he spent far too much time placing himself second, third, or even ninth in his own life. Starting recently, his aim is to invert that hierarchy and put himself first for the next year or longer.
While acknowledging that prioritizing his own well-being feels counterintuitive—and even carries a fleeting sense of selfishness—J.D. emphasized that ignoring his own needs for too long has only led to unhelpful excuses and compromised health. By making himself job number one, he believes he will ultimately become a better person for those around him, including his readers, family, and friends.
For the audience of Get Rich Slowly, J.D. suspects the day-to-day experience will remain largely unchanged. The transformation is primarily internal, driven by a deliberate decision to grant himself permission to put his own requirements ahead of external demands. While this shift is expected to generate fresh insights and fodder for future articles—and finally bring about the completion of the long-awaited site redesign—it also comes with a change in production philosophy.
Deliberately stepping away from rigid publishing schedules, J.D. intends to write only when inspired rather than forcing content creation. The recent update itself stemmed from a spontaneous moment of free time following a Designing Your Life exercise, capturing the organic approach he plans to maintain moving forward.
The Courage to Be Disliked
The thematic pivot toward self-care and mental alignment was further 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 worldview of Alfred Adler and might fittingly be subtitled The Courage to Be Happy, offered a wealth of perspective that resonated deeply with J.D. during his period of reflection.
Although the audiobook format made it difficult to highlight specific passages on the fly, the impact of the philosophical dialogues left a lasting impression. J.D. noted that many of the core statements initially required the context provided by the authors to make complete sense, but the underlying wisdom struck a chord.
Planning to revisit the text in a digital Kindle format to skim for key takeaways, J.D. indicated that the Socratic dialogue structure of the book may eventually inspire a full review or summary published directly on Get Rich Slowly.
A Values-Driven Life
To anchor his renewed personal direction, J.D. highlighted a guiding principle that recently surfaced in his personal Readwise highlights from Stephen R. Covey’s foundational work, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
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."
For J.D., recognizing this dynamic illuminated why he had reached a point requiring a dedicated year of personal focus: he had somehow lost control over his impulses while drifting away from his core values. To counter this, he has already taken concrete steps to curb reactionary habits, such as uninstalling distracting applications like Reddit and Hearthstone from his iPad, paving the way to actively reintegrate his core values into daily life.
While future updates on the site may take the form of shorter, more conversational reflections rather than long-form guides, the commitment to the readership remains steady. Embracing shorter, modular posts allows J.D. to navigate his Year of Me without abandoning his audience, ensuring that the personal evolution taking place behind the screen translates into authentic and meaningful connection.
