By Staff Reporters
For the creator of the prominent personal finance blog Get Rich Slowly, the upcoming year will look a little different. J.D. has announced a significant personal shift, declaring 2023 to be "The Year of Me" as he emerges from a period of intense grief following the death of his mother two months ago.
In a candid update shared with his readership, J.D. explained that the heavy fog of grief has finally begun to lift, allowing him to rediscover his motivation for productive pursuits. However, the experience—compounded by weeks of deep soul-searching alongside his partner, Kim—has made it abundantly clear that a foundational change in lifestyle and priorities is long overdue.
"For the foreseeable future, J.D. is job one. Let the age of selfishness commence!" he wrote, acknowledging the internal resistance he initially felt toward prioritizing his own well-being over external demands.
Returning to a Tradition of Theming
The concept of dedicating an extended period to a single focal point is not entirely new to J.D. More than a decade ago, he regularly established themes for his months and years—a habit that proved both personally enjoyable and highly fruitful. Whether he chose to channel his energy into fitness, writing, or dating, setting a deliberate overarching theme yielded consistently positive results.
Over time, however, that productive habit fell by the wayside. As life’s competing obligations took precedence, J.D. found himself sliding further down his own priority list.
"I’ve spent too long putting myself second. Or third. Or ninth," J.D. noted. "Starting yesterday, my aim is to put myself first for the next year (or more)."
While admitting that such an inward-looking focus feels uncomfortable and potentially counterintuitive, he maintains that taking care of his mental and physical health is a necessary prerequisite to being a better resource and partner to others. Crucially, he reassures his audience that this internal pivot will not diminish the quality of Get Rich Slowly, but rather supply fresh perspective and renewed energy for future writing projects.
Redefining the Publishing Approach
As part of this self-focused year, J.D. is deliberately breaking away from rigid publishing schedules and production metrics. Readers should not expect forced content; instead, updates will appear organically when he has something meaningful to share. This flexible mindset stems partly from recent exercises drawn from Bill Burnett and Dave Evans’ book Designing Your Life, which he has been actively working through.
This unforced cadence also means that long-awaited updates, including the ongoing redesign of the Get Rich Slowly website, will happen naturally rather than under the duress of arbitrary deadlines.
The author emphasized that while longer, heavily researched articles will remain part of the blog’s DNA, the immediate future will likely feature shorter, more conversational reflections born directly out of his ongoing personal development work.
Finding Inspiration in Philosophy and Literature
J.D.’s recent journey of self-reflection has been heavily influenced by literature consumed during a Thanksgiving road trip to California with Kim and her family. While driving, the couple listened to The Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga, an audiobook that explores the psychological principles of Alfred Adler.
Though initially skeptical of the book’s Socratic dialogue format, J.D. found profound value in its core messages and has plans to revisit the material in Kindle format to extract and analyze key passages. He has even floated the possibility of publishing a comprehensive review or summary of the book on Get Rich Slowly at a later date.
The themes of personal agency and deliberate living were further underscored by a highlighted passage from Stephen R. Covey’s classic work, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, which resurfaced via his Readwise app: "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."
Recognizing that he had inadvertently allowed external impulses to overshadow his core values, J.D. has already begun taking concrete steps toward behavioral alignment. These measures include purging digital distractions, such as uninstalling the game Hearthstone and the Reddit app from his iPad, to clear space for more intentional living.
Ultimately, "The Year of Me" represents an internal recalibration rather than a withdrawal from the public eye. While the exact trajectory of his output over the coming months remains fluid, J.D. is moving forward with a renewed commitment to personal health, authentic writing, and values-driven decision-making.
