Public Commitment 2023 – Update 3

Theme: Expansion

This year I’m focusing on expanding myself and my impact on the world in various domains. It follows from a year where a lot of groundwork was done (e.g. finishing v1 of Blossom’s database). In 2023, it’s time to build on that and expand outward.

The expansion can take many forms, from moving to a bigger house, to offering more things with Blossom. It also means improving what I’ve done in terms of fitness and ‘recovering’ from the kidney donation (by ‘expanding’ to higher numbers on the big lifts).

Another way of putting the theme, with a slightly different meaning, is ‘Big or Bust’. It’s a bit more aggressive but also captures the pruning side of the equation. Expanding means building on what is working, but it could also mean letting go of non-productive parts to make the expansion possible.

This is the third (big/quarterly) update to the goals of 2023.

House

Objective (O): Live in the dream house

KR9: Continue with upgrading house & garden (e.g. sports cabin, chicken coop, house rooms)

V: Get financial information from the accountant by <5 Feb

V: Get ‘inkomensverklaring’ info and/or check for financing from ABN AMRO

V: After the above, look seriously on Funda and refine the criteria once more

V: Visit houses & make offer (pending mortgage, bought a house)

V: Move (in June)

V: Sell old house (everything is lined up for sale in two weeks)

V: Buy a car

V: Continue with upgrading garden (e.g. sports cabin & chickens)

The car is here, a family car (Ford Focus). The thing that remains to be done is more upgrades to the house. For this, I’m still working on a smaller coup for the chickens (that will come in a few weeks) but the large coup and house are done.

For the house, there are a few projects that will each take half a day, such as improving the cabins where we keep food, the entrance at the front door, etc. Bigger projects here include the redesign of parts of the garden so that it looks better. For the cabin, I will also have to do the painting of the walls and install the fitness gear.

Finances

O: Make 10k p/m (currently between 3-6k p/m)

KR1: Keep track of finances p/w (ongoing, need to get back on track)

KR2: Spend <50% of income on normal living expenses (not tracked that precisely yet)

KR3: Track and start improving the income of Blossom (started tracking & more promotion membership)

Here no good updates yet. I have started a new Google Sheet to better track the input and output of the time I’m spending (and the financial outcome of this). I can do much better here, and tracking is the first step.

I have been doing some consultancy work that pays well, but also understand that I can do better in building up the long-term future of Blossom and FLO coaching. Although on the last, we have started coaching actively again and will start charging people after the clients I’m now guiding.

Flotte

O: Strengthen the relationship

KR1: Have 1+ deep conversation per week that doesn’t side-step challenging parts

KR2: Follow our habits such as Tuesday date night, meditate evenings (3+ p/w), check-in monthly

No big updates. We have decided that we can use Wednesday during lunch to have a dedicated moment to discuss our goals and how we work together. We also found out that we’re spending too much time in the weekend doing things (e.g. visiting friends) which leaves not enough time for each other. So we’re cutting back on that a bit so we have enough time together.

Relationships

O: Maintain a diverse set of relationships, and meet (expand) new friends in my interest areas

KR1: Call friends when walking Max 3+ p/w (going, 6/10)

V: Meet 2+ new people in Q1 outside work (>100min)

V: Meet 2+ new people in Q2 outside work (>100min)

Still going well. Can improve on the time I’m spending calling friends.

FW.com

O: Have a lively (>1 post p/m) personal website

KR2: Post updates on what I’ve written on social media

KR3: Write one large (>1000w) post p/m (paused for now)

KR4: Write about fitness & diet in Mar (to be done later)

KR5: Post major updates (~1 p/m) in personal newsletter

V: Write a post about kidney donation in Jan

V: Finish update of design site & personal brand

As mentioned before, the blogs on this site are currently on pause.

Blossom

O: Expand the impact of psychedelics as medicine

KR2: Have ~2 calls with new people p/w (ongoing, 10/10)

KR3: Launch own (60-75min) course in Q1 (will be Q4 now)

KR4: Reach >$1000 p/m income from non-consultancy work

KR5: Reach >$3000 p/m income from non-consultancy work

KR6: Work through an online course (e.g. customer interviews)

KR7: Relaunch the reports as membership perks (planned/working on this)

KR8: Add all past summaries for members

KR9: Provide who-is-who directory

V: (re)Launch PsychedelicsCourses <15 Jan

No big updates here. I have added much more to PsychedelicsCourses so that is good, but I’m not getting to $1k per month with the site yet and I plan to spend more time on promotion this quarter so that people know about the site and can hopefully support it.

Queal

O: Maingain with a focus on customer satisfaction

KR1: Launch QQ offering each quarter (3x done)

KR4: Refocus on customer acquisition & retention (new project in Q3)

V: Relaunch go bars (<30 Apr, delayed)

X: Post blogs 3x p/w

No big updates here. Also no big plans yet besides keeping the QQ offering running successfully.

Flo Coaching

O: Help 20+ people experience psychedelics to expand their minds (4 planned)

KR3: Get 8 paying clients for FLO Coaching (Floris) and 4 for Lotte

V: Relaunch Flo Coaching in Q3, (V: but after relaunching PC)

V: Remake customer flow, including coaching talks

V: Make how-to guidebook for potential clients (lead magnet)

X: Retest workflow with 2+ acquaintances in Q2

We have the perfect space at home to do psychedelic-assisted coaching and we’ve started doing this again. It’s been a good launch, with me having 6 people that are following some form of coaching (2 only prep/integration).

Now it’s time to focus on getting paying clients through different avenues. I plan to do this by doing 1-on-1 outreach, social media posts, and (over time) building out the blogs/resources on the site to attract customers.

It’s still early days, but the coaching so far is going well and I’m looking forward to expanding this section of my work.

Sports

O: Expand my all-round fitness to exceed that of 2022

KR1: Do sports 6x p/w (3x cardio & 3x gym), after kidney recovery (now at 4-5)

KR2: Lift more than 440kg on big 3 (squat, bench, deadlift)

KR3 (uncertain): Incorporate stretching goals later in the year

Also no big updates here, besides saying that I’m not that intense in doing sports. I have started tracking protein intake (and total calories intake), so I know with more certainty that I’m getting enough. With the sports cabin almost finished, I think it will be easier to get in a quick sports session.

Then in November/December I plan to start lifting heavy again and to get higher totals than I probably am getting right now. I might not get beyond my scores from last year in December, but plan to continue that season into January.

Health

O: Be in the best shape ever

KR1: Do 3 experiments (1x in Q2) with standard meals (2 meals x 5-7 days)

KR2: Track 3+ health metrics (e.g. free test)

KR3: Walk >10k steps p/d

Going well overall, but still no big changes to report.

Mindfulness

O: Improve the state of my mind, and expand it

KR1: Meditate >3650 minutes (60 hours; now a bit lower in Q2)

KR2: Investigate & find 1+ meditative path to explore

KR3: Take psychedelics for exploration 4+ times (2/4), including 1 (0/1) new compound

No updates here, and something I can definitely improve on.

Notes

A lot of moving parts and uncertainty on the outcomes of what will work career-wise. I am having fun doing everything so that is good. But it also means less time for sports and relaxing (as I’m working relatively much). And that is ok. This is a seasons, and there will be other seasons where I’m going less hard with work.

I do foresee that health, sports, mindfulness will get more attention in the coming months than I’ve given it previously. But know that it’s not the nr 1 priority.

I have written a longer reflection to myself earlier, so I’m going to keep this blog as is and get to work.