The spring equinox has just passed for us Northern Hemispherians, an event that I celebrate as the start of a new year. It has always struck me as odd that we would ring in a new year in the heart of winter, to me not a period of celebration but rather one of contemplation and slowly letting new insights and plans emerge.

Needless to say I don’t do New Year’s resolutions.

Come spring the world is brighter again, and I don’t know about you but that tends to give me the boost in energy I need to really get started. So what better moment to launch a new endeavor than when the trees are showering us with petals, nature’s all organic confetti? 🌺

This new website is not finished though, it’s in an in-between stage; not yet what my vague winter plans have in mind but good enough to serve a new purpose while I figure out the real itinerary.

And what is this new purpose? Ah I’m glad you asked! The winter has given me time to rethink – not only my website – but my business as a whole and I’ve realized that I want to course correct based on these three ideas:

1. Learning is everything
   I love learning, and not just for my job. Over the years I found I’ve been bringing together ideas from a wider spectrum of interests, be it in tech, art, history, psychology, and various other domains. I’m aching to figure out what to do with all of it, and – of course – to learn even more.
2. Finding your people is key
   There’s a real joy being with people who understand you, and working on projects where your expertise is welcomed. Last year I had the privilege to work with clients that are in tune with my vibe and I want to make finding the right people my focus from here on out.
3. There are other things to make and do
   With the knowledge I have, and who I want to help in mind, I want to build things that are useful to others and fun & challenging for me to make. And those things don’t need to be websites.

About plans and planning

I came across the saying “plans are useless but planning is everything ¹ ” a while back and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. Not because I ascribe much meaning to catchy one-liners but it made me consider my own ability for future planning.

Planning is understanding what the goal or desired outcome is, while allowing the plan itself – the steps you’ll follow – to change when reality inevitably crashes your party. It’s the ability to create new plans whenever the need arises while staying focused on where you want to go.

The truth is that I’m fairly good at plans but pretty much rubbish at planning, meaning: I’m good at keeping my agenda orderly – with occasional slip ups – but I rarely have a good idea of where I’m going in the long run. I can make a plan to fit in new projects, how to execute them start-to-finish, and I know how to juggle several tasks throughout the week, but I have no answer for you if you’d ask me where I want to be in 5 years.

This isn’t great when you’re the one running a business.

The three ideas I outlined are my first attempt at planning long term, instead of just having short term plans. They’re a compass if you will, to help determine where to go next. I have some bigger goals that I want to tackle but I don’t want to set them in stone just yet. Small steps, small steps. So let’s start with a goal that feels like a natural starting point.

First up is investing in learning how to write regularly and with greater ease. Over the years I’ve picked up so much from other people’s writing that it only seems right to follow suit and pay it forward. Writing is also one of the best ways to learn something on a deeper level as it forces you to structure your thoughts, which is a very interesting challenge for someone like me who’s thoughts run a mile a minute at any given moment of the day.

It’s also not making a website, which is a nice change of pace… even though I did just spend 3 weeks (outside of working hours) to make this website to have somewhere to put my writing.

At least I knew how to plan for it.