The Objectives Page

Obviously, if I’m working toward creating a particular life for myself, that requires having clear objectives. This page is to document these objectives and give some explanation on them, where necessary. It’ll be updated as things evolve. Hit the buttons below to jump to a particular section, or just scroll to your heart’s content.

Page last updated 2021-04-26 Monday

Current
Coming Up
Longer Term
Someday
Completed

Current Objectives

What I’m working on now.

  • Lose weight: get down to around 70kg

    Like many people, I gained some weight during the first year of the pandemic. My highest weight was about 79kg, is currently about 76kg (as of late April, 2021), and my ideal weight is 68-70kg. Aiming to get back to that range by 2021-06-30

  • Achieve a functional level of minimalism that works well for me

    In many ways, my life is overly full. It’s all clogged up and it’s a big problem for me. I’m unlikely to become an extreme minimalist and that’s not the goal. The goal is to downsize, to cut away excess until my life is lean and efficient and far more functional.

  • Vastly improve my financial literacy and personal finance skills

    I have neglected this area of my life for entirely too long. This objective is a bit slippery, because it’s not quantifiable, so I haven’t been able to figure out a good way to measure completion yet, but it’s important enough to list here.

  • Double my income or better

    Not exactly a simple feat, but also not as hard as you might think, given how little English teachers make to begin with. Between better work, side hustles, etc. my first goal is to go from making about ¥3,000,000/year to at least ¥6,000,000/year.

  • Obliterate my debt

    Pay off my consumer debt as quickly as I can. Pretty straightforward, and a very important step towards long-term financial independence.

Coming Up: Objectives in the Pipeline

These are the things that are not currently a main focus, but will be coming up next as current objectives are completed. These are objectives that I either haven’t started working on at all or  I’ve begun working on, but only in a very small/background kind of way. Mostly things I want to begin working on within the next year.

  • Become a naturalized Japanese citizen

    By the autumn of 2021, I will begin the process of becoming a naturalized Japanese citizen. I have various reasons for this, and I will be writing about this topic extensively. Later on, I’ll add a link here to all posts in that category.

  • Get married/have a wedding

    It isn’t important to everyone, but it’s important to us. Eventually, we’ll get married and have a traditional Japanese-style ceremony.

  • Get out of working in English schools (permanently)

    I’ve been mostly working as an English teacher since 2009, and it’s been good in a lot of ways, but it’s also time to move on.

  • Make the majority of my income from creative work

    Writing, photography, publishing, etc. I’m happiest when I’m making things, and it’s what I’m best at. It would be foolish not to pursue this.

Longer-Term Objectives

Objectives for the next 3-5 years. Definite plans, but not yet things I’m working on or about to start.

  • Buy and renovate a house

    Japan has a huge number of empty houses, many of them abandoned. In many areas, they can be had very, very inexpensively. We will buy one and renovate it ourselves, including a basic seismic retrofit, adding insulation and double-glazed windows, etc.

Objectives for Someday

Objectives I am serious about, but that are far off or require conditions/resources/etc that I don’t yet have access to.

  • Establish an International Creative Community

    For many years now, I’ve been developing a concept for an international creative community and art incubator. I will also write about this topic extensively (link forthcoming).

  • Have children

    We want kids. Not sure when that’ll happen, but it’s important to us, and one reason I want to overhaul my life in a variety of ways is to get myself into a better position for supporting a family, being a good father, etc.

Completed/Achieved Objectives

Objectives in the can! When I’ve achieved one of my objectives, it gets moved here. 

  • A Placeholder

    Because this widget won’t let me have nothing in it.

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