Today is the first day in MONTHS that I woke up, meditated and journaled. Felt great! Creating an “Unroutine” has been on my mind ever since coming back to Taiwan from the US after Chinese New Year. Actually, it was on my mind even before that! The seed was first planted when I cam

e back to Taiwan from Japan for a visa run. The basic premise of an “unroutine” is a routine/system you use when the standard routine is disrupted because of expected (people visiting, travel, etc.) or unexpected (death in the family, illness, etc.) events.

Anyhow… the first thing I’d like to do a status update about is what this 108-day experiment was supposed to focus on!

Being Bipolar

I just need to run with this name for the project. Anyhow, I have 15 days to make an in-person meet up, an online support group and a basic guide for this experiment to be a success! This experiment has actually already been SUPER successful!

One thing I learned is that 108 days was actually WAY too long for the goal I set out to do. I could have gotten that done in far fewer days. Knowing I had so many days took away a sense of urgency when I got close to finishing it. Urgency I feel now that I only have 15 days to wrap it up! lol

Early on in the experiment, I had this ONE thing STEAMING ROLLING the goal. The focus brought on by it being ONE thing is immense!

Anyhow, I have a location and a time for doing the meetings. I have a lot of the work done already for creating the guide (there are a lot of guides out there that I can borrow from) and creating the online group is as simple as a few clicks on Facebook (for now) and then finding some other crazy people to join. 🙂 Time to get that done!

Being Bipolar as a Service/App

Something I’ve been struggling with internally is how to proceed with my startup. Initially, I was thinking about doing whatever I needed to do (make pretty slides, prove the concept, etc.) to raise money (crowdfund, seek investment, etc.) That clouded how I was moving forward a little bit. Then I ran into a post on Medium titled “Sink or swim: why bootstrapping will make you a better entrepreneur” by Aytekin Tank. Then I started reading other articles by him, and others, about bootstrapping and… that’s what I want to do. I mean… that’s essentially what I’ve been doing with all of my projects. The difference between then and now is the percentage of shenanigans… lol In the past I’ve always been primarily focused on “shenanigans”, learning and experimentation. Making something profitable/sustainable wasn’t ever really the focus.

For this service to be successful profitability MUST be in the equation. ESPECIALLY if I’m going to self-fund it.

Anyhow… I’m going to grow it slowly, stay extremely user-focused and make sure the numbers make sense.

My First Cooperative Space (aka I’m a landlord)

This apartment project is one of the main reasons I’ve been having trouble kick-starting my routine. When I got back to Taiwan after Chinese New Year first I had to get over jet lag (it always takes me a while when I come back). Then I had a lot of organizing to do at the apartment! This project also needs to be profitable/sustainable, but more than profitable I’m interested in making a “cooperative”. I’m prepared to learn things the hard way, but I’d like to space to be more, a lot more, than just people paying for a place to put some things and sleep while the grind away at work and travel from Monday to Friday.

I’d like the space/community to be a part of helping people transform their whole way of life! I’d like to see new projects and ideas coalesce there which turn into new ways to sustain themselves that don’t require the same daily grind most people in “modern” societies are trapped in. I always see in people so much potential that doesn’t get the opportunity to flourish within the frameworks that we’re programmed with. The crucial ingredient to that potential that I’m also seeing (and experiencing) is the opportunity to earn money in ways that weren’t possible 10 years ago. Like… instead of just paying “rent” I want it to (one day) be like a membership which comes with a community and other benefits (classes, education, services…) all designed to transition them into a new model/framework for living and give them the tools and skills to create a custom model/framework for living unique to them.

Like… one location will turn into two, two to four, four to eight, eight to sixteen… you get the idea… anyhow… it’s a long-term project. 🙂

I Need to Create!

Sitting here. Writing. Looking at just those two pictures made me realize how integral creation is to me! It’s like… right there with sleep, diet, and exercise! I’ve been feeling kind of “low energy” lately and… I think I’ve been missing creation! I actually just deleted all of my social media apps from my phone the other day in order to get my routines back in order (I fell into the habit end mindlessly scrolling Facebook… lol) I liked the daily photos! I’ll have to bring those back again eventually.

What I’ve been thinking about a lot recently is writing. Not just journaling, like… writing articles. What I’m realizing is that I have trouble conveying ideas to people sometimes because they don’t have the background to understand what it is I’m trying to tell them.

The first example that comes to mind, and I’m not going to try to get into it now of course, is an idea like “free will”. I firmly believe… know really (I’ll have to write that article… lol) that free will is an illusion. Like… there are things that I can’t talk to a person about if they don’t understand that part. So… instead of trying to explain things like that over and over again I’m just going to start writing articles to explain my position. A lot of times statements like “free will is an illusion” break down because of miscommunication more than a disagreement of ideas. For example, with free will, I’m not saying people shouldn’t be responsible for their action or that we shouldn’t believe in free will. I’m just pointing out simple things like the fact that you don’t get to choose your parents, culture, location, language, social frameworks, mental models, etc. means TRULY free will can’t exist without a believe in some kind of independent self/soul which chose to be born (although even in a situation like that… nevermind… lol)

Anyhow, I’m going to start dedicating time to collecting my ideas and presenting them in a form closer to an article than a long-form thought. I’m thinking I’ll share these kinds of posts on Medium instead of posting them to this blog.

Work

Oh! A work update. This is actually related to my new position on my startup. Since I’m no longer planning on trying to raise money to fund it, that means I’ll need to use my own money in the beginning. Since my startup isn’t making any of its own money and I myself don’t have enough money to fund it for very long, that means I need to work while I work on it.

What I’m doing right now is focusing on some marketing experiments with a friend who is a real estate investor. If these experiments prove to be successful, then I should be able to use that as the work that will give me the time and money to continue with my personal project. I’ll also be getting an education in real estate which will work well with wanting to turn sixteen properties into thirty-two, thirty-two into sixty-four, sixty-four into 108 (because that’s my number yo! 😉 lol)

Closing

I won’t be posting daily. The worse case scenario is that you’ll get a final update in 15 days on day 108, but I imagine there might be one or two before then. A part of me wants to change the 108-day format from this single experiment. Make the experiment cycle shorter but… I’m going to commit to it for the year. The problem might less be the number of days and more the plan from day one. The way I was planning on this working is that I would do 108 days with 12 or so days to reflect and plan the next 108-day project. That way I can do three a year and have time to reflect in between. Huh… I had three related things that I wanted to complete this time. I suppose something I could have done was put them in order and given them 36 days to complete each… anyhow, the whole point of is to run experiments and learn from them!

Chat again soon! 🙂