5 minutes to slow down, laugh, and share something in common. Every Thursday.

Sharing My Goals Publicly

We’ve just surpassed 1,000 subscribers!

I am grateful to all of you for joining me on this journey.

In honor of this milestone, here are 1,000 things I am grateful for.

While writing that would be rewarding for me—and comically exhausting for you to read—I’m taking this in a different direction.

This milestone has prompted me to engage my planning brain and revisit my mission, vision, and goals.

I’m sharing these here because 1) I value trust, which transparency promotes, and 2) writing out what’s important to me helps me understand what’s important to me.

My Mission

My mission at the start (0 subscribers): My mission is to drive positive change for individuals by making spirituality accessible.

My Mission now (1,000 Subscribers):My mission is to drive positive change for individuals by sharing what helps me in a way that people can make their own, and to have this work support my livelihood.

My mission has evolved to be more unique to me and what works for me, and at the same time be unique to those who invest time in my content & offerings and what works for them.

Additionally, I have grown to respect the flow of money as 1) a form of reciprocity for what I provide and 2) essential for the sustainable pursuit of my mission.

My Vision

My vision at the start (0 subscribers): I want to provide easily-accessible opportunities for people to 1) find out about and 2) explore high-quality practices, tools, resources, and products which I personally use (or have used). Access to these resources will be direct and simple so that readers can sample these offerings and decide if they want to explore a resource more fully. I want to make my content personalized, applicable, and communal.

My Vision now (1,000 Subscribers): I create efficient, impactfulspaces for people to experience joy, stillness, and self-wisdom together. I do this through my newsletter and my Slow The Fuck Down (STFD) community. The revenue from these activities will pay for their own costs by June 2025, and for my living costs by June 2026, allowing me to be fully sustained in this work.

My vision has evolved to focus less on the sharing of resources—although I still do that frequently in STFD gatherings—to focus more on creating two spaces for people to share in specific resources: My newsletter (for slowing down, laughs, and connection), and my STFD community (for the same…in person).

In 2024, I proved to myself (and the universe, one and the same) that my work could generate revenue. Some from sponsorships of my free newsletter (thank you!), some from premium newsletter subscriptions (thank you!!), and some from memberships in the STFD community (thank you!!!).

Although I actually ‘lose’ a bit of money on individual attendees at STFD experiences, I trust that most will become members after experiencing our events firsthand, and offset this cost.

Which brings me to my goals…

My Goals

Note: ‘TMH’ stands for Too Many Hats. It’s how I refer to all my projects (Doug’s Newsletter & Slow The Fuck Down).

In 2024, I reached my goals (set in 2023) of 1,000 subscribers, 1+ community members (we have 4!), getting engaged, one pleasurable trip, and much more!

I did not reach my revenue goal of being fully self-sustained from the newsletter and STFD…not only did I not reach it, I now envision it taking two more years from today! (Thank you to Jas and their 7-year business cycle for easing my anxiety.)

I attribute this to experience—I didn’t know what achieving this goal would take until I got started.

I may still not know. I certainly have a much better understanding of it.

🥳🎉 So here’s to 1,000 subscribers! 🎉🥳

I’m excited to hit future milestones in the coming years and find fun ways to celebrate them with you all. (Airplane billboards? Sponsor a minor league baseball team?? If you have ideas, let me know.)

If you’re seeking guidance to define your mission, vision, and goals, I invite you to join me and Slow The Fuck Down.

If the STFD price tag is too high, check out the giveaway (below the poll in this newsletter) for an opportunity to attend our next experience at no cost.

😄 Funny Business

5 minutes—well worth it IMO.

📊 Community Poll

Results for last week’s question: When waiting for your Uber, do you look at the first few or last few letters of the license plate to match your car?

I assume only 1 person replied “I don’t look at the plate” because everyone else that does that has mysteriously disappeared.

This is a surprisingly healthy split! I thought most people would be “Last Few,” even though I myself am a “First Few” guy.

On to this week’s question…The first one is for Google Maps users, the second is for Yelp users. Do both if you use both!

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First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do. - Epictetus