Around early August of this year, I felt the need to do some things. I looked at the calendar and randomly picked Oct 3rd as the deadline. Sir Abe correctly guessed that I work best with constraints so that's what I set out to do. I had to push the date by 7 days to Oct 10th to finish up. As promised, these are the things I have been working on. I have added samples, links and evidence of some of the work that I didn't share before.
1. Health:
My life was turned upside down due to health issues. I was told I had new additional chronic conditions and the cause was everything from the vaccine, a virus and plain old auto-immune.
To say I made a dramatic change in my diet and focus on health is an understatement. It was a lot of hard work, patience, diet experimentation and a whole lot of positive thinking.
In a few bullets:
a) Dramatic improvement. Blood work indicates 85% of issues are resolved.
b) As of a week ago, I was told that I was in remission from the auto-immune diagnosis. The doctors were so puzzled by the improvement that they tested my blood repeatedly to make sure it wasn't a misdiagnosis in the first place. Of all the things I have done this year, I am most proud of this accomplishment.
c) I started to walk and exercise a lot more. My endurance and strength have increased sharply as a result.
d) I have lost a total of 21 pounds(~10Kg) in the same timeframe(6-8 weeks) and I am just 5 pounds shy of my set goal. I will share how I did it in a future post.
2. Finance:
As I thought about the stress of having enough money, my #1 concern is having enough to buy insulin and health insurance. When I think of the paralysis of making a change, it revolved around this singular fear.
I decided to work on a risk free/zero initial investment sources of recurring income... so I can set that aside and focus on things I want to be doing.
In a few bullets:
a. Print on demand t-shirts - Over the last 2 months, I have set up about 60+ designs for print on demand t-shirt ideas on 3 platforms. I was banned from one of them but actively creating on the remaining two. I didn't freelance any of it. I found that I loved the design process. I got better with design with time and now consider myself a Canva expert.
Sample of t-shirt designs I made are at this LINK.
Amazon Merch sample design LINK.
b. Print on demand PDFs - I have PDFs and excel templates of a journal that I created. I have made those available for sale on etsy by page using the same PDF of the physical book. The journal and a few related items are simple, initial effort based tasks. Once I start using social media to advertise, I hope to get a small recurring income to cover the basics.
c. Fashion design - I have always wanted to do fashion design and I kept pushing it off. I am proud to say that I was able to execute on that during this 2 month experiment. Created a total of 43 designs of Ethiopian/African traditional clothing with a modern twist. I am cataloging them by ethnicity and occasion. I will be doing more research on this when I travel back home in early 2022. Also want to discuss with local designers and other Africans that manufacture locally. I have reached out to some companies that I working with during COVID-19 to created face masks locally. I am both excited about the design aspect of this venture and also the potential social impact.
A couple of my designs are at this LINK
d. Product idea - I am working on 2 concepts using data and AI. I wrote python code for one of the idea. For the second one, I created a visual dashboard using google spreadsheet as the data source. I decided to have a team rather than work on it by myself. I am considering creating a crowdfunding campaign to launch the product. I took a masterclass on leadership for teams and talked to 5 individuals to join my team. Though I wanted to rush this specific venture, a frank discussion with my family has convinced me to take it easy. It may not be rushed or be fancy but I will work on it like I am creating the product for myself. This has also been a fun adventure to think about and start in the last 2 months. I have the perfect .AI domain for this venture. I will be setting up a landing page to get email sign-ups.
e. Investments - A lot of people may not consider crypto and NFTs as investment. But I am getting my confidence back in this crypto business and I put a little money aside for this experiment. I am getting increasingly curious about NFTs. I have heard a few business people talk about it as an asset and I intend to look deeper into it.
3. The Intangibles:
I can't articulate just how much my health issues this year impacted how I see things. I was irritated at myself for the silly things I allowed to get to me. I decided that I want to make a deliberate effort about who I spent time with. That the people I love and care about get the bulk of my energy and time. I started to get reacquainted with my parents... interviewing them from time to time. Each night, I asked myself if I made time to create moments with my loved ones, and more times than not, I was able to.
I feel like all my relationships have gone up a notch. And I feel happy.
The one question I asked myself repeatedly when I was in the ER, was what my legacy was. I lived a busy life but I didn't feel like I was doing the things I cared about the most. I feel the need to to something impactful... to leave something behind. That is what pushed me to step up my writing.
From all the things I have tried, writing is what I find myself gravitating towards. Thanks to 200WaD (Baz), LifeLog (Jason) and Adaiga (Sir Abe) and the numerous members of the community that are constantly cheering me on and pushing me to do more. Giving me the excitement to be vulnerable and share big parts of my life in posts like these.
I was wondering how I should use writing towards building a legacy. I wanted to start writing about the topics I care about the most. (Health and immigration/identity). When Brandon told me about the Medium Writing Challenge, it felt like the Universe was nudging me to keep writing. The competition arrived exactly at the right time and got me to work hard. My goal was to improve my skills and to use any exposure to level up. Signing up to masterclass.com and another writing class over the summer has helped tremendously.
Medium hasn't released the results of the competition. Last I checked, it was supposed to be shared on Oct 12th. Regardless of the outcome, I loved the experience and the feedback I got.
Apologies for the loooooong post.
It has been an intense experiment of 2 months.
It has been a crazy year and half since COVID.
I needed to prove to myself that I can come out of this a better individual.
Thank you for giving me an opportunity to share and keeping me accountable.
1. Health:
My life was turned upside down due to health issues. I was told I had new additional chronic conditions and the cause was everything from the vaccine, a virus and plain old auto-immune.
To say I made a dramatic change in my diet and focus on health is an understatement. It was a lot of hard work, patience, diet experimentation and a whole lot of positive thinking.
In a few bullets:
a) Dramatic improvement. Blood work indicates 85% of issues are resolved.
b) As of a week ago, I was told that I was in remission from the auto-immune diagnosis. The doctors were so puzzled by the improvement that they tested my blood repeatedly to make sure it wasn't a misdiagnosis in the first place. Of all the things I have done this year, I am most proud of this accomplishment.
c) I started to walk and exercise a lot more. My endurance and strength have increased sharply as a result.
d) I have lost a total of 21 pounds(~10Kg) in the same timeframe(6-8 weeks) and I am just 5 pounds shy of my set goal. I will share how I did it in a future post.
2. Finance:
As I thought about the stress of having enough money, my #1 concern is having enough to buy insulin and health insurance. When I think of the paralysis of making a change, it revolved around this singular fear.
I decided to work on a risk free/zero initial investment sources of recurring income... so I can set that aside and focus on things I want to be doing.
In a few bullets:
a. Print on demand t-shirts - Over the last 2 months, I have set up about 60+ designs for print on demand t-shirt ideas on 3 platforms. I was banned from one of them but actively creating on the remaining two. I didn't freelance any of it. I found that I loved the design process. I got better with design with time and now consider myself a Canva expert.
Sample of t-shirt designs I made are at this LINK.
Amazon Merch sample design LINK.
b. Print on demand PDFs - I have PDFs and excel templates of a journal that I created. I have made those available for sale on etsy by page using the same PDF of the physical book. The journal and a few related items are simple, initial effort based tasks. Once I start using social media to advertise, I hope to get a small recurring income to cover the basics.
c. Fashion design - I have always wanted to do fashion design and I kept pushing it off. I am proud to say that I was able to execute on that during this 2 month experiment. Created a total of 43 designs of Ethiopian/African traditional clothing with a modern twist. I am cataloging them by ethnicity and occasion. I will be doing more research on this when I travel back home in early 2022. Also want to discuss with local designers and other Africans that manufacture locally. I have reached out to some companies that I working with during COVID-19 to created face masks locally. I am both excited about the design aspect of this venture and also the potential social impact.
A couple of my designs are at this LINK
d. Product idea - I am working on 2 concepts using data and AI. I wrote python code for one of the idea. For the second one, I created a visual dashboard using google spreadsheet as the data source. I decided to have a team rather than work on it by myself. I am considering creating a crowdfunding campaign to launch the product. I took a masterclass on leadership for teams and talked to 5 individuals to join my team. Though I wanted to rush this specific venture, a frank discussion with my family has convinced me to take it easy. It may not be rushed or be fancy but I will work on it like I am creating the product for myself. This has also been a fun adventure to think about and start in the last 2 months. I have the perfect .AI domain for this venture. I will be setting up a landing page to get email sign-ups.
e. Investments - A lot of people may not consider crypto and NFTs as investment. But I am getting my confidence back in this crypto business and I put a little money aside for this experiment. I am getting increasingly curious about NFTs. I have heard a few business people talk about it as an asset and I intend to look deeper into it.
3. The Intangibles:
I can't articulate just how much my health issues this year impacted how I see things. I was irritated at myself for the silly things I allowed to get to me. I decided that I want to make a deliberate effort about who I spent time with. That the people I love and care about get the bulk of my energy and time. I started to get reacquainted with my parents... interviewing them from time to time. Each night, I asked myself if I made time to create moments with my loved ones, and more times than not, I was able to.
I feel like all my relationships have gone up a notch. And I feel happy.
The one question I asked myself repeatedly when I was in the ER, was what my legacy was. I lived a busy life but I didn't feel like I was doing the things I cared about the most. I feel the need to to something impactful... to leave something behind. That is what pushed me to step up my writing.
From all the things I have tried, writing is what I find myself gravitating towards. Thanks to 200WaD (Baz), LifeLog (Jason) and Adaiga (Sir Abe) and the numerous members of the community that are constantly cheering me on and pushing me to do more. Giving me the excitement to be vulnerable and share big parts of my life in posts like these.
I was wondering how I should use writing towards building a legacy. I wanted to start writing about the topics I care about the most. (Health and immigration/identity). When Brandon told me about the Medium Writing Challenge, it felt like the Universe was nudging me to keep writing. The competition arrived exactly at the right time and got me to work hard. My goal was to improve my skills and to use any exposure to level up. Signing up to masterclass.com and another writing class over the summer has helped tremendously.
Medium hasn't released the results of the competition. Last I checked, it was supposed to be shared on Oct 12th. Regardless of the outcome, I loved the experience and the feedback I got.
Apologies for the loooooong post.
It has been an intense experiment of 2 months.
It has been a crazy year and half since COVID.
I needed to prove to myself that I can come out of this a better individual.
Thank you for giving me an opportunity to share and keeping me accountable.
I can't tell the number of times I've gone thru this.
What you've accomplished with your health is nothing short of remarkable, I'm so happy for you.
The number of stuff you got done in two months is just magical.
Reading this alone just brings me joy. Pure joy.
Oct 10 was worth the Hype.
Congratulations. We shall be unpacking the contents of this post in days to come.
Does your product idea with the google spreadsheet have something to do with the check-marks per day sheet? if so I want to be one of the first users !
I appreciate it.
Yes Sir Abe, the product idea is exactly that. You are already user ID #1! It is also the tool that helped me focus on the important things.
It pushes me to get my stuff together. Thank you!