Man, 2017. That was a wild ride, a pivotal year for me, really. I remember staring at the calendar, feeling this weird mix of dread and determination. I was stuck, you know? Just grinding away, day in and day out, feeling like I was just treading water, not really going anywhere with my career, with my life even. It wasn’t about being broke, but it sure as hell wasn’t about thriving either. More like surviving. And I was tired of just surviving.
I distinctly recall one morning, sipping some lukewarm coffee, just feeling this surge of “enough is enough.” I didn’t want another year to just drift by. I grabbed a pen and a crumpled old notebook I found lurking on my desk, and just started scribbling. My goal wasn’t even super clear at first. It was more like, “How do I stop feeling like this?”
I started by just dumping everything out there. What made me miserable about my current setup? What did I actually dream of doing, even if it sounded completely off-the-wall? I filled pages with half-baked ideas, complaints, wishes. It wasn’t pretty, but it was a start. I figured, if I wanted any kind of “prosperity,” I first had to figure out what that even meant for me. Was it more money? More time? Doing something I actually enjoyed? Turned out, it was a mix of all of it.
Then came the hard part: trying to make sense of the mess. I went back through those notes, circling things, underlining others. I tried to group similar thoughts. I pulled out themes. What kept coming up was this idea of having more control, working on things that felt meaningful, and honestly, just being able to breathe a little easier financially. That’s when the “plan for prosperity” really started to click in my head. It wasn’t some magic bullet, just a conscious decision to get my act together.
Getting Down to Business: The Nitty-Gritty Steps
First thing I did was cut the fat. I looked at my spending. Man, that was an eye-opener. Little things here and there, subscriptions I barely used, impulse buys. I started tracking every single penny. It was tedious as hell, but it showed me exactly where my money was vanishing. I slashed what I could, redirected some of it to a “future me” savings account – even if it was just twenty bucks a week, it felt like I was actually doing something.
Next, I tackled my skills. I felt like I was falling behind. So, I picked one thing, just one, that I thought could boost my value or open up a new path. For me, that was delving deeper into content creation and figuring out how to market myself better online. I didn’t sign up for some fancy course; I just dove into free tutorials on YouTube, read tons of blog posts, and started experimenting. I started writing more, even if nobody was reading it. I treated my blog less like a diary and more like a portfolio.
- I committed to publishing at least two decent posts a week, no excuses.
- I spent an hour every evening, after my regular job, just learning about SEO or social media tactics.
- I reached out to a couple of people I admired in my niche, just for advice. Most ignored me, but a few actually responded, and those conversations were pure gold.
There were so many days I just wanted to quit. Moments when I felt like an absolute idiot, producing stuff no one saw, or trying to learn something that just wouldn’t stick. I remember one time, I spent an entire weekend trying to figure out some advanced analytics tool, and by Sunday night, I was practically pulling my hair out, feeling like I’d wasted precious time for nothing. But I told myself, “Just show up tomorrow.” That became my mantra.
The Shift: Seeing Small Wins
Slowly, things started to shift. Not overnight, not with a bang, but with these tiny, almost imperceptible nudges. My blog posts started getting a few more views. Comments trickled in. I landed a small freelance gig, just a couple hundred bucks, but it felt like I’d struck gold because it was my work, outside of the grind. That gave me a massive boost. It showed me my efforts weren’t completely wasted.
By late 2017, I wasn’t rich, not by a long shot. But I felt a huge difference. I had more confidence. I had a clear direction. I had saved up a decent chunk of change, enough to give me a little breathing room. The biggest change, though, was in my mindset. I wasn’t just reacting to life anymore; I was actively shaping it. I was planning, building, and slowly but surely, that sense of prosperity started to settle in. It wasn’t just about money; it was about feeling empowered, like I actually had a handle on my own damn future for the first time in a long while.
It was a year where I stopped wishing and started doing. And man, that made all the difference.
