Setting my 2023 Goals, Gaining Perspective, Dream Dust, Bali & Sunburn - Doc the Journey Ep 31

Yo. Mixing it up yet again with a very strange position on the camera. You probably can't even fucking see me, to be honest. Which might be a good thing. I'm in Bali. We've been here for six days roughly now. This is document the journey, episode 31, I think. I always forget, then I forget to check. Try and keep it fairly brief. I have barley belly right now. I've had it all day. Go and Google that. It's not nice. I feel very vulnerable. I meant to be out dinner right now. I haven't gone. I'm gonna go afterwards. I just didn't want to eat because I don't want to risk making it worse. Also incredibly sunburnt, which is probably why I'm about 20 meters away right now, across the pool and the garden, the villa. So I'm really fucking in pain in multiple ways. And I just had the worst haircut of my life. Our local gaff and he's like basically cut dummy a massive steep fade and taken nothing off the top and sides other than that. So I look a bit weird. I'm sunburnt and I've got Bali belly. But I'm not complaining. I'm just giving context as to how I feel right now because I've been in better conditions. I think that is very fair to say. It's always when you feel ill, like really sick. I'm not really sick, I've just got barley belly. But it's not nice. It's always when you feel ill that you fucking realize that health is literally everything because everything else goes out the window until you feel better, as is obviously the case. But even when you're aware of that, every time I get sick, which thankfully isn't very often, you forget until you get sick again. So yeah, I'll open with those remarks. What is going on business wise? I think I said in the past in the last Dubai video, last episode that I would do like a year review in this episode. I'm not going to do that now. I feel like I should do that when I get back to London in like 10, 10 days time to do a proper sit down review and actually show you some shit rather than do a really half assed version here. So I'm going to do that. I guess I'll speak about a few other things. The first thing, I suppose, and I'm just making this up as always being back in Bali for the first time in over three years and it's always interesting because I find I'm very, very, very guilty of and I spoke about this in the Mykonos video like maybe six months ago now. Which is why I fucking love recording these because I can look back on them. I think I spoke about grass is always greener. When I'm traveling, I sometimes think I'll be better at home. When I'm at home I want to fucking travel and live that nomadic lifestyle. And I try to stop myself and pause and say, you can't compare them because they're different things. And obviously everything has pros and cons. Granted I've not got as much work done when I've been out here in sweaty CO work spaces and a bit of it's felt like, fuck, this isn't that fun. Because I would rather be at my desk, my comfy chair, my massive screen in my aircon flat in London, but then I obviously wouldn't be able to go to a jungle waterfall and go to a monkey forest and make some crooked memories with my friends. So yeah, just having that perspective. I think the whole nomad thing as I expected and I'm glad I've kind of confirmed this because I thought maybe I would want to come out here for like six months again. Not I did six months, but I think it was definitely something I prefer when I was younger. I'm treating this more as like a semi holiday work trip. Well, semi holiday rather than a full work trip like I would normally do because yeah, it's really hard to, you know, I'm not trying to do 10 hour work days and really get done so kind of in between at the minute. I haven't taken like a full, full, full holiday probably ever since I started fucking being an entrepreneur like seven years ago. But that's just how it is and that's fine. I guess the one thing it has taught me work wise again, well, not taught me for the first time, so I already knew this. But like confirmed is you can actually get a shitload done in like two or three hours a day. And almost by having restricted time that is, that's the time you've gone to the CO workspace and your wifi is shit everywhere else. Forces you to focus on the needle moving stuff. Which is interesting because I probably spend 12 hours a day thinking I'm working back home when actually I could probably do a lot more things away from a desk and away from feeling like I'm working and it would actually be as productive, if not more productive because I'd have time away from the screen and like I just said, I would focus on the needle moving things it's also confirmed to me that I actually have a pretty decent business and a lot of it is very automated and I have a good, small but effective lean team that can very much get on with things when I'm not. There's fucking fireworks going on over there. Don't if you can see them or hear them. But they can very much get on with things without me, which is nice. And, yeah, I suppose not being able to work as many hours in the day because of wi fi and so on. Yeah, has made me realize that, which is quite nice. So that's kind of where my head's at on this trip. Setting it very heavy on New Year's Eve. That was fucking disgusting. I ended up vomiting at like 8am into the sink. It was not on pretty sight and it made me feel very old because that would not have happened when I was a few years younger. I don't think my body just can't handle alcohol to the same extent anymore. That's what I was going to speak about in this episode. Pretty much that. To be honest, I feel like because I'm not sat at my computer with a mic, I feel like I'm not recording an episode, especially with the camera sat like 30 meters away. But, yeah, that's kind of my initial thoughts on Bali. I know for a fact if I go back in, like, how much Book of Flight. Yeah, I'm meant to be going back in like nine days. When I go back, I will instantly think when I land, oh, fuck, I'd rather be in Bali again. I didn't appreciate it. And it's the classic thing. Like I said, same story in Greece, same story in Marbella. Probably when I'm there, I'm like, oh, this isn't efficient. Like, I don't know, my mind works in mysterious ways. Always grass is greener and I really need to get around that. Yeah, I suppose. Actually, one thing I'll talk about, I set my. I've kind of accidentally come into the scene of last year on the 1st of January. I set a bunch of goals that were a bit more random and I reviewed them on Twitter and said that I'd hit a bunch of them, which is quite cool because, you know, back then I had no means to. I had no reason to say they'd be easily achievable. And most of them were. Were, I guess, fairly easily achievable because I surpassed them by far, which is cool. Other ones I didn't. Mainly the mental health one, which I'm still fucking working on. So I've got into the habit now of well, second year. It's hardly a tradition yet but the tradition of setting a goal publicly or like a bunch of key goals. I haven't set a new resolution as such. I just set goals and I've forgotten what I actually wrote. I think the first one was 100k YouTube subs, which may be very ambitious but I feel like if I'm actually consistent and we get there then that'd be sick. The second one is probably the most important one or what I'm focused on most is I want to try and hit 6 million in revenue with the brand profitably. I also think that's going to be pretty tough if I'm honest because the sort of business is, you know, long lead times, custom product subscription doesn't lend itself to being easily scalable and I know there's plenty of drop shippers and whatever other brand owners, particularly dropshippers, they're probably laugh at 6 million revenue but I don't know. It's very different, isn't it? Like I was doing bigger numbers with Neon beach, bigger numbers with drop shipping in the past but they never, it never felt like a fair comparison. So if I can get this to 6 million or even around that mark in the first full calendar year giving me about eight months in 2022, I'd be pretty happy with that. I think I'd be a solid place to be the next one. What did I say? I set a bunch of running goals because I was going to give up my running career. Well, not give it up but like that kind of came about as a thing I started doing. Then I got obsessed and obviously did the marathon and then I kind of surprised myself with the marathon. Then I said I'll never do proper running again. I'll just do it in the gym for fun. But then I realized that actually having a physical goal for me away from a screen really helps me in a lot of other areas. So I've decided it. I'm not going to announce an official entrance into anything yet because I don't want to put that pressure on myself and I want to try to do it more in private. But yeah, I set the goals to do a sub 248 marathon. The reason it's that specific is that's a sub 4 minute per km marathon. So 359 and below which I just think would be sick because my original goal last year was to run a sub 40 10k which is also sub 4 minute but to be able to do it In a marathon, which I think I'm capable of doing would just be way, way better, of course. Sub 120, half, sub 35, 10k. I got close last year, but never properly prepped for it. And then a sub 17,5k also got close last year, but never actually never even tried properly. Like I did a 1725. I think it was like literally running on the roads after the gym with a gym bag on. So that would suggest that I could definitely do a sub 17 if I'm properly prepped. So yeah, running goals, I think it's cool to have those goals away from the screen. What else did I have? I think I said I would like to be more present, which is kind of what I was alluding to in the ramble I've just been on. In fact, I'll add to that on here, like non business or, you know, more personal mental goals or whatever would probably be three things I want to A, have a better perspective on things and I'll come back to that in a second. B, be more grateful for shit and C, be more present because yeah, I mean, I think these are all virtuous qualities that I haven't, that I haven't held in my life really much up to this point. And I know they would help me. The first one being perspective is I always lose perspective on not how lucky I am because I don't think that's true at all, but I lose perspective on where I'm at compared to most people, like globally, then even just most people that I don't know I went to school with or are my age on average. Not that there's any right or wrong and there's a certain measure. But you know, my point about that is there's plenty of people that would look, look at what I'm doing. I get to work every day on something I created. I get to come to Bali because I fucking wanted to with my mates in the middle of January and make an income from anywhere. And I've lost perspective on probably how unique that is to a lot of people and statistically unique. So that's the first thing. And also just to add to that an element of perspective is I have such high standards and I compare myself to such statistically unique people and cases, many of which I'm fortunate enough to know and have in my very close circle, that I end up thinking I'm doing shit like 6 million sounds like nothing compared to a few people that I won't name that I know very well. But the perspective is like, fuck, just zoom out. It's actually pretty good. So, yeah, that's the first thing. Secondly, gratitude, I think it's highlighted when I get ill because suddenly I get, you know, I realize I should be grateful for when I'm not ill. And also just the other side of that is, you know, anything in life, like material, business, whatever, feels like a fucking carrot on a stick. Like, the second I've done one thing and it becomes normal, whether that was back in the day getting a nice car, suddenly that becomes your standard and you're not grateful for it anymore. And then, you know, you get the nicer flat. You go on a nicer holiday or whatever it is. And it's a very dangerous path potentially, because you'll get to where nothing satisfies you unless you step back and be grateful for it, I suppose. And also more like a deeper version of that is I'm trying to be grateful for the shit that I feel like fucked me up in the past. Like, bad things have happened to me and if I'm honest, certain ones, an obvious one is the fucking business going to shit. I'm trying to be grateful for that and say, actually, that was meant to happen. That taught me a huge amount, which it did. It's very hard to be grateful for that. And it's taken me fucking ages to. To even be able to consider thinking about that. But it's useful. And I think whether it's true or not, whether things are meant to happen, xyz, it's a useful belief to hold. So I'm trying to hold it. Another example would be, like, grateful for the fact that, I don't know, a certain fucking relationship that I thought was going somewhere, didn't go somewhere. And while that fucking pissed me off, in hindsight it's probably very good. So that's another thing, you know, different example. And what was the third thing? To be more present. Yeah, I feel like I'm always thinking about what's next, where am I going next, where am I going next? And, you know, thinking, when I'm here, I want to be back home because I can work harder. Or when I'm back home, I want to be here. Whereas actually, I should just fucking be here now. And I think that's probably the thing I struggle most with if my entire life. So that is a goal. Yeah, I've rambled a bit, but hopefully I've pulled out some relatively concise points that people want to listen to. No idea what this angle looks like, by the way. I'm sat about 20 meters away because as I said, I'm burnt, barley bellied and with a haircut. But on that note, I will return to more brand stuff. Specifically. I mean, I guess just touching on brand stuff before I go. Fucking fireworks going off. Dream Dust. Launch is slightly delayed. It's gonna happen later this month. I'm fucking gassed for that. And, yeah, the movie's coming soon. I'm super excited for the movie. I think if it comes out how I want, which based on the first video I think it will, and hopefully beyond, then it's gonna be, in my opinion, one of the most unique pieces of brand content ever made. Which might sound incredibly arrogant. And I don't mean it to. I just mean because I literally sunk my fucking creative soul into it along with Brad, the genius that makes all my shit in the sense that I held nothing back. Like, I just had fun with it and I just don't really care what people think with it because it's like super. You'll see what I mean. It's like super personal and shit. And I have so many Easter eggs and so on. So I'm very excited for that. And, yeah, I'll let you go. See you in the next episode. Space goes to the moon. Let's fucking go. Cheers for watching. Peace.