My Life in Weeks // v28
By: Ryan Phillips
Tags: Creativity, Life, Birthday, Ideas

Not much has changed on a life scale from last year, with one major exception: I received my COVID-19 vaccine! The rapid development of the vaccine and supply chain to deliver 1b doses in 4 months (Nature) will go down as some of most significant achievements in human history. I’m lucky to live in a time where science is allowed to thrive.

I’m a 9'er now! This is the year, according to research from NYU’s Stern School of Business, because I am 29, I am more likely to make significant life decisions such as run a marathon, commit suicide, or seek an extramarital affair (well, I’d need to be married for this one). Per the study, “adults undertake a search for existential meaning when they approach a new decade in age … or imagine entering a new epoch, which leads them to behave in ways that suggest an ongoing or failed search for meaning”.

I don’t feel any of this. Truthfully. I feel I am entering version 29 of myself as the most centered one yet. I celebrate the big and little moments in life with people I love, while having a healthy family around me.

As with every year on earth, I learned a few lessons which are important to me. Here are a few of the most important ones:

Don’t judge yourself on other people’s happiness

This year I have learned an extremely important lesson — My happiness is not tied to what others think about me. This feels obvious. And feels like something people tell you all the time. But was not something that I was living.

I recently made the toughest career decision I have ever had to make: leaving my role as General Manager of Brilliant Hire. Over the span of 3 weeks, I agonized over this decision to the point where I began losing sleep worried about how my team would react to the decision. More than just a team, they are friends, and I worried they would be angry/disappointed/etc of me. Or that the board of advisors would be angry with me.

In reality, this was all in my head. Once I began telling people, they could not have been more supportive of me, my career, and my decision! This learning goes beyond work and has helped me be happier in every aspect of life.

Family >>>

I found a positive light this year being able to spend extended periods of time back home in Texas with family. In fact, the ~5 months I spent at home in the past year is more than I have since before moving to college in 2010. Check out what that looks like in days below:

In my fast paced life, sometimes I overlook the importance my family has had on me. My mom, dad, and brother are still the most important people in my life and ones who I look for advice regularly. One perk I am excited with my next role is the company operates in a fully remote way, allowing me to spend more time with my family. If you’re near someone in your family, you should go hug them and remind them how important they are to you.

My new goal of financial independence

I have been lucky to make enough money in my line of work to save some each year. Spending so much time in quarantine over the past year has pushed me to formalize my long term views on money and wealth. My big realization — Most financial systems in the US are set up for those who save a little each year (via 401k, RothIRA, etc), so that when you’re old enough to retire at age 65, you can live on what you have saved.

This insight over the past year has driven the formation of a new life goal: Be financially independent by the age of 40. For me, this means having enough saved up such that I do not rely on a weekly paycheck to pay the bills. I know I am a very goal-focused person so keeping this larger goal in mind is important for me to achieve behavior change. Whether I am thinking of buying a pair of shoes, or maybe upgrading to a nicer version of something, I am historically bad at saving money, thus having a larger goal is necessary for me to save.

Ultimately, I believe being financially independent will redefine my relationship with work. Today, I, along with most of the corporate world, have a job to pay mortgage, put food on the table, etc, yet most of those same people also are unhappy with their job. I don’t want to be in this position and believe that working towards financial independence will provide that cushion to avoid this trap.

Being outside recharges me

Most people who know me recognize how much I value getting outside of the city and into nature. The medium almost doesn’t matter to me — backpacking, snowboarding, or biking — I just want to get outside. Over the past year without travel, it has become increasingly important for me to go outside. I’m even more grateful this year to have friends around me to share this space with. I’m excited to continue escaping the craziness of the city over the next year.