For Feb, I decided to learn how to have more fun. Yes, play. What a loser goal, that I even need to set goals to have fun. But for a workaholic like me who had effectively forgotten how to play, it’s like taking baby steps all over again.

Did I have more fun this month?

Not as much as I hoped. Kinda ‘meh’. But I did feel less stressed, not from play but from patient surrender. So maybe my idea of fun needs revision.

But more on that in a bit. First, a quick review of all that’s done this month:

? A couple of first’s

 - First payment of US$199 for creating a JAMstack website, because of my marketing efforts in Juicy Jan. This is a hard-earned little win for Sweet Jam Sites.

 - First customer testimonial, by Lenny Bron from theblogproofreader. He was the perfect, easygoing first customer I didn’t deserve.

 - First guest post on another site Productized Startups (by Robin Vander Hatyden).

 - First paid ad on Keto List Singapore, followed by 2 more, totalling S$130. 2 more ad prospects in discussion. Never expected this much interest in ads!

 - First new iteration of my million dollar goal: “I will earn $1mil ARR by end 2020. In return, I will have fun growing my indie products, and adhere to a healthy, millionaire habit system. And I will surrender.” 

? Other positives

 - Started tracking and planning out my monthly expenses, and constantly looking at ways to save more on daily expenses, like hunting for 50% deals for lunch on a food app.

 - Started learning about investing (while wishing I started younger, not at 40), and planning to invest using the funds in my pension savings scheme.

 - Had fun meeting lots of Keto List ad prospects to understand their business needs, and getting free product samples haha.

 - Need to gain back some weight, so started to eat slightly more carbs, therefore, more food choices!

 - Starting to have fun with marketing experiments (continued from Juicy Jan). Created separate landing pages–each with unique value propositions–for different potential customers for Sweet Jam Sites. Also delighted that the same give-away cold sales tactic worked for Keto List ads as well – gave a free featured ad to a new keto bakery, as ‘involuntary’ free trial. The next day they signed up to advertise!

 - Consolidated all projects to-do on Trello, and added a unified tagging system with tags like “fun” to help balance priorities. When I’m tired, I go for the fun tag first. The tags also help balance out the trilemma of the Technician, Entrepreneur and Manager roles.

 - Lots of product reviews, planning for diversification, brainstorming (using the “Unbundling Craigslist/Excel/Wordpress” concept) for a new micro-SaaS product. Creating new things is what makes me come alive.

 - A social impact design consulting gig on the horizon - excited. And also somewhat relieved to have some freelance earnings to buffer the indie making burn-rate.

? Negatives

 - The COVID19 pandemic hit Singapore’s shores hard in Feb. There’s was 2-3 days of panic buying and stockpiling when we went to Orange alert, and 2 more weeks of social distancing after that. But things seems to have normalised now. The mall crowds are back, trains are full again.

 - Feel ill in the beginning of the month due to stress. Had a mental reset since.

 - Continued with my daily money goal affirmation and visualisation. Have a jar full of $2 notes now but not feeling much difference yet. Not sure if there’s supposed to be a build-up before any effect can be felt.

? Books read/reading

✅ The E-Myth Revisited, by Michael Berber

✅ Lean Analytics by Alistair Croll

 - Millionaire Women Next Door by Thomas Stanley

 - Super Human by Dave Asprey

 - When the Body Says No by Gabor Mate

 - Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg

Themes and lessons from Fun Feb

Scheduled fun is not fun. Real fun is just spontaneity for anything, fun or otherwise.

At the start of the month, I said I would do daily and weekly personal check-ins on the fun level that I’m having. I also said I’ll schedule fun. Didn’t happen. It felt too forced. Perhaps fun is not about intentional play, but just having spontaneity for anything, be it play, rest, or boredom. I realised I was mostly just giving myself permission to relax into whatever that needs to happen or had to be done, and not treat fun as another to-do item (which will sure defeat the very purpose of it). Perhaps in time to come, I can relax into play. It just didn’t turn out that way this month. And I can be comfortable with that fluidity and un-intention, which brings me to my next point…

Surrender can be very efficient

Strangely, surrender was a big theme this month. Feb should be called Surrender Feb! I was asking loads of questions about surrender and how it worked:

 - how to surrender but also form habits

 - surrender is scary, and how I never had control, and all I had was anxiety

 - how the ideas that I least expect to take off are the ones that actually do

If having fun means surrendering to, relaxing into, and flowing with what is expedient and important—even if I had other plans—then I think I can say I did have fun this month. Just not the kind of fun that we often call fun.

Impatience with actions but patience with results

Surrender calls for patience. Slow grind over overnight success. It’s good to have ambitions and goals, but more haste less speed. And besides, life would be pretty damn boring if I had done it all already. Patience also means less self-imposed anxiety and stress which, if left unchecked, will lead to ill health (it did, I recovered, and truly humbled).

Reframing marketing as warm help

I always had a problem with doing marketing and selling. It feels dirty. Reframing it as warm help, helped me feel better about marketing. I’m having more fun now experimenting with marketing. Meeting people who buy ads from Keto List was fun too, especially coming from an angle of trying to help them succeed in their business. This reframing also totally aligns with the 100 true fans idea. Because with 100 true fans, you need to engage your customer fans on a deeply personal level. Warm help, not cold sales.

Shout out to:

@keenencharles - for advice on ad pricing for Keto List

@bhumi @keni for parallel-journeying on money/passive income habits, sharing ideas and inspiration

@knight - for all the nocode inspo

Thank you!