Public Commitment 2024 – Recap

Theme: Lucidity

Looking back at my goals, it hasn’t been a great end of the year. We were away on our honeymoon (which was awesome), but at the end of Q3, we had a terrible time with people doing our roof. So, in all that stress and overwhelm, I didn’t get to make new goals for the fourth quarter.

With that caveat said, let’s reflect on the objectives and key results of 2024 before we move onwards to 2025.

Before I move on, let’s reflect on the theme ‘lucidity’. In some regards, I feel it has gone great. I’m married, and I live in the house I want to live in for the foreseeable future. Most things regarding life and work are stable (or in a stable flux). I didn’t achieve the clarity of mind I was partly looking for, and I’ll get to this in writing next year’s goals. But overall, it was a great theme to have and a perfect, calmer follow-up to the ‘expansion’ theme from 2023.

House

Objective (O): Make the garden unambiguously green and lively

V: Clear out the front garden and prepare it for flowers

V: Process the tree branches and store them to dry

V: Place the fence between the gardens

X: Paint the garden sheds

X: Remodel the workspace (upstairs and/or garden office)

V: Plant and grow a lot of veggies

V/X: Paint just about everything outside

V: Remodel the bathroom downstairs

V: Rework section between house and cabin

V: Build a compost heap

V: Add more hens (done, Jan 29th)

Having about 500m2 of garden has continued to be a fantastic experience. It gives us the room to work on our vegetable garden, have space for the chickens, and chill in the sun (whenever it comes back).

Over the course of last year, we’ve totally redone the section between the house and the cabin and have had our first full seasons of gardening.

In the latter half of the year, I removed all the grass from the front yard and shaped it into three ‘organic’ layers. On the bottom layer (closest to the house), we already have a lot of small plants and a pond (for travelling frogs). The second layer will be full of flowers in a few months and already has some flower bulbs planted. The third layer has an amber tree and a few other plants, but it could use a bit more ‘style’ when spring arrives.

For the Q3 goals, I’ve achieved what I had planned for (front garden, process wood, build a fence) but haven’t done the goals I had set for Q4 (painting sheds and remodelling a bit). I started designing the house’s first floor and expectddds we will fully execute this in 2025.

Finances

O: Earn twice as much as we’re spending

V/X: Keep track of finances every week (H1 good, H2 meh)

V: Earn as much from psychedelic work as from Queal

X: Lotte earns as much from FLO as from her regular job

Previously, I defined the objective as earning twice as much as spending on our day-to-day activities (including vacations). This excludes things like replacing the roof, paying off a part of the mortgage (or organising a wedding).

Looking back at the finances, I see we didn’t achieve this. A quick look at the finances tells me we spent 58% of what we made. Two caveats I want to note for myself: 1) we did a lot of home improvements (besides the roof) that have added up, and 2) I have just transferred a part of my salary (in January), so that is pushing down on the percentage. But overall, it’s looking good, and we can be happy with where we stand financially.

I have been earning about as much from the psychedelic work as from Queal. In a way, that is crazy; it’s where I spend the vast majority of my time, and I know how ‘blessed’ I am with being able to keep earning from Queal without spending a lot of time on the company.

We haven’t made the time or haven’t had the success with FLO coaching as we had hoped for. I believe we have an excellent base for success, but we need to step up our efforts to (at least for Lotte) make it happen in a way that makes it work the effort.

Flotte

O: Continue unblurring who the other person is

V: Have one day in the week for each other

X: Spend at least eight hours per week working together

V: Get married

V: Become business partners

V: Prep all big things for the wedding

I reflected on the wedding in the second update. But once again, it was an enchanting experience. A sub-theme of the year was ‘water’. We had rain during the wedding (the sunniest day of the year – statistically). We had to divert our honeymoon to Cambodia (the north of Thailand was flooded a few weeks before our trip started – but in the end, this turned out to be a great diversion).

Our relationship is a great place. We love doing things around the house and garden together. The neighbours here are lovely, and we continue to find joy together. Where our friends already characterized us as a married couple that bickered (in a fun kind of way), we are now indeed that couple.

We also go to the gym two to three times a week, which has been a great way to do things together.

Relationships

O: Maintain quality relationships

V: Thank friends for the wedding gifts and visit everyone in the coming year (of course, the latter part still needs to happen)

X: Visit friends independently three times

X: Message with friends during morning cardio (medium, not enough time cardio b/c cold, same, low cardio rate but all good w/ contact)

V: See friends at least every two weeks (H1 done)

I see friends less than during my years as a student. But with everyone moving around the country, having kids, and getting into another life phase, I don’t feel this is a loss. We have a car and are away to see friends and family at least every second week. This is going well, and it has been fun thanking everyone for the wedding gifts (most of which were for the honeymoon).

FW.com / Brand

O: Build a personal brand

X: Publish a piece of content for every day (average)

X Take half a day to operationalize the personal branding/content strategy further

X: Publish one piece of significant original work each week (>1000 words or equivalent) (H1 half)

X: Publish a transformative piece of work every quarter (H1 fail)

This hasn’t gone well. Work and other priorities still get ahead of building a personal brand. I have a lot of things I’m interested in, and I would love to unite them under writing (or other media) that I bring into the world. I still want to do this, but I will have to reassess how I will do it in the coming year.

Blossom / Delphi

O: Provide clarity for all stakeholders in the ‘psychedelics as medicines’ field

V: Launch a course for novel psychonauts (build the course for Delphi)

V/X: Share one content piece each workday (Q1 done, Q2 meh, H2 fail)

X: Have 5k subscribers to The Bloom (now at 3.4k)

V: Get paid help for improving the content and consistency of promotion for Blossom

V: Continue the consultancy work for Delphi

X: Publish or update one piece of original content for members only (to increase Blossom’s revenue) (Only Jan)

The astute reader probably has caught on to the fact that I have a lot of things I want to achieve. But if you’re chasing too many disparate goals, you’re likely not to achieve them (vs focussing on one goal at a time – insert Cal Newport quotes).

With Delphi and Queal being the ‘breadwinners’, the work on Blossom has mostly been my ‘gift’ to the community. Still, thousands of people read my recaps of the research. But I have put a pause on monetising Blossom. Some people pay for full access (to summaries and reports). But if I really want to make this bigger, I do need to change my focus (and I don’t know if I will). With next year’s theme, I see a more small-scale plan I can engage with to keep improving Blossom on the side.

One success has been the launch of the course under Delphi. We plan to work more on education (for those just outside of the psychedelic ecosystem), and I foresee that I can keep providing value in that way. A more general course (for people who want to do psychedelics themselves) probably isn’t in the cards. For a final note, we have made quite a few introductory videos for FLO, which hopefully are helpful.

Related to Blossom – or under that banner – I have also initiated a project that investigates psychedelics and reimbursement for them in Europe. The report will come out in Q1 2025; building it has been a fantastic experience. I’m working with one main collaborator and have three more contributors helping us. Again, Blossom itself isn’t providing direct income, but I keep enjoying tracking the research and new opportunities that result from this work.

Queal

O: Continue providing sound nutrition

V: Launch QQ offer each quarter (done)

V: Do a mega overhaul of our webshop (launched)

V/X: Introduce new Queal products

Queal has been going strong over the last year. We have spent significant time revamping the website and making the company more future-proof. The launch didn’t go as smoothly as planned, but eventually, everything worked well again.

We have also developed new products, which will only launch in 2025. I won’t reveal more here, but I look forward to sharing these in a few months.

FLO Coaching

O: Build a meaningful practice with weekly facilitated sessions

V/X: Experiment with the four different promotional methods (1-1/1-many x (un)known)

X: Get Lotte one client each week (still not there)

As I said, we haven’t invested enough time to make FLO a success. Lotte has done a lot of sessions, but a part of those was for coaching/therapy friends in exchange for video testimonials (which have turned out great). We have revamped the website, and Lotte is making a podcast to promote the business. But we are not yet at 1 to 1.5 clients for Lotte, which we had hoped for.

We have a strong base; now it’s time to convert that into a practice with more demand than availability.

Sports

O: Improve on my fitness level of 2023

V/X: Do sports 6 out of 7 days (probably 5ish)

X: Incorporate stretching routine at the end of workouts (fail)

X: Cut back weight to 95kg

In 2023, I spent much time on the move, and my fitness level was lower than I had hoped. Over the last year, I (and Lotte) have been going to the gym two to three times a week and doing cardio (indoor cycling) on some of the remaining days. My fitness level is good, and I’m happy with my progress over the last year.

I haven’t worked on stretching a much as I had hoped and I still need to find a better moment to do this (after sports doesn’t work as there isn’t enough time before we have to leave the gym). I have also just bought a ‘rucksack’ (weighted backpack) and have some fun plans on using that for cardio training.

My weight is higher than I want it to be. It’s currently at 99kg, which is quite near where it was last year. In my plans for next year, I see this going down a bit and my focus changing from the gym to the outside.

Health

O: Improve health through metrics

X/V: Measure 3+ health metrics

X: Build a place to store the (health) metrics

X: Improve VO2 Max

This section of my goals has failed to materialise. I have done two blood tests, and the results were good (e.g. for B12 levels). But I have not yet started really tracking my fitness over time. I need to find a way to make this more automatic (e.g. information about VO2 Max going from my watch to a dashboard).

In a way, I have the ‘knowledge’, I know generally what is good to track and know where to find the information that I don’t have yet. But systemising this probably needs to be part of a bigger plan to make sense. Now that I’m writing this, I probably want to fold in fitness and health, as that makes sense.

Mindfulness

O: Brighten my cone of consciousness

X/V: Take psychedelics every month

V/X: Meditate each day, building up from 12 minutes (Q2 good)

V: Go on a Jhana retreat

X: Write a substantive post on the Jhanas (read some, but paused for now)

Changing my mind was one of the goals of the year of lucidity. And I have put in effort to make this happen. I went on a Jhana retreat. This at-home retreat spanned ten days, each filled with about five hours of meditation. During the retreat, I had experiences that were definitely a changed state of consciousness. When discussing the experiences with the instructors, they (and I too) felt I was near the first jhana (a very joyful state), but I didn’t get there. For a few weeks after the retreat, I kept meditating (3×1 hour), but I didn’t get closer (or actually got further away).

I would still love to take another stab at doing this type of meditation, but not soon. I have also paused meditation for now. In a way, my mind is already very calm, and I feel I already have what many people seek with mindfulness. Going for that more ‘hardcore’ meditation would be amazing, but I’m happy where I’m at right now.

I have done psychedelics nine times, and these were good experiences. I still love getting into another state of mind, reflecting on my life, and having fun during the experience.

Notes

A lot has happened during 2024. I got married, we had our honeymoon, and we made considerable changes to the garden. Work has been fun and challenging. Life has been joyful, and I feel clear going into 2025. Let’s bring it on.