It’s been a while since my last post, oops! A lot has happened over the last few months, like running a half-marathon, going to Ocarina Fest in Texas, seeing my all-time favorite band from childhood in concert, going back to school, being best man at my brother’s wedding in Ireland, and sadly my cat Charlie passing away at 14 years and 8 months old.
But Let’s Rewind.
In summer 2022, I got laid off from my last full-time job, along with the rest of my team. A lot of the time since then has sort of felt like treading water, putting in effort for something to happen but ultimately not going anywhere. And I was trying to make thing happen, sending hundreds of job applications, doubling down on YouTube, doing freelance work, and more. But not much was changing.
Clearly, I needed to make a major change, but fortunately or not, changes were going to happen regardless.
In April, my previous serious relationship ended. We were together for almost 2 and a half years, but between circumstances out of our control, my efforts to fix things backfiring, and some other issues, it didn’t work out. That forced a first reset, and I’ve improved myself a lot since then—namely getting in really good shape, such as reaching an 800 lb total in the powerlifting trio (bench press, squat, deadlift), running a half marathon, and getting fast at 5K runs—on top of maturity and other stuff.
Then, something I chose to do, in August, I started studying my MBA. I must say, this has been one of the biggest boons to my mental health with having a solid structure in my life again, making new friends, and feeling my skills improve as a professional. On top of that, I might even get a second overlapping master’s degree in finance, but I’m still deciding on that.
Zero-Based Budgeting
And getting into that business mindset again, I’ve been applying literal corporate budgeting concepts to my life: Historical vs. Zero-Based Budgeting.
Basically, historical budgeting is evaluating changes only as they come—a new expense in finance versus considering adding a new habit or something in your personal life. It also applies to small, incremental changes for existing things—invest 10% more in a stock or spend 10% less going out. If you have a great setup and only need small changes, this can work well!
However, it has its weaknesses; sometimes decisions that were beneficial in the past don’t serve you anymore; investments in crypto may have seemed appealing for a company 3 years ago, but you might not want to hodl. Going for regular drinks with friends might have been great for your social life and mental health once, but it might also be taking its toll on your health and finances.
Zero-based budgeting evaluates not only changes and new things, but you also treat all established things like they’re new. You start with zero, then you evaluate each item. This can be time consuming, but it’s incredibly worthwhile. Most people have a bias that you must add something to solve a problem—buy a new product, work more hours, try a new habit—when often times subtracting what doesn’t help you will help you that much more.
A zero-based budget for your life makes it a lot easier to do so, critically evaluating everything. It’s like Marie Kondo’s concept of cleaning everything, then holding each item to see if it sparks joy. If yes, keep it; if not, discard it.
Let’s Do It
Let’s make a “budget” of everything in our life. This can be broad, like “work” and “health” and “hobbies” and the like. List your things, then list how it helps you or makes you happier, or how it stresses you out or otherwise harms you.
I’ve already gotten started listing everything currently happening in my life, such as my MBA program, fitness goals, and work. I also have a section for things I am considering adding.
Now, let’s see my final result of what I’ve chosen to keep or add, at least for the next few months.
Last, we have our “budget” and an additional section on things I don’t need to make a decision on yet.
As you see, it’s quite similar to the previous “budget,” and that’s okay and normal! The exercise isn’t necessarily to make you completely change your life, rather to evaluate not just changes, but what’s already established too. Then, I’d recommend making historical budgeting tweaks every month or quarter, just to keep yourself accountable, aware, and open to course correction.
Obviously, making a spreadsheet alone won’t change your life, but a spreadsheet can make yourself aware of what you want to apply effort to change. If you want to copy my spreadsheet, I have a link right here—just make a copy for yourself.
Moving Forward
This exercise also showed me where I want to be applying effort but haven’t been doing enough, and that’s primarily on YouTube and on my blog. I kind of disappeared for the second half of 2023. Even if it’s only one video every two weeks and some TikToks, I’m going to be regular making content again. I can’t thank you all enough for the continued support, and if you’re new here, go ahead and subscribe!
Sometimes incremental change is enough, but often, a complete reset is what you need. If that’s what you need, I hope this article and video helped.
Andy Cormier 