10 Year Plan

Disclaimer: While I have done this many times, the format of this is broadly based on content from Debbie Millman, who I saw on a Mel Robbins podcast. 

Thank you both for having the courage to put yourself on a stage to prompt people to think, reflect and take action. 

https://www.melrobbins.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Design-Your-Life-Workbook.pdf

I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit. Ten years from now, I’ll be almost 40. 

I’m stressing about how few of my goals that I have accomplished before 30 and now I am supposed to think about what it’s like being 40? Shit. 

Well, here goes nothin’. 

I wake up to the shades already drawn for me staring out a floor to ceiling window watching the sunrise. For some reason, I always envision this over the ocean, though I have never much considered living on the East coast. I have considered living abroad, though. 

Maybe it’s a lake. Or a river. Or a.. Stream? 

The only thing I am still trying to figure out this morning is how the light woke me up and not Syd. 

Science, probably. 

The house is ours and we finally had the ability to customize exactly what we wanted. It’s beautiful and cozy. The floors are heated so despite not having carpet, I still feel happy that I got out of bed instead of a cold jolt to jumpstart my morning. 

While I don’t have to do anything, I start my day by getting leaving the bedroom, going down the staircase to our absolutely stunning kitchen (I can’t design this detail, that’s a Sydney vision but I clearly helped with creative direction and we definitely have a fridge hidden amongst our cabinets that mere commoners could only dream of - it’s me, I’m the commoner). 

I go into our butler’s pantry since I still am not allowed to leave appliances all over the counter for some reason, and get some tasty fresh fruit and cook myself the breakfast de jour. 

Scratch that, I only have to re-heat what our chef made us. 

That’s right. We have a chef because I wanted some variability in my meals after the last 9 years of eating essentially the same thing every day on my way to being absolutely yoked. 

That’s right, 275 lb beef cake eating fruit and whatever the chef made for breakfast to hit his macros. 

Did I mention that at this point I’m like 90-95% plant-based? Not only that but we grow most of it in our greenhouse and have created a self-sustained community. 

We are still far enough away from people for it to be inconvenient to bug us on a whim. 

After sitting on the porch eating with the dogs and basking in the sun to start the morning, I begin my walk across the yard to the shed. I call it the shed but it’s really a warehouse with rolling, glass garage doors that houses all of our workout equipment. 

Not only do I have all of my favorite equipment, but I get to roll up the doors for the light morning breeze and my dogs get to hang out with me while I work out. I keep picturing a Newf at this point but maybe I got really lucky and Trumy and Ellie are geriatric and some of the longest lived Danes on the planet because I’ve been making enough to feed them real food for years at this point. 

I always picture my property a bit more secluded in a forest, but not far off from civilization. I just wanted some privacy. 

After the morning lift, the dogs and I go to work back at home in my office. I don’t know what I do for work but I can tell ya what, I have helped a lot of people. 

I’m sure it leverages a bit of creativity, some problem solving, autonomy, and there is some feedback loop between me and the people that I support. 

What’s obvious is that I am pretty damn good at it. Otherwise, how did we get this dope ass house? 

Unless, Syd’s interior design really took off? 

Not my job to manifest her future but I would be shocked if it didn’t. I mean, look at our house.

The best part of all of this is that we have done well for ourselves. While we still have petty grievances with our lives, as all people do, we are grateful. We don’t stress. We travel. When we are feeling really boujee, we charter, but usually first class (mainly so I fit, or that’s what I tell myself, at least). 

We love the trips that we go on. At least one international trip, if not two, per year. We have a reliable person to watch the pets and we get to enjoy our trips without the stress of returning home to the lives we have lived.

We can choose to work from these locations but rarely do. 

I still try to learn the languages of the places that we visit and have gotten significantly better at this. 

It makes engaging with locals way more fun. 

Somehow I’ve deviated from my day to my lifestyle, but clearly my brain hasn’t changed function. 

The important thing is that I have accomplished many of the goals that I laid out for myself and I know that it was through my intentional action and not mere happenstance. 

I am incredibly fulfilled as I am constantly identifying fun ways to expand my skills and I have become so much more intentional in how I spend my time. 

What’s great is how much more of it I have! Not only because of the intention but because I have so much autonomy over my life. 

This wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for the intentionality and belief the younger version of myself had (he’s probably stroking his ego a bit writing this but the man totally called it). 

Through all of this, the sense of needing to constantly contingency plan has gone away. I have become even more confident (my head barely fits in the room now) in my ability to navigate the hard times and I have the security to know that whatever storms come our way, we can navigate them. 

I am still my playful, sometimes serious but generally fun-loving self and have become more charitable too. 

This is more ambiguous than I thought it would be but I don’t want to have hard targets. Nor do I feel like I need them. Those, I can create along the way. 

This is the vision I have for the life I will lead.

A story of fortune created through action, perseverance, and intention.