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Tag: year review

  • 2021 Monthly Recap – December – Dragos Roua

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    Dec 29, 2021 Dec 3, 2025 2021-12-29

    December feels like half a month. I say “feels” and not “felt” because we still have 2 and a half more days from it, yet I decided to write the recap already.

    It feels like half a month for a few reasons.

    First of all, it’s the first time in maybe the last 5 years when I took some holiday during this time of the year. Until now, I was always working during Christmas and New Year.

    Second, the daily writing and publishing challenge became much easier (or predictable, if you want) since 11 days ago, when I started to write these monthly recaps. It almost feels like I don’t have to write anymore, since these recaps are way easier than a regular article.

    And third, my daughter is visiting me for the holidays – another first – and that shifts the atmosphere towards relaxation even more.

    But even if this month feels like half a month, it doesn’t mean it’s not relevant. For instance, during December I came to the conclusion that we’re already experiencing singularity, even if it doesn’t feel that way. Or precisely because it doesn’t feel that way. We’re not supposed to know something that outsmarts us, that’s how outsmarting works.

    The rest of the articles were more or less personal, almost like plain journaling, with some exception now and then, like this Crash Course On Public Keeping Your Moth Shot (if we already have so many courses about public speaking, that is).

    If I would have to define December in one word, it would be “pivoting”. If I would have to define it in a longer sentence, it would be: “shifting towards a new lifestyle, in an harmonious way”.

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  • 2021 Monthly Recap – November – Dragos Roua

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    November was a pivotal month. Not necessarily in the “upwards pivoting” way, as expected after a very promising October, getting ready for a breakthrough on so many levels. Nope, it was more like “ups, you still have work to do, get back from the unicorn now” way. Like I wrote before, in November I traveled back to Romania for some paperwork and other loose ends that I had to fix. The paperwork went ok, the loose ends not so much, on the contrary. To add a little bit of salt on the wound, I got the news it’s not gonna work as expected on November 10th, which is my birthday. I wrote a few thoughts on that in The Anatomy Of A U-Turn.

    In hindsight, though, everything happened for the best. There might be time in the near future to fix those loose ends, and I already started to work on that, we’ll see how this goes.

    There wasn’t all gloom and doom, if I really think about it. I also got to organize and host (after more than 5 years) a live event, in Lisbon, based on a format I implemented years ago: Open Connect – The International Edition.

    Other than that, November was a tiring month. Traveling back and forth wasn’t fun, and re-observing toxic patterns and behaviors that I thought I was done with for good, also not ideal. But then again, everything is useful if you think in terms of learning opportunities. Some lesson more expensive than others, but also more valuable.

    In terms of writing, it was probably the most consuming month, because the surroundings changed so much, and I wrote in airports, in Aribnbs, and so on, sometimes waking up from bed just an hour before midnight, because I forgot to write for that day. Nevertheless, I was able to write a few articles that were on my mind for quite some time, like Countries versus DAOs or Selling Skills Versus Delegating Capital.

    If I would have to define November in one word, it would be “disappointment”. If I would have to define it in a longer sentence: “adjusting to whatever life offers, and making peace with things not going my way”.

    Photo by Nelly Antoniadou on Unsplash

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  • 2021 Monthly Recap – October – Dragos Roua

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    Dec 27, 2021 Dec 3, 2025 2021-12-27

    In October, the summer was over, and time for reaping the results of what I tried to plant in the previous months finally came. October was a month filled with action, with increased confidence and with some pretty interesting milestones. One of them was the first official marathon since the pandemic started. It was an amazing experience. Surprisingly, the amazement came not from some sort of exhilaration, or excitement, but for the consistency of it all. It was the first marathon in which kilometers succeeded almost linearly, without many major spikes in physical or mental state. Of course I was tired at the end, but it all went way smoother than in previous marathons (here’s a recap of the race).

    In October I also got word about a trip I had to make to Romania, to take care of (some more) paperwork. The trip started at the end of month, and, combined with the part that took place in November, it would make for the longest trip to Romania since I became location independent, 3 years ago (but I’m getting ahead of myself, the bulk of trip was in November).

    My NFT experiments continued, this time with a different chain (Hive) and a different project. Didn’t sell any copy but, again, it was a great learning experience.

    October was also the first month in which I actually composed a short song on the guitar, called, of course, Almost November.

    Like I said, October was a month filled with action, and there were also quite a few posts about location independence and societal evolution, and even a movie review (The Squid Game), you can check them all in the archives.

    If I would have to define October in one word, it would be: “manifestation”. If I would have to define it in a longer sentence, it would be: “reaping the benefits of months long – sometimes years long – streaks of effort”.

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    I’ve been location independent for 15 years

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  • 2021 Monthly Recap – September – Dragos Roua

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    Dec 26, 2021 Dec 3, 2025 2021-12-26

    September was also a good month. There were a few plans that were overlapping, and going back through my posts I can clearly see them.

    The first plan was about training for the marathon that was about to take place in October. Not too much time left, just around the corner, so I started to push harder. Of course, I also wrote about that: Run It Forward, Run It Early. It was the most consistent month of running. Loads of podcasts listening during those long hours too.

    The second plan was about tech and crypto-currencies, September was a month in which I wrote way more post about these topics combined. From the nostalgic thoughts about the mighty fall of blitz empires, up to the rise of non-fungible tokens, there were quite a few days in which I chose to wrap my mind around these topics.

    And the third plan was the social landscape, which kept dissolving into bits and pieces. Hence, the opportunity for creating the stupidity map. Which I even tried to make it into an NFT itself, which sold zero copies. But it was fun.

    If I would have to define September in one word, it would be: “propelling”. If I would have to define it in a longer sentence, it would be: “going forward leaps and bounds”.

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    I’ve been location independent for 15 years

    And I’m sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works.

    Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships.

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  • 2021 Monthly Recap – August – Dragos Roua

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    Dec 25, 2021 Dec 3, 2025 2021-12-25

    August was a very productive month. Not necessarily in terms of writing, although I consistently wrote abut the base topics on this blog, but mostly in terms of how life unfolded after I settled in. During August I decided to register for my first marathon since Covid-19 clusterfuck turned the world upside down, the Lisbon one, in October. Of course, in August I started to train again, and even wrote a little something about honest beginnings, and honest endings.

    Interestingly enough, August was a month in which the dominant topic was risk. Whether it was about Basic Risk Reward Analysis, or Low Risk, Low Reward, versus High Risk, High Reward, or even the need for A Damage Control Guy, risk analysis seemed to be a lot of my mind during that month. It’s one of the benefits of a year long challenge: you have time to stay with a problem long enough to understand it, and even to solve it. Not to mention that by writing it, you will always have it available, all you have to do is to peruse the archives.

    The second most present topic during August was the social transformation that was enfolding at full speed, again, based on the Covid-19 clusterfuck. I wrote about The Rise Of The Continuous Conflict Age, The Flat Earth Theory, as well as about How To Talk To A Hypnotized Person – The Short, But Very Useful Guide.

    If I would have to define August in a single word, it would be “grip”. If I would have to define it in a longer sentence, it would be: “increasing adherence and speed, while steadily moving forward”.

    Photo by Glen Carrie on Unsplash

    I’ve been location independent for 15 years

    And I’m sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works.

    Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships.

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  • 2021 Monthly Recap – July – Dragos Roua

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    Dec 24, 2021 Dec 3, 2025 2021-12-24

    July was a settling month. A little bit of routine settled in, but I also allocate time for more exploration. Many a posts from this month are about direct experiences had in the new city, like Do Electric Scooter Grow On The Streets and Thinking Outside Of The Loyalty Card. But I had time for more on topic posts like Frugality And Financial Resilience, Location Independence Is Not A Luxury Anymore or Opportunities And Building Up.

    It was also the month in which I dedicated more than 10% of my content to a very specific topic, how to survive social media, and, more recently, mainstream media. I even came up with 3 different terms describing this new way of informational warfare: Main Stream Media, Side Stream Media and Down Stream Media.

    I think July was more or less a flat month, in the sense of the word “plateau”. There was a lot of strategical thinking, then a lot of planning, then a lot more doing, then obviously, at some point, I reached some sort of a plateau. The nice thing about the plateaus is the view. The not so nice thing is that you may get bored, or even think that “you’ve made it”. Soon enough I was about to write exactly about that, about the danger of “I’ve made it”, but that would not be until a couple of months later.

    If I would have to define July in one word, that word would be “accumulation”. If I would have to define it using a longer sentence, it would be: “accumulating experience and preparing for the next step, while enjoying the view”.

    Photo by Glen Carrie on Unsplash

    I’ve been location independent for 15 years

    And I’m sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works.

    Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships.

    🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription.

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  • 2021 Monthly Recap – June – Dragos Roua

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    Dec 23, 2021 Dec 3, 2025 2021-12-23

    After 5 very tumultuous months (although just by looking at the articles here you couldn’t tell) June was finally a month for rest. Not in the sense of vacationing, but more like settling down, re-inserting in a new context. By the end of the month I was already in long term accommodation and all the logistic and paperwork finished.

    June was also one of the hottest months of the year (along with July and August, but we’re not there yet) so a lot of my walking had to take place either very early in the morning, or later in the evening. It was also the month in which I finally figured out a work landscape, combining a few coffee shops into a manageable system. It may seem superfluous, but working is a very important part of my life, and where I work is fundamental. I used to be a digital nomad for years, and I consider myself location independent ever since the Covid-19 clusterfuck hit, but that doesn’t mean I don’t need a good place to work from. On the contrary, where I work from has a big impact of my productivity.

    In terms of writing, June was also a good month. There were quite a few interesting things happening in the world, El Salvador starting to accept Bitcoin as a legal tender being by far the most important one. The world continued to sink into totalitarianism, and truth started to be clogged in a sea of information. As busy I was, I still had time for a little bit of work on addTaskManager, pushing a bugfix release long overdue.

    I also continued to write about location independence and its 5 layers, as well as about financial independence basics, like beautiful budgeting in 3 basic bullet points.

    If would have to define June in a single word, that would be “relaxation”. If I would have to define it in a longer sentence, that would be “accepting rewards and enjoying a short respite”.

    Photo by Glen Carrie on Unsplash

    I’ve been location independent for 15 years

    And I’m sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works.

    Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships.

    🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription.

    Free. As in free beer.

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  • 2021 Monthly Recap – May – Dragos Roua

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    Dec 22, 2021 Dec 3, 2025 2021-12-22

    May was my first month into a new country, so the move was roughly completed. I didn’t set base into a long term accommodation yet, I was still searching, the long term thing happened only in June, so May was more or less suspended. The course of events is still clear in my mind, because the dates were almost surgically aligned. On the first day of May I crossed into Portugal (like, literally, I came by train / bus), and it was also the first day without restrictions on the ground traffic. Surreal memories.

    By then, a lot of the past was already behind, I was eagerly starting to explore my new life. May was also the month in which most of the logistics that required my presence happened, like obtaining all the paperwork for residency and so on. I also walked more than in any previous month (Camino month excluded, obviously), and this happened on a much hillier terrain. If you ever visited Lisbon, you know what I mean. It’s one thing to walk 10 km per day on a flat terrain, and a completely different one to walk 10km on a level difference of 30 stories every day.

    May was also one of the most consistent months in terms of well defined, on topic, posts. Because I was right in the middle of the process, I wrote a lot about location independence, and also about the big changes that the world went through. For instance, the religious similarities between Covid-19 apostles and Bitcoin maximalists, or the realization that there are idiots at the both side of the spectrum. And, obviously, about the Berlin wall inside our minds, which is still unfolding these days.

    I also wrote about financial resilience, from introductory posts like how to become financially resilient in 3 steps (spoiler alert: there’s more than 3 steps, but you can still do it), up to financial resilience in 3 words.

    But probably the post that was most influenced by this time (and you’ll see by its title why) is Most The World Is Functioning At The Grape Level. A lot of good wine in Portugal.

    If I would have to put May in a single word, it would be: “renewed”. If I would have to put it in a sentence it would be: “learning to walk again, into a new space”.

    Photo by Glen Carrie on Unsplash

    I’ve been location independent for 15 years

    And I’m sharing my blueprint for free. The no-fluff, no butterflies location independence framework that actually works.

    Plus: weekly insights on productivity, financial resilience, and meaningful relationships.

    🎉 Success! Check your email to confirm your subscription.

    Free. As in free beer.

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  • 2021 Monthly Recap – April – Dragos Roua

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    April was a pivotal month, a lot of stuff happened. It was the last month spent in Spain, as of May 1st I was already completely relocated in Portugal. Because of that, many of the actions and decisions during April were related to either gently finishing stuff, or to courageously starting new stuff.

    During the first part of the month I was doing research for moving out, in Porto and Lisbon. The dominant theme was logistics: finding plane tickets, managing tests and best routes, gathering and processing information about housing prices, general cost of living, internet access and so on. I didn’t rent a car, so, once I was in a city, all the movement was basically walking, accounting for an average of 10-11 km / day.

    One of the results of this activity was changing my mind about the city I initially chose: while doing internet research, I was convinced Porto is the place, but once I visited both Porto and Lisbon, I changed my mind. It wasn’t an easy process, because of the time pressure and the entire novelty of the situation, but, 8 months after, I am 100% convinced it was the right decision.

    Although I traveled for two thirds of the month, I did have time to write some timely content that I revisit myself quite often, just to keep the focus on what matters. Short Game Versus Long Game is a good example in this area. Another one that I refer to very often is about the most expensive things in the universe, which aren’t diamonds. Spoiler alert: it’s stupidity. If you want to have a look at all the articles published in April, you can do it here.

    The amount of new stuff that happened in April is unmatched during the year. It was by far the most eventful time in terms of physical experience. I discovered two beautiful cities, managed the logistics and paperwork for moving abroad (again), and experienced 3 different places to live in 30 days.

    If I would have to define April in a single word, it would be: “relocation”. If I would to define it in a longer sentence, it would be: “going forward with confidence, while gently processing the past”.

    Photo by Glen Carrie on Unsplash

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