“For a long time I treated my work as a bubble – disconnected from the rest of my life. Too obsessed with solving problems at work, while missing the big picture entirely. What most of us have in common is the lack of time for things we love, and I was not an exception. I kept putting all what was really important to me on the back-bench. Tomorrow, was when I would take care of it. Day after day.

That was until I realized, I had to re-structure my life and create my personal quest”

This is what I wrote on the about page (comment: in 2012) and you may wonder what this personal quest is about? The shortest possible answer would be my personal quest is about  changing my life. My specific goals are:

  1. Do more stuff
  2. Work with my wife
  3. Move to Los Angeles
  4. Create more income
  5. Live healthier

 

1. Do more stuff

With a busy schedule, the days easily rush by. And suddenly you realize they are all the same. That is because we always do the same. A rare vacation is nice but does nothing to change everyday life. I cannot complain about the days speeding by, as long I do nothing to change that. So my plan is to break out of the routine by doing more different and meaningful things. One example is running this website.

2. Work with my wife

My wife and I have been talking about working together ever since we’ve met. Unfortunately, our professions are somewhat different to say the least. She is a Makeup Artist and I am a Project Manager with Science background. But I am determined to find something we can do together professionally that combines our passions and skills.

3. Move to Los Angeles

I don’t think there is much to explain. You either love it or hate it, and we happen to love Los Angeles. We also have both strong professional reasons to move to the area. But of course, we don’t want to move just for the sake of moving. Many pieces have to fall into place to reach this goal. While the other goals are more or less life goals, is this probably the only goal which has a clear defined end point.

4. Create more income

Who doesn’t want more income? I certainly have a great life and so much to be happy about, but I could not stop working tomorrow and continue to be happy for a long time. Looking for a better paid job already comes with the goal above, but I also want to look into other ways to earn extra income to create some buffer and be more independent.

5. Live healthier

In order to get much done, we often put our health in the last position. No sleep, no sports, bad food and gallons of coffee simply don’t get me where I want to be. I can only achieve what I want if I keep my body and mind healthy.

So these goals are what I call “My Personal Quest” (MPQ) and with this website – as part of the DO updates – I want to hold myself accountable for reaching these goals.

These may sound too simple and small for you and unlike many other sites and blogs on the Internet I do not promise that spending time on DO will make you richer in no time or give you a step by step program how to live an alternative lifestyle. Besides helping with all sorts of small problems (see help-desk) I want to motivate you to set your own goals and give you examples of small changes that have the potential to change your life.

It is all in you and up to you. Often you just need to turn into the right direction and start walking, using given roads or setting new paths. The big changes will come as a product of this journey.

 

Update (5/19/2014):  If you landed on this page, you probably wonder what happened with my personal quest. Soon after publishing this page I decided to make this blog less about me and more about you, the reader.

Update (11/23/2015): If you are just curious where I am at with these 5 points, shoot me an email at alex@darnoffice.com. I can say so much, I now live in San Diego, run a website for Makeup Artists on the side as well as some other projects, I work out with my wife whenever I can (this is a blatant lie, let’s say I work out regularly but by far not as frequent as I really could and should), I do sleep (little) more and drink (little) less coffee.