The Growing Pains of Personal Growth: 4 Strategies to Overcome Slumps and Keep Appreciating Like an Index Fund
In this article, you'll learn:
Last time, I mentioned that because I’ve recently been going through a challenging period at work, I haven’t been able to update all my platforms (except for Facebook and Threads). This challenging period doesn’t mean a career low — it’s a transition toward higher expectations for the future. Just like the stock market, everyone has cyclical ups and downs; things won’t always be good, and they won’t always be bad. We usually make adjustments to pursue something better. During these times, what matters most is sticking to your habits and adapting quickly.
Adjusting Your Lifestyle
To start writing articles and producing podcast episodes, I adjusted my daily routine. With my old schedule, I could barely get anything done. During the day, I go to work as usual. After work, I pick up my kid, and then it’s a continuous stream of family time until 9 PM bedtime. That left me with almost no personal time. Since I can’t stay up late, I decided to go to bed early and wake up early — usually between 2 and 4 AM.
People ask me, “Isn’t waking up at 2 to 4 AM exhausting?” Well, if I see someone still awake when I get up, I’d say they’re the ones who must be more exhausted!
Embracing New Work Methods
Recently, I entered a challenging phase with my work methods, learning new productivity tools. The transition period between old and new approaches is always the most tiring — you need to learn the new tools while also migrating old data. Without effective management, things can really spiral into chaos. I started using Notion to make my work more efficient, but over time, I began exploring a new tool called Anytype. Neither tool is fully feature-complete yet, which brought some usability challenges, but things are starting to improve now.
Breaking Out of Your Comfort Zone
The biggest challenge often comes from within. Changing yourself is inherently difficult because it means indirectly admitting that your past self wasn’t good enough. I recently started relearning Python programming, hoping to uncover more opportunities through data, but I never seemed to have the time. On another front, I used to buy books all the time but never finish them, accumulating a mountain of “book debt.” Now I’ve changed my approach — I borrow books from the library and use speed-reading techniques I learned earlier to get through them quickly. I even wrote a program to manage my library loans — with one click, I can see how many books I’ve borrowed and which ones are due soon (I have 7 library accounts for reserving and borrowing books), making everything super easy to manage.
Starting a Better Growth Cycle
While writing this article, I suddenly realized that we often wish we could be that one stock that keeps going up — like Nvidia lately — but let’s not forget, the top 10 stocks in the S&P 500 are constantly changing, and even Taiwan 50 (台灣50, a major Taiwan index fund) is always rotating its components. The only thing that stays constant is the S&P 500 and Taiwan 50 themselves. Treating yourself like an index is far better than treating yourself like an individual stock. We should pursue continuous growth, not a fleeting stock price spike.
Further Reading
Lazy Da’s Conclusion
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