These are my Momentos, short personal diary entries I write daily – since 2013 – and publish monthly. Some links are affiliate links.
1
Sitting on a bench in the middle of town. A man sits beside me, about 60 years old. He looks pretty shook, big belly, unshaven. I’d love to know the turning points of his life. There were probably a handful of key moments or decisions that made him who he is. True for all of us.
2
I have a square or two of chocolate with a cup of tea after dinner each evening. I enjoy the first square 100%. But the second square isn’t another 100%. It’s more like 25%. So it’s not really worth having the second, except having two feels like a big treat and the anticipation is better.
3
Stopped at a McDonalds in Barcelona. Drinking their coffee, eating my own food, sharing a little with a small bird. It’s not busy, maybe a dozen other customers. An impossible set of circumstances led us all to be here together at this exact moment. And we’ll never be here again.
4
Took a long hard look at my website a few days ago, and have to admit I’ve let it go stale. Lots of outdated content on there. No wonder my SEO traffic has dropped significantly. Going to gut the thing these next few days, get rid of ~70% of indexed pages. Should have done it long ago.
5
I’ve had a lower back issue for years. Taking the time now to tackle it properly. Research, find a plausible theory, do the stretches and exercises they recommend, then assess. Repeat as needed. If I can just stick with that for a few weeks I should finally get some relief.
6
Read this today on Instagram and it resonated…
The purest form of love is when someone pays attention to what makes you anxious and does their best to ease it.
7
Removed 150+ pages from my site the last couple of days. It’s painful. Literally thousands of hours went into creating that content, and now it’s gone, nothing to show for it. At the same time, I’m starting to feel lighter, transforming this thing into a lean, well-oiled machine.
8
I really don’t think it will all go to shit. But if it did, and I had to start something else, it would probably be automation consulting. Help businesses automate repetitive tasks, improve efficiency, increase productivity. I could do a great job of that leveraging AI.
9
Stepping back, I’m learning a lot from this business downturn. Mainly the need to think more long term, have better processes in place, only create content that we can actually update frequently. No doubt that the current struggles are making me a better entrepreneur.
10
Setting up a new website, niall.bio. Lots of old personal stuff I’ve kept on ebizfacts.com that doesn’t really belong there. Momentos, finance reports, blog posts from years ago. Started moving it all to the new site this week, coming across lots of stuff that has me reminiscing.
11
Watching this doc about the anti-immigration protests in Ireland. It’s like if you had a baby in your apartment that wouldn’t stop crying, and a neighbor pounds on the door.
– Yes?
– Shut up that baby, will ya?
– I’m sorry, I’ve tried everything, he just won’t stop crying.
– Shut him up or get him out of here.
– But… it’s not that simple, we’ve nowhere else to go.
– Not my fucking problem. Sort it now. Or else.
12
Heard a personal branding expert say you should come up with 3 words to describe yourself. The only one I’ve settled on is Doer. I think that describes me better than Entrepreneur. Because I always like to be doing things. To work, to have projects, money-making or otherwise.
13
Went back through my old finance reports, pulled out all my business income and expenditure through the years. $1,328,128 revenue since 2011 with a 68.5% profit margin. Average monthly revenue of $8100. Although almost $1M of my revenue has come since the start of 2020.
14
Been reading Peter Attia’s book, Outlive. It’s a good kick up the arse. My diet is already dialed in, but apparently a bad diet can hurt you more than a good diet can help you. Exercise is where I can improve a lot. I still stretch every day and average 11k steps, but that’s nowhere near enough.
15
This guy on YouTube, my niche, remember him from years ago, promoting lots of shady shit. Still doing it. Now he’s got 300k subscribers, probably pulling in $20k/month. I’m annoyed he’s so successful. And I’m inspired. Because surely if he can do that…
16
At an empty cafe, drinking lemon and ginger tea, listening to a podcast, watching the rain come down. A bit under the weather today, pushed too hard the last few weeks, trying to get lots done before our trip. But I feel at peace here.
17
One of those days where everything seems to go wrong. The bed breaks. I forget to add water and destroy the pot. I spend seven minutes recording a screencast that doesn’t record. Plus I’m still a bit sick and my bowels aren’t behaving. On days like this, the challenge is to still be kind.
18
Packing for the trip, unhealthy pharmacists, drive to the airport, suitcases too heavy but no matter, resisted talking to the guy beside me on the plane, rental car upgrade, late drive west, wild animals on the road, midnight check in, two blankets instead of one.
19
They named the hotel restaurant Pygmalion, prompting me to descend a rabbit hole in my phone. George Bernard Shaw, My Fair Lady… an influence on Trading Places and Pretty Woman. A link to Pulp Fiction in there, too.
20
He’s having a burger, chips, and an ice cream sundae. I’m having chicken liver pate followed by salmon and veg. Who enjoys their dinner more? I find my food delicious, but taste-wise most people would prefer his. However, I like to think I get a deeper satisfaction from my meal, knowing how it affects my body beyond the taste buds.
21
Starting to see everybody as a little boy or girl. Even myself. Whenever I’m angry or frustrated, once I peel away the layers, I’m really just a scared little boy, trying my best to handle the situation.
22
A sense of peace in this Japanese garden. It’s a tribute to Lafcadio Hearn, a writer born in Greece in 1850, raised in Ireland, spent a decade in New Orleans before his last chapter in Japan. “His writings offered unprecedented insight into Japanese culture, especially his collections of legends and ghost stories…”
23
Interesting how you can be just as happy (or happier) with a more disciplined life, better habits. For example, I thought life would suck if I gave up lattes, but now I’m perfectly content with americanos. What other habits am I clinging to, as if I’d be miserable without them?
24
Feeling the motivation swell again. Happens every time I’m back in Ireland. Part of it is the weather, those constant overcast skies, the dull afternoons. Makes me want to get away and build a life elsewhere, with more sunshine.
25
Lots of people struggle with anxiety nowadays, and yet lots of people choose to watch serial killer shows and documentaries. Can’t be helping. I think of those shows as junk food entertainment: very tasty, but ultimately not doing you any good.
26
Drove that nice Volvo for the last week, now back to my simple Polo. Can definitely feel the difference. There’s something to be said for never tasting the best, only makes you dissatisfied with the mediocre. But I find it motivating, eager to earn more money so I rarely have to settle.
27
Noticing the difference in humidity between Ireland and Andorra. Ireland’s air is generally more humid, feels heavier, especially this time of year. Andorra’s mountain air is usually dry, feels light and crisp. You also rarely get full-on overcast days in Andorra, always some sunshine poking through.
28
Got a fright this morning, my site had gone to zero in Google Search Console. It had been dropping for a while, thought it had disappeared from the SERPs altogether. Now it’s back to normal, a temporary glitch. In the gap I was thinking about what I would change going forward. Decided not much. I’ve already moved on from depending on Google.
29
A few chapters into Four Thousand Weeks, have a feeling it will change me, already have dozens of highlights. Key takeaway so far: there will always be more to do than you can actually do, so it’s impossible to get it all done, so stop trying to do it all.
30
October might be my favorite month of the year, especially here in Andorra. We get some spectacular colors and plenty of sunshine punching it all up. Went cycling in it yesterday, stopped to take photos of plump rain drops resting on fallen yellow leaves.
31
Tweet from Spencer Haws about Reddit’s spiking share price…
For all the complaining on Twitter about how much Reddit has taken over the SERPs, we should have all known to invest in Reddit
Could do that for any complaint we hear: what’s the upside? Where’s the opportunity?