---
date: 2018-01-19
modified_at: 2018-01-19
tags: [entrepreneurship, lifestyle, philosophy, productivity, programming]
description: A personal manifesto outlining ambitious 2018 goals, using fear-setting and extreme accountability measures to build two apps while pursuing a vision of working productively in paradise.
---
# How I’m going to make 2018 my most impactful year yet — A clear vision, fear-setting, and a crystal clear plan.

This article also appeared on Medium
https://medium.com/@karsens/how-im-going-to-make-2018-my-most-impactful-year-yet-a-clear-vision-fear-setting-and-a-crystal-5a045466d4c2
. Go there to get it with useful links.

Recently, I wrote a summary about my 2017. In short, it has been the most
transformative year ever in my life, mindset wise.
But 2018 is going to be the most impactful.
Why? Because I want things. From October 2017 until April 2018 I’ve traveled in
Asia, and I’ve done what I wanted. Unfortunately, this wasn’t something that
could be done for ever. I would run out of money.

I got hungry.

All the things I discovered to live for I can’t have right now. Because, if I
would enjoy life too much right now, I would arrive in a local optimum: an
average programming job with an average salary, stuck in an average home on an
average location. I don’t want average. I want to choose where, what and when. I
want freedom. I want to climb the Mount Everest, ride a Royal Enfield through
rural India, play hide and seek with the Aztecs, and catch some fish with the
Inuits. That’s why I will commit all my energy this year into one mission:
making a difference and create something useful for the world.

To put that more accurate, I will make two apps (native and cross-platform) and
a programming course in the coming 6 months. They are already in BETA (or Alpha,
call it what you want). Much has to be done to make them perfect.

How am I going to stay motivated? Well. I try to keep my vision in front of my
eyes every day. But sometimes it cannot be enough and I’m still out of energy
(because there’s little fun and a lot of work the coming months). To overcome
this, I also use some negative motivation, or ‘blackhat incentives’, as Yu-kai
Chou calls it in his book. Tim Ferris calls it Fear-setting. I made a bet with
my brother! If I don’t program to get closer to my goal, 5 hours every day, 7
days per week, he gets €50 for every hour I miss. How do I enforce it? I use
RescueTime to track when I’m active in the code-editor, and send my brother an
automatic e-mail every day with all statistics of that day. I already gave my
brother some money as a deposit. If he sees anything less than 5 hours of
programming at the end of the day, he’s not going to give it all back.

If you want to know more, and want to do the same, contact me here: I started a
collaborative to get my dream closer: I want to be productive in paradise: be
able to work and kitesurf (or anything else that’s exiting), every day, together
with amazing people. I want to organize a bootcamp to get programmers with big
goals together in a house to make our dreams come true. In January 2019, I want
to go to Capetown and EAT, CODE, KITE, REPEAT.

This is how 2018 is going to be my most transformative year yet.

Join me! In a few weeks I will move to Berlin to go to the greatest meetups to
connect with fellow programmers using the same techniques: Apollo + GraphQL and
Expo + React Native. There is a slight possibility that I get too cold there and
go to Tel Aviv for some kitesurfing (while still working super-hard). So yeah…
Join me! The more, the merrier.