I've been in Salt Lake for almost three years. When I first moved here, much of my time consisted of establishing a side hustle and living off of my savings in a matter of months. Kept getting distracted instead of imperfectly starting it.

I chose to get a 9-5.

I've always had an entrepreneurial bent [but in order to make money yourself, you have to have a marketable skill!]. When I lived in Virginia, I would go to people's houses to pull weeds/other yard work for them [after advertising my job history on Nextdoor and Craigslist]. My favorite job was working on a lady's yard for a little over a year because I could set my own hours, work independently, sweat in the sunshine, and charge what I know I am worth.

In regards to learning projects, I've taught myself how to write novice code in python [with the intention of becoming location-independent], wrote a few blog posts documenting my russian language learning, progressed through an AR app creation video course, learned through podcasts what the business world is like on a larger scale, learned about numerous tech career avenues I could explore, advertised my French conversational knowledge through posting ads on local Starbucks bulletin boards, posted my 'Meowtel' cat-sitting business card all over Northern Virginia pet-friendly businesses, cold-emailed some web developers I found on LinkedIn and Instagram & offered to buy them a coffee, personality typology, how to #adult, how to travel and work abroad, emailed a few entrepreneurs/writers I really admire [who I heard on podcasts], learned about freelance writing/affiliate-marketing/biz-creation, documented my python learning project on social media, learned about women in STEM [particularly in the VR/XR/AR space], emailed my resume to Northern Virginia tech businesses, & taught myself effective learning methods.

While memorizing russian & french pop song lyrics [for pronunciation purposes].

Here in Salt Lake, I continued to learn how to start a business, as well as different side hustles I could possibly start here, continued learning french & russian, learned how to become a sustainable traveler, reviewed the accelerated-learning strategies from before, learned the basics of the keto diet, the sympto-thermal fertility awareness method, zero-waste swaps, the current dating market/ethos, the menstrual cycle, how the french philosophy lends itself to effortlessness and how I can implement that in my own lifestyle in salt lake.

But I had to put more enjoyable pursuits on pause in order to focus on learning how to settle into a new state, how to live on my own, while moving jobs and rentals.

New phase: go back to what worked for me! Now I can have fun again.