Post Talk Update

Ok, here’s what’s up because I feel like I’ve barely updated this place while I shifted to other sorta related projects: 

As I mentioned in Help Wanted, I was slated to give a talk at a FIRE event about Mental Health and FI. 

First off, I got some amazing replies to that post, and the help I received was far beyond my expectations. With the help of some people who wish to remain anonymous, we were able to put together a mental health resource guide. It gives a list of about 30 books you can use to educate yourself about bettering your mental health, then outlines some well researched self care practices. Finally, we built a section on therapy, in which these incredible anonymous contributors covered such topics as how to find a therapist, how to go to therapy and hold yourself accountable, how to pay for it, remote resources, and even international therapist arbitrage.

Anywho, the mental health resources guide ended up being about 20 pages. We built it because as I prepared, I realized the talk was going to be about ⅔ why you should be proactive about improving your mental health, and only ⅓ how to improve. That whole ‘how-to’ portion could be a days long class, and I didn’t want to leave people hanging. So I figured the guide would be a good way for people to dive into the stuff I just barely covered in the talk.

Speaking of the talk, between building out the guide and preparing for the talk, that’s where I’ve been spending most of my time as of late. I have a mostly useless degree in speech communication; one thing I learned from that was that I’m an okish public speaker if I practice  a fuck-ton. So I’ve been giving my talk to myself, my cats, and even my patient wife. Right now I’ve been practicing it at least once a day. This has helped me get down from an hour of me rambling to a slightly more coherent 30 minute version. 

In preparing these things, I realized I actually care about mental health and helping people, which is really annoying. Annoying because when I care about stuff, I feel the need to do something about it. And that means less time watching star wars, mountain biking, and generally enjoying the bliss of being lazy and doing not much of anything. Uggg. Thus I’ve come to terms with the end of my mostly lazy post full-time work years, and the beginning of the period where I only spend half my time being lazy and the other half trying to make things more better. 

Ok, enough me lamenting about shit that doesn’t really matter.

We finished the Mental Health Resources Guide, and I gave the talk. I really enjoyed all that, even though I was a nervous wreck for days before the talk, and almost threw up twice. But after that, I knew I wanted to keep trying to push the needle just a bit in trying to get people to be ok with working on their mental health. People seemed to get something out of the talk, and said it helped. And I want to keep helping. I realized I had two things to assist with that project; the talk itself, and the resource guide. Of course I want to post them on this site. But I want them to be here in a way that doesn’t look like complete shit, and that people won’t mind using. 

So yeah, that’s what I’ve been working on. I recorded one of my practice talks and used an AI to transcribe it. Skynet kinda sucked, so I’m in the process of rewriting it (3800 out of 6000 words edited so far). I’m also splitting up the resource guide into digestible chunks, and building a landing page for all this stuff. Finally I’m going back and monetizing the book links (all proceeds less taxes will be donated to charity) through Amazon’s affiliate program.

Of course all the normal life stuff has been going on; my main priority is still being a good homemaker, husband, and dad. And we’re selling our house. And getting the kids through that transition while we move and switch schools. And still pushing back on the insidious creep of busyness-most days I’ve still got plenty of time to chill, which is fucking awesome (yay FIRE!).

Ok, think that’s pretty much it. Just wanted to check in, as I know I went dark there for a while. While you wait for me to get all the above done, please enjoy this picture of a cat: 

Yikes, realized I didn’t even mention much about the FI event I went to. To sum up; one of the best weekends I’ve had…ever. Went in with no expectations, and was completely blown away. Loved the small scale nature, and talked for hours with amazing people. My comrades in arms will always be my brothers…I love them, but like most siblings we can annoy each other yet still have fun. But these people at the event? First time I‘ve ran into a large group of people IRL that are like me. Can’t wait to do it again 😌