What was the hardest personal goal you’ve set for yourself?

Daily writing prompt
What was the hardest personal goal you’ve set for yourself?

Good job to whoever came up with this writing prompt! I have two candidates.

  • Buying my first computer. I knew I wanted one ever since I was 7, so I began saving my pocket cash. The world changed—communism fell, the world moved from 8086 to the 8088XT, 286, 386, 486, and eventually the Pentium. By the time I finished high school, I had saved just enough for about half a computer. With a little help from my family, I finally managed to buy one. I met all kinds of characters along the way, wrote two books that never saw the light of day, and worked part-time jobs. Learned Basic and math. It felt almost like a journey out of The Lord of the Rings, culminating in that moment when I disposed of my savings at the mountain of Doom to get a shiny new K5 computer—only to realize I didn’t know how to use it.
  • Overcoming panic attacks. That one took more than 8 years and involved the Sermon, two therapists, many books, a deep research on the subject of thinking errors, and some bad luck. I could also write a book about it but it would be grossly incompetent. Maybe a blog post one day. Also, with panic attacks, there’s no guarantee they’re gone for good.

I’m now after 10k steps/day average over the course of a year and climbing Vihren in 2025.