Output-Based Goals to Break The Slump

It is no surprise that I am behind on all my goals related to my professional career, content entrepreneurship, and working out. There are plenty of reasons that led to this situation.

Ad-hoc complex tasks like learning how to drive and dealing with the unforeseen pressure of getting married are a couple. Perhaps the biggest cause is my carelessness. I’ve made a handful of dumb mistakes in the past, especially in 2024, that cost me significantly.

Thankfully, that was the kick I needed to get back up and continue grinding. Although it is great that the complacency is out of the window, the consequences remain.

However, sitting here and moping around will not change anything. Just like the decisions I made in 2024 have messed up my today, my actions in 2025 can certainly lead to a rosier 2026.

In this journal, I have outlined what needs to happen going forward.

Acknowledging Rock Bottom

The first step toward changing my situation is to take absolute ownership of the current state of things. A few years ago, I set out to achieve rather ambitious objectives of building a six-pack abs, earning a salary of a lakh a month, and monetizing my YouTube channel.

None have been achieved.

Plenty of side quests that have failed cost me considerable time and energy. Moreover, dealing with those losses, especially realizing I wouldn’t be going abroad for higher education or a job, had its toll on my mental health.

This caused me to spiral down further and make a string of seemingly minor mistakes which snowballed into big errors. Of course, recovering from these heart-in-mouth moments and recalibrating takes up additional resources.

Regardless, I can’t point at any of the aforementioned causes of failure to give any kind of excuses. No matter how I try to paint it, the fact remains — I fucked up. Big time.

At the same time, I can only go forward and am wiser than I was. It sounds like I am searching for a participation trophy, which is true, but focusing on the positives is critical in these conditions.

Skills, Discipline, and Mindset

Speaking of positives, the previous failures did teach me a lot. For instance, my content creation skills have drastically improved. Whether it is text, image, audio, or video, I can certainly deliver a banger in record time.

Additionally, I have improved my professionalism. Multiple stressful situations seem to have little or no impact on what I need to do throughout the day. There were quite a few moments in the past ten days when I completed complex tasks while being on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

The last piece of the puzzle was gaining empathy for myself. For a long time, almost a decade, I’ve been pushing myself hard to win in life. Unfortunately, many of the endeavors resulted in nothing but I never stopped marching forward.

Due to this approach, I managed to build a decent career and developed a few skills that will continue to pay dividends in the upcoming years.

However, I was never enough in my own eyes. When I look around my workspace or at myself in a mirror, I do see plenty of wins. 

Getting a job and being one of the highest-paid professionals for my range of experience isn’t nothing. Enhancing my physique from a morbidly obese body to a lean and muscular, but not ripped, is not nothing.

Continuing to push past five failed YouTube channels and six failed blogs to develop a battle-tested content framework, although the numbers look unimpressive at their face value, isn’t nothing.

Being comfortable in my own skin and learning to appreciate myself is not nothing.

And all of this sets me up for a great 2025.

The Modified Approach

The majority of folks on this planet, usually, measure their progress through mercantile metrics.

For instance, if you want to become a YouTuber, it’s the subscribers count. Similarly, in the case of career, it’s the reputation of the company you work at and the salary they pay you.

And this mentality is exacerbated in middle-class households in India.

But I know from experience that self-improvement isn’t that straightforward. A great example of this comes from my fitness journey. The first 6-8 months of exercising yielded zero results in terms of weight loss or visible muscle growth.

That doesn’t mean I wasn’t getting better. Staying consistent despite seeing no results does wonders for your tenacity and perseverance. I learned to ignore my emotions of laziness and whatever to just get through those seemingly unproductive sessions.

The physique I have now is a result of me sticking through the regimen during those months.

The broader point I am making is mercantile results, such as the digits on a weighing scale or the diameter of your biceps, aren’t the absolute markers of progress. The true progress lies in the output.

Rather than stressing how close or far I am from my magical six-packs, I should shift my attention to the reps in my sessions. As long as I am putting in those reps, in the right form and volume, I am winning.

Work is progress.

The Numbers to Match

Currently, I have 94 articles published on this site. This one will make it 95. The target is 250.

The Machined Nut YouTube channel has 31 videos. I need to hit 100.

I’ve had 51 3k running sessions. The goal is to get 100.

The timeline doesn’t matter because I always get on with it. Hence, my pace will be ideal anyway. 

Never Easy

The milestones I’ve set for myself require me to give 100%. I do it because the purpose of life is to maximize everything. Empty the tank. And frankly that’s what motivates me every day.

At the same time, now that I am older, I know there will be nefarious challenges. For instance, my mother has turned my friends against me to pressure me into marriage. My friends, to take the piss further, cooked up a tale of how me shaving my head is related to Andrew Tate. FML.

The pressure, as they say in the F1 paddock, is high.

I can only take it on the chin and put it at the back of my head and focus on the task at hand.

Fighting it will only make it worse. My timeline isn’t that far away but these guys won’t understand. Earlier I used to be a tad bitter upon the realization that no one cares, but now, for some reason, it’s exciting.

Either way, the point is to simply stick to the plan and continue to rack up the numbers. One of the critical components of being a content creator is to deliver good shit consistently. 

The past few years have helped me develop the relevant skills. All that is left is to physically produce the content.

I will also constantly calm myself down considering the current environment is suboptimal for giving it all as a creator. One trick here is to remind myself of the broad objectives and zoom into the daily operations to realize I am already on track.

The only element of life that requires introspection and planning is marriage. I will think about it after completing my bald phase. It will come to an end when I receive grafts after a few months. I am saving up some cash for it at the moment.

By the time my bald phase comes to an end, I will have raked up some serious numbers in the realm of work, working out, and content creation. It’s the perfect plan I will have ever executed.

Looking Forward: The Momentum

I’ve been whining about how tough it has been for the past few weeks. I have to turn things around by scoring a few easy wins and increasing my confidence. Fortunately, my action-oriented approach will make it effortless.

Tomorrow will begin with 200 pushups. Then, I must finish work within a few hours. The final major task of the day is to summarize the 2025 Melbourne GP as a video and publish it.

The rest of the week will follow accordingly. I already have other video ideas related to Liam Lawson and Ferrari. Maybe they can be finished too. Simultaneously, I am excited to write blog articles and run laps in a field.

The momentum will be here in a couple of weeks.

Until next time,

Tara

source