Transcription
Hi, my late 20s have been kicking my ass. So I'm going to do something about it. I'm going to spend the next 300 days trying to create my dream life.
It's actually the 6th of March today, meaning I have exactly 300 days from today until the 31st of December to make that happen. But before I get ahead of myself, I'm Zenia. I'm 28 years old, turning 29. I want to make this last year of my 20s really count, especially since I spent my mid-20s in a pandemic.
So yeah, I quit my 9-to-5 in October 2023 to pursue a different path for myself. And yeah, it's been a journey. I worked as a product designer for 10 years, climbing that corporate ladder. Don't get me wrong, I'm so, so grateful for that decade I spent working in corporate, in startups, in consulting, in design agencies. It was super fun; it taught me so much about design and technology, and about myself—what I'm good at, areas where I could grow. I genuinely adored the people I worked with; so many memories—like a decade of my life. My career so far is probably what so many young professionals would dream to have.
I found out what I wanted to do in my career really early on. I started working before I even turned 18. I was progressing really fast before I quit my job in 2023. I was leading a team of six designers; I was earning a really nice salary. But I just didn't feel like me. I always felt like I was trying to fit into a mold or just ticking boxes that the company that I worked for needed from me. That year, I realize now, something that I value so deeply is just freedom. As scary as leaving behind the security and the stability of an income and like a path that's kind of paved for you, as scary as that was, it was scarier for me to stay somewhere where I kept feeling unfulfilled. So I quit to make my own path in life—namely, to become a freelance designer and also to create content on the side. And yeah, it's freaking scary; it's still scary. I always think of that quote, which is by this person: the quote goes, "How do you know that you're on your path? Because it disappears." That's where I'm at now.
I remember when I quit my job, I instantly felt relief. I didn't get the Sunday scaries anymore; I didn't procrastinate going to bed; I didn't come home from a holiday feeling depressed. I had my whole day back; I had so much freedom. But then, before I knew it, 2024 came around, and I was already two months into my savings. And that's when things started to really change for me. I started feeling lost and anxious—really anxious. For context, most of my 2022 was spent being incredibly ill. In the span of about a year, I had appendicitis, chronic pain from my appendix surgery, gastro, bacterial pneumonia and COVID at the same time, and I had eye surgery. Let's just say I'm surprised I made it out alive. "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger"—wrong. It gives you severe health anxiety.
In 2024, after I quit, I was spending so much time alone at home, rotting with my thoughts. I was genuinely going insane. All those feelings of anxiety just came to the surface. I completely lost focus and purpose in life. I started having really bad panic attacks; I was super paranoid; I even developed fears that I didn't even think I had—namely, claustrophobia. I hadn't really made any progress towards becoming a freelancer; I hadn't started posting any content. I was literally just burning my money and then stressing about it. Because of that, I ended up caving and taking another full-time job. That was not the move; it was not it. I felt even worse about myself. I was at my lowest point in terms of creativity and confidence. I felt drained; I felt burnt out. The funny thing is, it didn't take me two years to feel that; it took me a couple of months.
Once again, at the end of last year, I found myself leaving yet another job. They say that the universe will keep teaching you the same lesson over and over and over again until you learn the lesson. For me, that was: taking a job, loving the job, feeling unfulfilled, wanting to leave, leaving the job, and then finding another one. I think I actually just needed to do more self-work rather than feeling the void of stability with another job. So this time, I'm going to break that cycle. I'm going to do something different. Honestly, the only thing that actually made me change my life to begin with was actually wanting to change my life—like hitting rock bottom and then realizing, "This kind of sucks, and no one is coming to save me."
So since last year, I've been working like a dog to improve myself. I've been working so hard on my mental health, on managing my anxiety. I've been posting a lot of content; I've taken on design projects; I've planned what I want my career and my life to look like—my dream life, so to speak. So far, I've felt progress, but it's super slow. But I think that's kind of what change feels like: it starts quite slow, and then everything happens—happens all at once. My partner and I love this quote: "Day by day, nothing changes, but when you look back, everything is different." They were right, cuz everything is different. I am such a different person to who I was last year, and the year before that, and the year before that. My only regret is that I didn't document that experience. So here I am.
I've seen so many people, and women especially, on their self-improvement journey—genuinely so empowering. By no means am I suggesting that you should do this 300-day challenge with me. I'll be rooting for you if you do, but I just think that these challenges are not a one-size-fits-all. This challenge is completely personal to me. Having tried so many different types of challenges, it's taking the best of all of them and trying to find something that I think will work. I just want to show up for myself; I want to be accountable for the goals that I set for myself. I've tried a bunch of different methods to change my life before. My biggest takeaway is that I try and do too much all at once, and also any shorter time frame of a challenge, like 30 days or a week, I think I end up just relapsing on the habits that I was trying so hard to build. So my battery just died—content creator alive, anyways. This challenge is less about doing it all and more about doing less, but more consistently.
I think the best part is that I feel really content with where I'm at now. I feel really happy about myself and all the progress I've made so far. So even if I do nothing from today, I would still feel really happy and fulfilled. After 300 days, I have a really solid base; I just want to take it up a notch, cuz why not? I also don't feel like I need to upgrade every aspect of my life either. I imagine these next 300 days, it will probably ebb and flow between which aspect I focus on, and that's so expected. It's not about sort of setting deadlines for specific goals or tasks. And I know you're probably wondering, "Zenia, why are you setting a 300-day challenge if you don't want deadlines?" I know. I think I also learned that I have to still keep things time-bound. 300 days is more of a reflection point; it's more having a really long period of time where significant change can happen and looking back after 300 days and being like, "Yeah, I kind of did that." I also want to watch the change happen. My biggest regret since 2022 was not documenting my experience and seeing all of that change happen—hence the YouTube channel.
My goal for this challenge is really to create content that I can watch back 300 days from now, 50 years from now, and just be like, "Wow, I'm so glad I filmed that." So you're probably going to see vlogs of key moments in my life this year—stuff that I want to remember. I'll probably do a sit-down update every month or so, just for this challenge specifically—any of the learnings or the lessons that I found. I also want to post more of my daily life so that you and I can see change happening gradually without sort of forcing it. This is me showing up; this is me figuring things out and seeing what happens. Without being said, I also have some really major things happening this year that I want to document. My partner and I went on a trip to New Zealand, and we actually got engaged. It was the first holiday that I actually fully vlogged—unbelievably thankful that I vlogged that trip. I did not expect to get proposed to, but I'm so glad I have all those memories. I'll probably be posting that vlog in the next few weeks. And because we got engaged last year, my fiancé and I are throwing an engagement party in the next couple of weeks as well, which I would love to share on YouTube. I really want to remember that party because a couple of weeks after that party, my fiancé and I are planning to move overseas. So it's kind of an engagement party, but also kind of a farewell.
I don't want to talk too much about moving overseas just yet because we don't have a lot of the details and stuff sorted. I'll probably be vlogging that experience of moving, and I think it'll be a really exciting time for you to follow along. Yeah, I mean, without really doing anything major, change is already incoming. Genuinely couldn't think of a better time to start this YouTube channel.
So what do I mean when I say "create my dream life"? I don't know. I have this picture of kind of what I want my life to look like. I don't like making it too concrete because I sometimes like letting the universe do its thing, and usually it impresses me more than anything I could come up with myself. A few areas in my life need work, and if I do that work, it'll get me closer to that reality that I can kind of picture. The first one being health. At the start of this year, I started my own version of the 75 Hard challenge; I called it 75Z because there were specific habits that I thought were great—great for me to focus on for 75 days straight. There are a couple of those that I genuinely want to keep going forward. So blueprint one is going to kind of take some of those 75 Hard goals and continue them.
Blueprint two: it's about design and my craft. I'm a creative at heart; at the same time, I'm also a multidisciplinary—I like a lot of different areas of creativity. I've worked for many years as a product designer. Early in your career, you're encouraged to explore lots of different aspects of design and find the things that you genuinely enjoy, the things that you know you're good at, and the things that you kind of resonate the most with. After working at a company for enough time, you're sort of pushed to specialize in a certain area, especially if you want a promotion or if you want to progress in your career. I don't really feel like I want to do that at the moment. I've tried being a manager and a design leader, but I tend to find that I enjoy the process of the craft as opposed to becoming a leader and being a manager of people. I don't really fit into the box of kind of where I'm at in my career with the corporate world of design. Because of that, I started my new design studio, which has gone through several rebrands; it's called Sands. That's my platform to really experiment and try different things and change it up. And of course, there's the freelance aspect of that company as well.
Blueprint three: lifestyle. For me, it's mostly about getting out more, exploring new places, trying new things, getting out of my comfort zone, and just having more fun. And then number four is personal style. So I have gone through so many different hairstyles; I've tried so many different makeup techniques and whatnot, and I feel like my fashion evolution is getting better, but it's not quite there. So this one is more about skincare, makeup, hair glow-up, um, and I also want to define overall style.
Let's jump into number one, which is health. It's about feeling stronger; it's about having higher mobility; managing stress through moving my body as much as possible. I don't really necessarily have a dream body in mind; generally, I feel pretty great. I just want to get a little bit more snatched, and I also want a lot more mobility and flexibility in my body. Hence, the subgoal is to reduce stress and tension, specifically in my neck and shoulders. For that, I'll be doing much more regular stretching, and I've been going in getting a remedial massage much more frequently, which has helped a lot. I just have to be one of those people that has massages much more frequently and not treat it like a luxury, but almost part of my health routine, especially because I want to exercise three to five times a week. Again, with 75 Hard, that was already something that I set as a goal, which was five times a week. I want to be doing any some kind of exercise; I definitely want to continue that. I alternate between doing a yoga class, reformer class, or some sort of cardio. I love playing paddle, which has been an amazing way to kind of get out and do more activity outside the gym. Unfortunately, they were right: moving your body does make you feel better. I also want to wake up earlier. It was another goal that I had set for myself in 75 Hard. I actually made it really easy, which was that every single day I had to wake up by 8:00 a.m. I do want to wake up by 7 most days; also means that I have to sleep earlier.
Cutting down alcohol was another one from 75 Hard. My goals for 75 Hard was not no alcohol; it was a preference to do no alcohol most days. However, when I did go out, I would limit it to two drinks. That's probably what I would continue. I don't necessarily want to go completely cold turkey; don't think it's necessary for me. I do see major benefits of reducing alcohol intake. I feel so much less inflamed in my body; I feel like I can wake up earlier; I don't feel the mental fog; and my hangovers were particularly rough. I can't do that anymore; I'm too old for that. This is basically just a repeat of all my 75 Hards. For me, it was daily affirmations or gratitude or meditation or journaling; I could pick out of any of them, but it was kind of just like a mindfulness activity; had to be done every single day. Again, major benefits; I'm going to keep doing it. And lastly, improving my diet. I've already lived a gluten-free diet most of my life, so that's just a no-brainer; it's always on there. But for 75 Hard, I also wanted to push my protein intake and kind of set like a—an amount every single day that I should be having. I was aiming for 80 to 100g per day, so I'm going to keep doing that. There's no like hard and fast rule; it's just having a little bit more protein and just kind of—um—owning the process of what I'm putting into my body.
The next one is design and craft, which I've already touched on a little bit before. I don't want to be a specialist when it comes to design. I think I kind of hit my ceiling in terms of interest and, to some extent, like skill set when it comes to software design. I think I'd still do it, but I'm a little bit burnt out from doing it for so many years. With Sands, I kind of can just explore my creativity and my craft a little bit more, and at the same time, kind of take on projects which align with what I feel like doing at the time. This blueprint also technically includes content creation as well; hence why the first two dot points are to post at least 50 videos this year, and through that process, I will improve in my filming process as well as my editing techniques. I want to have a goal of creating in something every single day, and I do want to share my work. So I don't have to share everything every single day, but I do want to share it a lot more often. That can be any design medium; that could be brand, graphic design, software design. One of my biggest goals in life is to actually create a custom font; it could be creating a typeface; it could be doing print work, packaging work; that's something. Could also be videos or content or thumbnails or scripts. Yeah, kind of taking in both of those; it gives me a lot of flexibility and being able to kind of choose what I feel like doing that day. Most importantly, I want to create more than I consume; I need to watch less and do more. So my goals are to just work on a lot of different creative projects and post a lot of the behind-the-scenes.
The next one is lifestyle—pretty straightforward. Some of the bigger ones is moving overseas, which is also huge. And I think by doing that, I will also be doing a lot of the other things on this list. When I picture my dream life, I just picture myself—myself in a new city, just exploring something that is a new horizon for me. I've lived in Sydney most of my life. I did do a couple of months um, studying abroad in San Diego, which was unreal. And ever since I've done that, I've always wanted to move overseas again—hence the second goal: travel to 20 new places. That could be 20 new countries; that could be 20 new cities—anything, just somewhere that isn't home. I also want to go on more solo dates, spend a lot more time—time going out alone, not waiting for someone to show up to do the things that I want to do. Moving overseas kind of makes that a little easier cuz you kind of do have to rely on yourself and be a little bit more self-sufficient until you have a community there as well. With that being said, making new friends is a huge priority, especially because I'm moving away from all my friends and family. Recently, I've also absolutely loved hosting. I think I actually, in another life, would have been an event planner because I genuinely enjoy the process of curating an event. So I do want to host more events. As part of 75 Hard, you're meant to read 10 pages a day. I kept that goal for myself as well, with my version. My goal for this year is to read 15 books. I've already read four; more than halfway through my fifth book, which is my first fiction of the year, and that's Fourth Wing. It's interesting—let's just say that I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. I don't know if I'll continue with the sequel, but I do want to read a little bit more fiction as well, cuz I've already read four self-help books this year. They're amazing; they've really kind of pushed me to get my act together, but I think I need to balance it out with a bit more like escapism. And then yeah, just generally more hobbies, more activities. I've gotten into so many hobbies last year—like paddle was a big one; mini clay—it's just so therapeutic. I had an image of what I think Lego was my whole life, and my horizons were just opened when I found an Animal Crossing Lego set. So that's a new activity that I'm getting into. I also really like jigsaw puzzles. A lot of people in my life laugh at me for this, but I have been doing math exercises as a hobby. As a designer, your work is never finished. I needed a hobby that would kind of make me feel like, "Yes, I'm done. Tick. Let's move on." So maths—yeah, it was my favorite subject in school. So I got my maths textbooks from school, and I just do it for fun.
Last but not least, it's personal style. I just want to find a signature fashion style. I feel like I fluctuate a lot, which is great, but it makes it really hard when I'm buying new pieces and curating outfits cuz they're just all over the place, and I have way too many clothes. So I need to simplify my wardrobe, especially since I can't take all of my clothes and my wardrobe overseas when I move. With that, I also want to create like a uniform—an everyday effortless look that still feels put together. I'm close, but maybe because the seasons in Australia are just so all over the place, it's really hard to have a uniform for the whole year. So I do want to create one more seasonally. I'm going to get my makeup done for my engagement party, and I always get so nervous when I get my makeup done because there's just something about it that doesn't feel right. So I usually always do my own makeup whenever possible. Certain days, like an engagement party, I don't really want to have the stress of doing my own makeup that day. I do want to find like a signature makeup look that helps me get a little bit better and also more comfortable wearing more makeup so that when I go to a makeup artist, I can kind of be a lot more specific of what I want to look like. I've been filming a lot of outfit-of-the-days and get-ready-with-mes the past year or so, and I think I'm slowly seeing like myself getting better. I think it'd be great to do a lot more of that this year so that I can kind of see the change happening, and then I also kind of have as a reference point of what—when I'm putting together another look—this is something that I've already worn; I can kind of put that look together again.
As you can see with all of my blueprints, I've kept it pretty—pretty lean. I'm normally such an over-planner—kind of spend more time making the plan as opposed to actually doing the plan. This is more just like a guide of stuff I should be doing in the next 300 days or focusing on in the next 300 days. Some of them are numerical goals, which are great because they kind of will keep me more focused. And hopefully, with the monthly updates, I can kind of check in and see how much I've progressed between each of these kind of categories and if any of them have changed.
So far, that's it; that's my rough plan—or plan—uh, for 2025. I hope you enjoyed my first ever YouTube video. This was really fun. I guess we'll see at the end of the year if I'm living my dream or crashing and burning. Who knows? All I can do is try. So yeah, see you in my next video. [Music]