2021 just kicked off and I have already planed a lot for this year. Sure I could keep all my plans and dreams top secret but taking them out into the world is like more of a commitment of really doing them and being serious about it. And I thought it might be funny looking back on this in a year.

Living in my Van for several months

2020 was a tough year for travelers. Even though I took a lot of trips with my van, most of them in Austria, doing some social distancing in the mountains. But this wasn’t like “full-time vanlife”. The duration of the trips variated between 3 and 14 days. I hope the whole COVID situation gets better this year and we can travel more.

This year I really want to life several months out of my van. This means working out of my van, daily business like cooking, doing laundry and this kind of stuf but also of course to enjoy and explore new places.

Our plan is to drive to Portugal and enjoy some weeks at the seaside and maybe learn surfing. This is the only destination we set as our goal this year, don’t know where I will spend the rest of the time. But let’s see what the whole travel situation will be in 2021, before planing too much.

Reading More Books

Last year I challenged myself to read 15 books, I surpassed this goal by 5 books and it felt great. So for this year, I want to achieve reading 30 books. Let’s see how this works. My reading list is already so long, so I have to speed things up.

But this year I do not only want to read them. I also want to write a little review about each of them, to rewind the books, and keep a little library of important parts and takeaways of each book.

This already leads me to my next point.

Trying out more new things

Being in your comfort zone, doing your usual things feels good and safe, but they don’t widen your horizont as much as when you do or learn new things. The things I will try next year:

  • Surfing
  • Climbing
  • Going on a Skitour
  • Cross-country skiing
  • Doing a Podcast

Getting more serious about existing projects

Writing – I am really fascinated by people who can write good stories that translate their thoughts in a great way. This is why I started writing on Medium and on my blog, But I just can’t keep it regular.

YouTube – I started this YouTube channel last year to document my travels, but yeah… You see how great it worked out… (haha). So hopefully I will spent more time in producing videos for my channel.

Photography – I also want to take more photos. Photography is one of my biggest passions and I finally landed my first photo job last year. But sometimes I get too comfortable with it and stop trying new things.

Skating – Finally want to land a kickflip.

But here is one more project I want to talk about, but this one earns its own headline.

Realizing my already designed app

My master’s thesis was about an app. I did the design, marketing, and concept of a van life app, and this year I want to realize this app. Not sure about how many features I will add in the first version, but the goal is to get a minimal valuable product to the app stores.
At the moment I have not much experience in developing an app. I know the basics of programming and I already have made a simple one at university, but there are a lot of learning resources out there, so I think I will be able to teach it myself with the help of the internet.

This project goes hand in hand with the last point of my list

Growing my business

At the moment I make a living as a Freelancer and a little bit with YouTube. I already have lot of ideas in my head, of how I can add several more income streams. Especially when I am on the road this will be an important topic for me, because I have to make some money while I am on the go to afford my travels. And also save some money for bigger projects that I have in my head. But they are not in the scope of 2021 so let’s keep them secret until next year.

I am really motivated to get started with my plans for this year and I am very confident, that I will achieve all of that.

What are your plans, dreams, and goals for this year?

– Daniel