I failed at every productivity system until I created my own By Jan Jay | October 2025
How organizing my life around happiness, opportunity, and fulfillment helped me lose 20 pounds, transform my career, and stick to my goals.
To envision paying an HOA, one can imagine flushing their money down the toilet. But what if there was a different kind of HOA – one that you paid for yourself over time, and with noticeable, beneficial, and even life-changing results?
Since adopting this idea a year ago, the Happiness, Opportunity, and Achievement (HOA) framework has brought about radical positive change in my life.
The trap of perfection
I admit, I’m one of those people who is constantly chasing the next routine that will “change their life.” When motivation doesn’t magically appear overnight, I tend to abandon the effort and move on. Or I acquire new skills and then abandon them once I realize I’m not a secret miracle.
The pressure for perfection combined with an all-or-nothing mentality is a recipe for failure. If I can’t execute a new habit perfectly for seven days in a row, the whole thing is automatically considered a failure. This toxic pressure is not sustainable, which is why consistency has always remained elusive.
The vision board that changed everything
After years of this frustrating cycle, I decided to try creating a vision board during one of the most profound periods of my life. I had big plans for this year, but I was lost on what achieving those goals would look like day after day.
So I took it slow.
I knew my ultimate focus had to be on my health – on my body, to lose weight and gain strength, but also on my mind, to stay happy, busy, and smart. I had no hope of achieving other goals if I didn’t improve this first.
My next biggest priority was to gain enough new skills to change the course of my career. I wanted to become qualified in a new industry, which meant study, courses and exams.
My last major goal has been carried over from the previous year, and frankly may never be completed: learn Japanese.
Resulting categories: Health, Technology, Japanese.
From categories to framework
The vision board pushed me to identify actionable steps toward my new me. I wanted to walk regularly again, lift weights, and eat food that made my body and heart happy. I listed hobbies I wanted to do again and hobbies I wanted to try. I’ve added specific courses I plan to take, along with programming goals and potential positions. Finally, I’ve included my own language learning apps, along with alternative ways of immersion and learning.
Then I went back to review my painting.
Yes, I wanted to be healthy, but really I just wanted to be happy. Sure, happiness can stimulate everything else – health, and the rest of the board. And I realized that I was just looking for a feeling of accomplishment, to finally say that I had learned Japanese.
I felt like there was an accomplishment coming, so I wrote “happiness” and “accomplishment” near those categories.
I looked at the technology and thought about how I had waited so long to find such a good opportunity – and I couldn’t pass it up. It had the potential to provide long-term career success here or even abroad, which had always been my dream. I wrote “opportunity” above.
To deepen my understanding, I started writing down the board. I identified how I wanted to be happy, and why committing to health would improve everything in my life. She demonstrated how taking small steps to learn technology can provide financial and job security, as well as opportunities for promotion or relocation. I then wrote about how studying Japanese would satisfy my curiosity, increase my love of the language, and be practical for any future trips or moves to Japan.
On the board, note how some items contributed to other categories.
And in the moment of eureka, I finally saw my vision.
Make it actually work
Now that I know what I want and the ways I can achieve it, I have a new task: How do I make myself pay for my HOA when I’m failing at all else?
I realized almost immediately that I had just written down a good variety of options and ways to achieve my three aspects. In the past, I failed easily when I made very specific and strict plans. This time, if I spent time on just one activity from each category, I would feel productive.
I also decided to try each of them for just five minutes, which is fifteen minutes a day, and is easily manageable even with a busy schedule. My hope was that once I started, I would be too busy to stop for five minutes. (Spoiler: This works most of the time.)
Results
It’s easy to put the framework into a tracker to monitor progress. But you may find, like me, that after determining how important and useful this plan is and sticking to the bare minimum, the activities feel natural rather than forced.
Since I’ve been living with this framework this year, I’ve found real success:
- She lost twenty pounds and now exercises regularly
- Artistic creativity using multiple media (drawing, drawing, digital)
- She completed a computer technology course and is now studying for the certification exam
- My immersion in the Japanese language increased significantly as I came to understand more and more
When motivation fails
Sometimes I still feel unmotivated. But because I have multiple ways to make progress on each goal, I can find something that matches my time constraints or commitment level.
If you continue to not devote as much time to making progress, it will continue to be frustrating. But I remind myself to be gentle: I do what I can when I have time, and commit to a minimum of fifteen minutes when I don’t.
Why does it work?
When I pay myself an HOA, I know I will get a return on my investment.
The three categories not only coexist, but reinforce each other:
Achieving my happiness category gives me the right mindset and energy levels to achieve goals of opportunity and accomplishment. When I study technology, I feel happy and excited to think about future possibilities, especially regarding how it relates to Japan. When I study Japanese, I feel proud of my progress and look forward to the job and social opportunities it will bring.
These are not just three separate goals. It is a self-perpetuating system in which progress in one area fuels motivation in others.
Build your own HOA
Want to create your own HOA framework? I’ve put together a comprehensive 15-page guide that walks you through:
- Identify your categories of happiness, opportunity, and achievement
- Create actionable steps for each pillar
- Building a flexible system prevents the paralysis of perfectionism
- Track progress without rigidity
- Maintain consistency when motivation fails
Available now on Gumroad for $9 → Click here!
Unlike traditional HOAs, this one actually delivers its services.
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