Out of curiosity, I recently checked statistics about single people in Slovakia.
While being single at 38 is still less common, the overall trend is obvious: the number of people living alone keeps rising.
This post is not about blaming society or analyzing dating dynamics in detail.
I would rather talk about the individual response.
Because when people live alone for a long time, many quietly start drifting toward resignation.
Life becomes:
- work just enough to survive
- consume entertainment
- escape into routines
- repeat
And honestly, I understand why.
The modern world can feel increasingly fragmented:
- costs keep rising
- social isolation is becoming normal
- genuine in-person connection is rarer
- and finding aligned people requires much more intentionality than before.
But despite all of that, I never fully accepted resignation as a long-term state.
If I ever stagnated, it usually lasted a day or two at most.
I simply cannot “do nothing” for very long.
So instead of collapsing inward, I started optimizing for something else entirely:
sovereignty.
Not luxury.
Not status.
Not endless scaling.
Time.
The more skills I develop, the more leverage I have:
- better clients
- better opportunities
- higher value per hour worked
- and more control over how I spend my life.
My goal is surprisingly simple:
earn more per hour and work less.
Not because I want permanent vacation.
But because time is the real asset.
Time allows:
- deep focus
- exploration
- creativity
- mastery
- new projects
- new hobbies
- meaningful relationships
- and occasionally disappearing into a rabbit hole for three days because curiosity won.
Ironically, the more freedom I gained, the more I invested back into myself.
Not out of fear.
Not because someone forced me.
Because life itself became interesting.
Almost like an open-world game where every new skill unlocks another area to explore.
I also realized something important:
Whatever life situation we are in, there are always advantages and tradeoffs.
None of them are perfect.
None of them are completely hopeless.
Singlehood has challenges.
Relationships have challenges.
Building a company has challenges.
Working a stable job has challenges.
The important part is whether we consciously shape our life or slowly drift into passive resignation.
For me, sovereignty became the answer.
And strangely enough, the pursuit itself is fun.
