Life Planning with TCG: Three Ways to Collect, Trade, and Combine Your Hand Deck of Life Planning

I've shared my Annual Review and Planning process before, but honestly, I'm not someone who's particularly good at planning.

I've handled plenty of nasty projects and I'm good at solving client problems, but I don't think any of that has anything to do with "planning."

I'm just good at breaking down problems and solving them when they show up. There's no "plan" involved.

So when I think about my own career, instead of using goals to map out the future, I prefer using "strategy" to explore life.

Strategy feels simpler than goals or plans, and it lasts longer.

Before I break down the three methods, here's a one-line definition:

Life planning is treating your career like a TCG match — TCG (Trading Card Game, like Magic: The Gathering, Pokémon TCG, or Hearthstone) is built around one core idea: you don't get to choose your starting hand, but you can use three actions — collecting new cards, trading away spare ones, and combining different decks — to gradually expand your network, expertise, habits, and assets, so even without a clear goal, you can keep moving toward something you like.

This article walks through those three actions, using my own real experience of spending four years finding a marriage partner, choosing a graduate school, and picking my first job, to show you how the TCG mindset actually works.

Life planning is like playing a TCG

We don't get to choose our starting cards, so we have to keep finding chances to fill in the cards we're missing and put together different strategies.

Cards have to work together, and you have to play them at the right moment to get the most out of them.

Some people open with a great hand but play badly mid-game. Some have a solid mid-game but get flipped at the end.

That's because most people think they're playing against an opponent, but in life, you're playing against yourself.

Bad play usually has nothing to do with your opponent.

So how do you use the TCG mindset for life planning? Three methods: collect, trade, combine.

1. Collect new cards: how to expand your hand and broaden your horizons

I used to play Magic: The Gathering and Pokémon TCG. I started in 7th grade and competed in regional tournaments.

TCGs have all kinds of cards: item cards, character cards, spell cards, resource cards, you name it.

Each card has its own role, just like life: you have expertise, friends and mentors, a car, a house, or other assets.

In TCG you spend money pulling cards, hoping to land a rare powerful one to strengthen your deck and reshape your strategy.

Step one of life planning is simple: collect new cards regularly.

Step out of your comfort zone. Get into new fields, meet new friends.
Sign up for in-person courses to learn new skills, and you'll likely meet new people too — expanding your skills, perspective, and network.
Start following creators in specific fields. See what they think about every day. Get inspired.

Collecting new cards regularly is a more "active" move, but first you have to ask yourself: what are you actually after?

Where life planning and goal-setting overlap: you still need to know what kind of life you're aiming for.

Where they differ: goals and plans are concrete. Strategy is fuzzier and keeps your options open.

From a life-planning perspective: As long as I'm doing it regularly, putting time into it, moving toward the future I want, DONE.

Just put the time in. The results will follow. Don't sweat the gains and losses too much.

2. Trade cards: how to swap existing resources for more valuable opportunities

Some moves cost money, some don't. For example:

I helped my professors with all sorts of stuff during grad school, so they were naturally more willing to write recommendation letters later.
A friend asked if I knew any web design studio to take on a case, so I introduced him to a junior who'd just started one.
A friend asked me for advice on his thesis, and through that conversation I learned about his field too — broadened my horizons.

The key here is: the cards you have can be traded for new cards.

We can use cards we consider "low value" to get cards from someone else that we consider "high value."

As long as the other person sees our cards as "high value" and theirs as "lower value" — deal!

Strategy is a very utilitarian thing. We all need to gain something! BUT!

We're willing to help others for free because we want to build good relationships and earn that "good person card" (lol).

We don't know if this person will eventually help us, just like when I get a new card, I don't know when it'll come in handy.

But here's the thing — getting a new card is meaningful in itself. It broadens your view and introduces you to new people and things.

When you finally have enough cards to "close the net," you'll be grateful for the moves you made before, just like the people you helped will be grateful to you.

You never know when these people will turn around and help you. So even if it's utilitarian, don't burn people. Do good things.

3. Combine cards: how to review your hand and build a deck that drives your goal

In TCG, you can only carry up to 60 cards in a deck, so you have to review your deck every once in a while.

Every time you draw a new card, it sparks new ideas and new strategic decks.

Imagine you meet a new friend in a different field — wouldn't you start thinking about what kind of project you could work on together?

Actually, even if you don't get a "new card," you can still review your existing deck to check whether your life strategy has drifted off course.

Let me use my own "finding a marriage partner" experience as an example.

My wife and I met on a dating app, but the strategy leading up to it took close to four years.

What did I do for those four years?

Expanded my social circle: I tried 6+ dating apps, attended community events constantly, actively went on dates.
Learned "good husband" skills: how to talk, how to clean and decorate a room, cooking, how to spot good restaurants.
Got support from divination: Fortune telling, astrology and tarot, spirit channeling, drawing fortune sticks at Temple, getting the matchmaker's string from Yue Lao(A god that pulls string between couples).

This is what "combining cards" actually looks like in practice: expanding the social circle is collecting new cards, learning life skills is strengthening the cards I already had, divination consultations were reviewing the direction of the whole deck — three paths advancing in parallel, finally closing the net on a dating app.

Writing it out, I realize this is a bit ridiculous. I really didn't expect I'd put that much effort into finding a soul partner, but i did.

I'd encourage you to think: does your strategy combine into something that drives the thing you actually want?

In my example above, the goal of the three angles was specifically marriage, not just dating.

Honestly, the divination piece was the biggest part! It massively accelerated us getting into marriage.

You might want to ask: if I don't have a clear goal, can I still do strategy? NO!

Wait, I mean — yes! The reason I prefer "life planning as strategy" is exactly this: it's the best fit for people without a clear goal! That's how I got here too!

What you're strategizing is a "direction"! It's choosing the kind of life you want to live!

The spirit of life planning: don't fixate on gains and losses

In college, I didn't really know what I wanted. My thinking was simple: take "nutritious classes" and you'll "get stronger."

Back then I just wanted to be a little better than the next person. Have a slight edge. Easier to find a job, right?

Since taking the "nutritious classes" meant being busy, I'd balance them with some "easy A classes" to free up time.

In grad school, to work on research topics I actually cared about, I picked a professor who gave students "a lot of freedom in choosing topics."

The catch is the professor can only point you to people in adjacent fields for guidance. You have to learn most of it through your own grind. Self-inflicted, really.

After graduation, I figured the most important thing about a company was "learning something." So I went after companies that were "well-known" in the industry.

My first job was at ALPHA Camp — the pioneer in online career-switch courses for software engineers. Got absolutely worked LOL.

My writing and curriculum-building skills were forged at ALPHA Camp. I was so green, I was getting yelled at almost daily by Ellen sitting next to me (What a nightmare).

Three different periods, all chosen based on mood and preference. Did I have goals? I didn't think too hard about it. Pretty obvious, right?

I just wanted to learn nutritious things. "Nutritious" is subjective, and whether it'd be useful later, who knows.

I just wanted to do research I liked. It was exhausting. Thesis came in at 177 pages. My juniors hated me for raising the bar. Sorry, not so sorry.

I just wanted a job I liked. Sort of hit the mark, and stepping outside, it turns out I'm stronger than a lot of people. ALPHA Camp had high standards for materials and teaching.

Strategy is doing what you like or want to do, putting time into it, not obsessing over gains and losses, and letting the results speak for themselves.

The mindset of life planning: I want to do this, and I'm willing to put time in

Life planning is a way of building a career that emphasizes "exploration."

My strategy for finding a "marriage partner" also opened up a ton of side possibilities:

I met a lot of impressive women. None became romantic partners, but they became great friends to talk business with.
I met many divination practitioners who gave me a lot of life advice — including pursuing a PhD, switching jobs, starting a company.
I met many community professionals who gave me real insights: writing, marketing, taxes.

If you only target a goal and rush at it, you'll miss everything around you. And if you don't reach it, the pressure eats you alive.

Life planning is exploring more new things by engaging with people and stuff you like, then enjoying it like you're collecting cards.

Only one thing has to be crystal clear: you really want to do this, and you're willing to put time into it.

Start your life planning across four dimensions: expertise, network, habits, assets

Whether it's annual goals or life strategy, write it down. On paper.

If you don't know where to start, start with these four dimensions:

Expertise: build new professional skills or deepen existing ones.
Network: meet new people from different professional communities, industries, age groups.
Habits: build cyclical habits — exercise, writing, trying new restaurants, cooking new dishes, reading.
Assets: assets generate income. Buy some fixed deposits, stocks, bonds, or crypto to store and preserve value.

These four are what I've been strategizing across long-term: building expertise, expanding the network, establishing habits, accumulating assets.

In other words, the four dimensions correspond to different resource types in your life strategy:

Expertise: verifiable capability — your strongest bargaining chip when trading cards
Network: a system that amplifies the value of your expertise — itself a tradable asset
Habits: invisible cards that generate long-term compound returns — nobody sees them, but they decide your late-game strength
Assets: turning time into ongoing cash flow — giving you more capital for future moves

As long as you keep putting time into "collecting, trading, combining cards" across these four areas long-term, you're good.

If you want to switch your expertise, network, habits, or assets — that's all OK, because the point is that your hand keeps getting richer!

You might suspect you've achieved nothing. But once you start auditing your hand, you'll realize you've actually accumulated a lot.

Like how I scared myself looking back at all the things I did to find a wife LOL.

When you've accumulated enough, don't forget to review regularly and find ways to "play" these cards!

Don't forget to play your hand!

How? The simplest way is "sharing."

If you've been at it long enough and accumulated enough cards, you definitely have methods and experience to share with others.

Expertise: teach how to use software, share ways of handling things, writing tips.
Network: introduce two friends whose needs match each other, host a book club.
Habits: share reading notes, daily workout lists, daily diet management lists.
Assets: share personal finance knowledge, market observations, fresh financial perspectives.

Can your hand be played as a "combo"? Hosting events is a great example:

Tap your network to promote the event (network x expertise)
Provide free comp tickets to friends to help spread the word (trading cards!)
Charge for the event (assets+)
Promote a friend's book at the event (network+)
Hosting events raises your profile (network+, more people know you)

You don't have to host events. It's just a relatively simple example. Think about your own preferences.

Start your life planning right now

Here's a simple checklist so you can start immediately!

Fill in 1 item per slot. Just 1. Strategy works step by step, unless there's something you really want to do.

Then think about how many hours per week you're willing to put in — hours you can actually deliver.

After one week of execution, open the list and review yourself. Did you follow through? If not, why not?

Maybe you didn't actually like doing that thing? Then remove it. Don't be polite!

For example, I wanted to make short-form videos. I learned editing techniques, even shot the footage, but I just lacked the drive. Just didn't do it.

Eventually I removed short-form videos from my strategy. I'll add it back in three months — uh, maybe never?

Once you get used to strategizing, lots of things will come and go. We have low periods. Careers have busy seasons.

Don't be too hard on yourself. Just because you can't commit now doesn't mean you've given up. You just haven't gotten to it yet.

If you never do it later, that's also fine — it means you probably didn't really want to do it. Knowing earlier is a good thing.

Once you're comfortable with strategizing, you can gradually layer in more things you want to do, building your life deck step by step.

To wrap up, I want to use a recent line from old K (reading other people's writing is one of the things I always make time for):

A lot of suffering comes from wanting to control. But sometimes when you try not to control, you actually feel more in control.

We think about life to control the unknown as much as possible, but obsessing over progress and efficiency wrecks things.

Life planning is about escaping the "productivity-first" mindset and treating life like travel — go explore the things you love!

Studying your opponent's strategy is genuinely effective, but the real winners in TCG aren't the ones who study opponents the most — they're the ones who fully understand what their own hand can do.

— Arch Soong

Strategy checklist (write it on paper, please — okay, copy-paste is fine if that makes you happy)

Expertise: ____ (___ hours/week)
Network: ____ (___ hours/week)
Habits: ____ (___ hours/week)
Assets: ____ (___ hours/week)

FAQ

Q: What's the difference between life planning, annual planning, and OKRs? A: Annual planning and OKRs work backward from a goal — you have to first decide "what to achieve." Life planning works forward from your hand — you only need to know "where to put your time." The former suits people with clear goals; the latter suits people who aren't sure of the direction but are willing to explore.

Q: Can I do life planning without a clear goal? A: Yes, that's the biggest advantage of the TCG mindset. I had no clear goal in college, grad school, or when picking my first job. I just followed preferences like "I want to learn nutritious things" or "I want to do research I like" — and ended up accumulating a uniquely combined hand.

Q: Do all four dimensions (expertise, network, habits, assets) need to be strategized at once? A: No. Start with one dimension, invest the hours per week you can realistically deliver (say, 3 hours), execute for a week, review, then decide whether to add a new item. The point is "long-term commitment," not "going wide on everything."

Q: How do I judge whether a "card" (a relationship or a skill) is worth keeping? A: Ask yourself two questions: "Do I still want to put time into this?" and "Did I actually put time into it the past three months?" If both answers are no, remove the card from your strategy list and re-evaluate in three months.