This year I’m writing my first annual review in an effort to summarize what has gone well this past year, what has gone poorly, and what are the areas that I plan to improve in.
While this exercise is important for me to take stock of how the past year has gone, the primary purpose is to create a plan for my future self. That way I will have a public record of my decisions and commitments so that I can hold myself accountable to what I want to accomplish over the next year. I have spent too much of my life with unclear plans, working towards unclear goals, and this review will force me to take an honest look at myself and ask “Are my actions helping me live the life that I want to live”.
There are three questions that I am going to answer (thank you James Clear who I took this annual review concept from):
- What went well this year?
- What didn’t go well this year?
- What am I working toward?
As a note, this is a personal process, but I hope my example here can inspire you to start your own annual review.
What Went Well?
Career: After searching for a job for just over 3-months after shutting down a failed venture, I was incredibly lucky to receive a job offer right when COVID-19 hit in March. I interviewed in-person, but have been working remotely since I started. Unlike my previous jobs, I told myself upfront requirements were non-negotiable in this role (autonomy, personal growth, and large impact on this business) which has led to me working in the most fulfilling role that I have had to date.
Developing Thick Skin: The primary function in my current role is sales which involves a lot of “no’s” and rejection. I have also started to put out content publicly under my own name which has opened up another channel for people to disagree, or in most cases ignore, what I have to say. Prior to this year, I had a large fear of rejection which I’ve managed to decrease to the point has now decreased to the point where I can put out my thoughts on my own public forum (i.e. this blog).
Family Time: Just like many of us, one of the silver linings of the pandemic was that I had an opportunity to see and spend more time with my family than I usually do. Since I am the youngest of five, many of my siblings are moving on to the next stage of their lives (i.e. marriage) so I make sure to cherish every moment we can have together.
Reduced Phone Usage: I broke my phone at the end of August and decided to spend the entire month of September without one. The immediate increase to both my happiness and attention span was astounding. While not having a phone created a few issues (specifically, I could not use 2-factor authentication), this change led me to permanently delete many time wasting apps such as social media and games.
Prioritizing My Own Path: I have spent a long time going down life paths that others have told me will make me happy without ever truly asking myself “what do I want to do”. While some paths worked out to my advantage (going to college), others did not (spending 2+ years pursing a failed career in finance). This past year was the first time I began to make decisions that were true to what I wanted, rather than a version of myself that I thought I wanted to be.
What Didn’t Go Well?
Mental Health: This was an incredibly tough year for all of us and while I know I’m lucky to not have to worry about paying rent or where my next meal will come from, the stresses of the pandemic did create an enormous strain on my mental health. Like most things, poor mental health created a downward spiral and I spent far too much time trying to distract myself, rather than focusing on fixing the root causes of the issues I was dealing with.
Wasted Time: Like many of us, I filled a lot of my free time this year with junk such as binging Netflix and playing video games. While I certainly don’t have regrets about some media I consumed (such as watching Queens Gambit or playing Red Dead Redemption 2), there was a lot of media I consumed that I won’t remember and was a pure waste of time.
Commitment: In the past 2 years I’ve put serious time into pursuing at least three potential businesses ideas (two physical products, one blog) and none of them came to real fruition. It’s hard to tell if an idea will work if you don’t spend at least a year committed to making it work. For this year, I am committed to trying to make this blog work.
What am I working towards?
So where am I trying to go? While I still plan to take everything one year at a time, here are the five things I am committed to achieving in 2021.
Consistency: My New Years Resolution is to write 52 articles in 2021 which I plan to publish every Thursday. This is going to be first one of many articles that I put out and over the course of this exercise and through it I hope to become a better writer and meet new people who can challenge and improve my thinking.
Healthier Habits: Specifically around sleep and meditation which are both critical to developing a healthy mindset. While I’m not going to set myself any specific numerical goals here (only picking my article writing resolution for that), a general theme of the year will be to increase the consistency of how often I implement healthy habits.
Prioritization of Time: I have spent far too much time in my life on activities that did not benefit me, nor that I wanted to be doing. This happened since I did not have a set of clear priorities in life and I was in my early 20s when it seemed like drinking and partying was the best thing you can do with your free time (it’s not, especially once you start getting older).
Bias Towards Action: Whenever life becomes overwhelming me I tend to freeze up and replace my problems with a distraction such as Netflix, which is a common, yet ineffective coping mechanism. This resulted in multiple negative feedback loops (you ignore the problem, the problem becomes larger, the cycle repeats itself). This year I’m committing to not let any long-term problems build up by always prioritizing a bias towards action.
Giving Back: It’s scientifically proven that helping others makes one happier. While my primary focus will continue to be my own personal development, I plan to share my journey with as much transparency as possible on this blog in an effort to help others who are in a position similar to me. I also plan to begin committing a portion of my income every year to charitable causes that I think are important which is something I should have done long ago.
As Always…
My life is a work in progress.
If you’re reading this, you’re watching me take one of the first steps (of hopefully many) towards deliberately building a life that I want to live. I hope my example can inspire you to do the same in your own way.