This is my 2nd Year in Review. This page is an effort to put into the words the progress I have made in life over the past 365 days. Areas where I succeeded, areas where I did not, and overall what I am working towards next year.

This review is 100% for me. I share it to encourage others to do something similar, while also increasing my own personal accountability.

I will be asking myself the same three questions I asked last year:

• What went well this year?
• What didn’t go well this year?
• What am I working toward?

What Went Well?

My Career: I moved from being a contract employee to full-time, and then subsequently received two promotions. Just writing this seems surreal to me, and while it may sound impressive there is some background. I started my job mid-Covid at a startup which was only able to hire me as a contract employee (benefits are expensive). The company then grew to the point where they were able to bring me on full time, and then it grew some more (hence the two promotions). I made a commitment early on to stay with them during 2020, and I was rewarded.

Writing: WOW, I wrote so much this year. Like an absolutely crazy amount. I made a New Years resolution to write 52 articles on this blog (LFG!!) along with many, MANY posts on LinkedIn. The funny thing I’ve realized is that while I enjoy writing, I do not like the aspect of being measured by social engagement. I just like doing it for myself.

Learning to Program: I learned how to code in C# and Python this year. I built a Jumble Bot for our work Slack channel that scrambles words you need to guess. Then in December I decided to learn C# (a programming language) and Unity (a game engine), which are the tools basics required for making a game you can distribute across multiple platform.

My Relationships: I naturally foster and build relationships, and this year was no different. I spent a lot of time with my close group of friends, my family, and my coworkers and developed a large amount of trust within these groups. Also, I built an Instagram account just for fun with a close buddy. I may double down on my relationships in 2022.

Mental Health: This year was a big step forward in my mental health. I saw a therapist for a long time, started meditating and journaling more frequently, and overall started to confront my fears. Like most men (according to what I’ve read on Reddit), I’m always been worried about not being good enough. This year I took on a big challenge (I wrote 52 articles), completed the challenge, and am now walking away from it to take on something new. That feels good man.

What Didn’t Go Well?

Moderation: One of the biggest things I need to work on is moderation. The Podcast Reply All had a great quote “Playing 1 hour of videogames is fun, playing 9 hours isn’t”, which really hit home for me. Due to my nature of wanting to do everything 110%, I am not big on moderation, and this year was no different. However, being able to moderate is a big part of maturing, and it’s something I plan to put significant work into in 2022.

Giving Back: I did not give back nearly as much as I would like to. It’s not only just from my time, but from a financial aspect as well. I can and should do more, and I will make more of an effort next year to do so.

Managing Emotions: I have traditionally not been great at managing my emotions, specifically anger. I’m not alone and my family definitely has a… pattern of anger. That is even more of a reason to continue working on it.

What Am I Working Towards?

Becoming a Developer: Technically, I already am one. I launched one program this year that is used on nearly a daily basis by my company. That’s just scratching the surface though on what’s possible. There are many reasons behind this goal, but foremost is I want to be able to bring ideas I have to life. Also, understanding how to code is one of the best ways to future proof your career, life, and income. There will never be a surplus of people who know how to interact with technology at a granular level.

Focus: I turn 28 this year. I’m starting to get closer and closer towards turning 30 and while that is just a number, I want my path in life to be a bit more clear when I hit that milestone age. To get there, I need to start focusing on more specific goals of who I want to become, and trying to achieve goals that are further out than just one year. That’s why my goal of becoming a developer is so important to me.

Maturing: This is a funny catch-22 goal, because the more mature you become, the more immature you realize you are. This year I want to take a major step in the next phase of my maturity, which will mean taking on more responsibility and living with fewer regrets in life. I’m excited.

Giving Back: This is a goal that I failed this past year. While I did give back some, it is not as much as I would have liked. I can do more next year.

As Always…

My life is a work in progress. If you’re reading this, you’re witnessing the one-year mark of me deliberately building a life that I want to live. I’m frankly astounded by the progress that can be made in one year, and I hope my example can inspire you to make a positive change in your own life.

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):

1. What went well this year?
2. What didn’t go well this year?
3. 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.