2021 Year in Review

My secret goals for 2022

TL;DR

1. My secret 2022 goals

2. Tips to improve your sleep

3. Frameworks to navigate complexity

4. Best hiking trails near NYC

5. How to choose a career

6. Slicing through money’s mysteries

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Welcome

It’s been a while since I’ve written here, but with a new year, comes new resolutions! One of my 2022 goals is to publish 12 newsletters, so here we are.

You can expect me in your inbox on the first Friday of every month.

Each newsletter will have 6 sections:

1. Welcome - Sharing what I’m up to

2. Physical Health - Sharing one story on optimizing your physical health & my progress towards my physical health goals

3. Mental Health - Sharing one story on optimizing your mental health & my progress towards my mental health goals

4. Social Health - Sharing one story on optimizing your social health & my progress towards my social health goals

5. Vocational Health - Sharing one story on optimizing your vocational health & my progress towards my vocational health goals

6. Financial Health - Sharing one story on optimizing your financial health & my progress towards my financial health goals

Without further ado, here’s what I’ve been up to…

The past two weeks, I’ve spent over 20 hours reflecting on 2021. I used 47 different year-end-reflection guides to help me out (not really, but kinda).

If you haven’t done your year-end review yet, I highly recommend checking these out:

• Gustin Annual Review 2021 by Dr. Anthony Gustin

• The Ultimate Annual Review by Schlaf

• How to Conduct Your Own Annual Review by Chris Guillebeau

• 2021: Year in Review + 2022 Visioning by Dan Ragan, Inspired by Dickie Bush + The Moon Collective

This is my first time doing a formalized annual review, and I highly recommend it.

Here’s a glimpse into my year-end review:

2021 Highlights

• Made some life moves

  • Moved in with Rachael twice

  • Got Roo, our wonderful and devilish golden retriever puppy

• Built some things

  • Grew my Twitter following to ~8k

  • Wrote 30 essays in 30 days in January & April

  • Built Personal Podcast Challenge with Graham Mann

  • Built Fit Creator Club with Daniel Bustamante and Erod

• Traveled a bit

  • Snowboarding at Hunter Mountain in NY

  • Beaching in St. Petersberg, FL

  • Snowboarding in Breckenridge, CO

  • Eating & Drinking in Austin, TX

  • Hiking in Upstate NY

  • Sunset Cruising in Key West, FL

• Went to a few concerts

  • Jason Aldean at The PNC Bank Art Center

  • Lee Brice at The Stone Pony

  • Thomas Rhett at The PNC Bank Art Center

2021 was filled with challenges, joy, and great people. Oh, and a little furball. What else can you ask for in a year?

2021 Takeaway

Focus is the key to success.

• Focus is creating few meaningful relationships, rather than many shallow relationships

• Focus is building one business, rather than starting multiple businesses

• Focus is getting really good at one skill, rather than being average at many skills

2022 Goals

I’ll include these in the sections below…

Physical Health

In 2022, I want to dial in my sleep. After writing this thread on Eight Sleep, I learned a ton about the importance of sleep for overall health.

Here’s an amazing thread on 13 tactical tips to improve your sleep without buying a brand new $5k mattress:

Matthew Covey Brown @MCovBrown

13 tactical tips to improve your sleep without buying a brand new $5k mattress: A thread:

2022 Physical Health Goals

1. 200 CrossFit workouts

2. 300 nights where I sleep 7+ hours

3. 300 days fasting from 8 PM - 12 PM

Mental Health

The key to mental health is creating a peaceful mind. The best way to create a peaceful mind is to create frameworks that can help provide clarity in complex situations.

Here are 20 useful frameworks to help you navigate complexity:

Sahil Bloom @SahilBloom

Frameworks provide clarity in complex situations. Here are 20 useful frameworks (on startups, investing, writing, & life):

2022 Mental Health Goals

1. 150 walks or runs

2. 52 weekly reviews

3. 4 quarterly reviews

Social Health

One of my social goals this year is to do more day trips with my friends; hiking, snowboarding, etc.

Here’s a list of the best hiking trails near NYC.

2022 Social Health Goals

1. Call family daily

2. 30 date nights with Rachael

3. 20 day trips with friends. For example, hiking, snowboarding, etc.

Vocational Health

There have been many times in my life where I question what I am doing.

“Okay, I’m going to write 30 essays in 30 days… But for what? Why? What’s the purpose!”

When this happens, I get stuck, and I need a way to dig myself out.

The past 2 times I’ve gotten stuck, this blog post, How to Choose a Career by Julian Shapiro, has really helped me out. It’s an exercise that asks you several questions, and amazingly at the end, you feel like you have direction in life and your work. I highly recommend it.

2022 Vocational Health Goals

1. Write 40 Twitter threads

2. Write 150 Tweets

3. Get promoted from Analyst to Consultant

4. (Q2) Spend 400 hours studying for the GMAT

5. (Q3/4) Spend 100 hours writing my “MBA Story” / “GSAP Story”

Financial Health

If you haven’t read the blog Financial Samurai, you have to check it out. 90% of what I know about personal finance and wealth-building has come from this blog.

Here’s the story of the author of Financial Samurai, if you are interested:

Austin Schlessinger @austinschless

In 2012, an investment banker retired on $80k/year in passive income. 9 years later, he's up to $325k/year and counting. How'd he do it? THREAD: A strategy and story about how to achieve financial freedom 👇👇👇

2022 Financial Health Goals

1. Invest $6.25k in bets

   Bets are any investments outside of $VTSAX. Most of my net worth is tied in $VTSAX, but as the Financial Samurai says, “Never stop fortune-hunting.” Some examples of bets include crypto, individual stocks, real estate, side businesses, etc.

2. Earn $25k in side income

3. Increase income by 25%

4. Invest 30% of after-tax income