This is a review of my 2022 and a public sharing of 2023 goals.
Why document it? The Bill Gates quote sums it up:
“Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.”
We’re capable of great things. They just take time.
Are you doing a yearly review? Would love to read yours!
My process:
1. Review and retrospective on the last year.
I review:
- Google Calendar
- Google photos
- Photos
- Swarm
Then, I review my notes on Roam and Twitter. I put these in six buckets: Long-term projects, Career, Relationships, Health, Finances, and Leisure. For each bucket, I think about: (1) What went well (2) What could be improved.
2. Plan the next year.
I review notes about (1) my long-term goals and (2) my Perfect Tuesday. These are my North Star metrics as I plan what I want to accomplish in the new year. (I cover long-term goals, including specific $ I plan to earn, here.)
Finally, I keep the following in mind:
“Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.”
– Dwight D. Eisenhower
Success is measured by intention, not blindly following a set path.
(Here are my reviews of 2021, 2018, 2017.)
2022 Retrospective
In 2022 I focused on Long-term projects, Career, and Relationships. The theme of the years was “Adventure.”
What went well:
- Consistently producing on multiple platforms. Specifically, I produced across the newsletter, blog, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. The key unlock for me: a bottoms-up approach to content (starting with small components to build bigger pieces of content).
- Started a new role at Persefoni. It’s been 6 months. Currently, it feels like a perfect role fit, with “one foot in the known, one foot in the unknown” (h/t Brian Balfour). Job happiness is derived from impact and learning, not ping-pong tables or free lunches. *
- Relationships. Incredibly grateful for the powerful relationships of my family. I am incredibly intentional about this. I make breakfast every morning. We have dinner as a family together every night. I plan trips back to the states to visit. Even with all this work, powerful relationships aren’t guaranteed. I want to bask in it for as long as possible. I already know that when I look back, these will be the good old days.
Let’s dig deeper:
Long-term projects
- What went well: Content production
- What could be improved: I missed most of the quantitive goals I set for myself. When I learn about different tactics or frameworks other creators are using, I should be implementing them faster versus taking notes to implement “later” aka “never.”
Career
- What went well: Took on a new role at Persefoni, leading our free carbon accounting product.
- What could be improved: Do more to socialize learnings across the organization, and take ownership of my remote communication when there’s confusion around the direction of the free product.
Relationships
- What went well: Family 🙂 We took family trips to Portugal, Croatia, Enniskerry, Kilkenny, and Wicklow. My mom and sister came to visit us in Ireland twice! And I went back to the states a few times to visit my cousins.
- What could be improved: One of my goals was to build relationships in the tech community in Dublin. It was hard to keep up the motivation. It was a lot of 0 -> 1 work, and over time, I deprioritized it.
Health
- What went well: BJJ training and consistency have improved, particularly in the latter half of 2022. I’ve been tracking my sleep and finally making progress on getting 6-7 hours a night. For a few months, I was getting sick every week from not pacing myself properly but made adjustments to my work schedule and recovery and fixed that.
- What could be improved: My nutrition is still not on point. It’s not awful, but there’s definitely not enough thought going into it. I also currently have to make a tradeoff between training BJJ and weight training. In my Perfect Tuesday, I incorporate both but haven’t solved for it yet.
Money
- What went well: Continued automated savings and investments with minimal hassle.
- What could be improved: There’s a lot of optimization and tightening up I could do, but managing monies between the states and Ireland is a bit of a pain in the ass.
Leisure
- What went well: Traveled a ton this year! I’ve made reading a regular habit again (after a long hiatus). Watched plenty of movies. Been organizing a monthly poker game.
- What could be improved: I got in the habit of letting Amy do most of this planning of things to do in Dublin. I can take on more of this.
2023 Planning
The summary of my 2023 goals:
Build products, make carbon accounting easy, Philly 2023, purple belt, and travel.
The theme:
Less impressed, more involved.
I read this Matthew McConaughey’s book, Greenlights and it really resonated:
“The sooner we become less impressed with our life, our accomplishments, our career, our relationships, the prospects in front of us—the sooner we become less impressed and more involved with these things—the sooner we get better at them. We must be more than just happy to be here.”
Here’s what planning looks like across the six buckets:
Long-term projects
Build and sell 3 products that help my audience create more impact in their careers and lives.
Continue building an audience. This means consistent content creation. I’ll also experiment with a new topic vertical: how to make that transition to living abroad while working remotely. As a stretch goal: experiment with video content creation.
Continue tracking my progress. I’ll continue to have quantified medium goals, but I won’t be a slave to it.
Career
Carbon accounting is hard. With Persefoni’s free platform, Essentials, we’re making it easier. It requires (1) understanding how to get users to value quickly, (2) helping them to continue to get value month over month, and (3) educating them enough about carbon accounting so they can reach their goals.
Relationships
The big update for the family is we’re strongly considering a move back to the states for 2023. If that comes to fruition, the major goal is to plan another international move for the family.
And also, remembering that these years with the kids are precious. So we have to make them count.
Health
Get my purple belt in 2023 and make small optimizations to my nutrition.
Money
By EOY begin to optimize our personal finances again.
Leisure
Travel as much as possible. Places currently top of mind: Philadelphia, Amsterdam, Morocco, Mexico, Luxembourg, and Northern Ireland
Fun stuff
Some random fun stuff:
I read 23 books this year. Last year I read 15. My favorite fiction book was Bluff by Michael Kardos, and favorite non-fiction was Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte
I watched 29 movies this year. There were a lot of hidden gems, in no particular order: Do Revenge, Emily The Criminal, Tick Tick Boom, Nightmare Alley, and Hustle.
The family did a ton of traveling this year: In Ireland, we did Kilkenny, Enniskerry, Cork, Glendalough, Wicklow, Bray, Greystones, and Malahide. Outside of Ireland: Barcelona, Paris, London, Carvoeiro, Dubrovnik, New York, Arizona, and Edinburgh.
