My 2019 Annual Review

Time for my 2019 annu­al review.

In this blog art­icle, I’ll do my best to answer these three ques­tions: ¹This format is inspired by James Clear’s annu­al reviews.

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

Here we go:

What Went Well This Year?

Photography. I wanted to do some­thing unre­lated to my career and fam­ily life a few years back, and I dis­covered pho­to­graphy. Photography con­tin­ues to sur­prise me; it helps me regain focus and relax. I’m not tak­ing and edit­ing pho­tos for any oth­er reas­on oth­er than it feels highly sat­is­fy­ing at the moment. There are no goals, no end-game, no stra­tegic advant­age, just pure enjoyment.

Google eco­sys­tem. I have grown quite tired of Apple (the lack of innov­a­tion, the pri­cing, the pro­pri­et­ary eco­sys­tem). Hence, I’ve gradu­ally star­ted trans­ition­ing to using Google as the primary eco­sys­tem — and it’s work­ing quite remark­able so far.

Turning 40. Admittedly, I thought that turn­ing 40 would feel ter­rible, but it did­n’t. Instead, I feel much calmer and much less rest­less. I care much less about most things, and I care much more about things that mat­ter. Only now can I recog­nize how pres­sur­ing it can be between the ages of 30 – 40, where so much is sup­posed to hap­pen. And who knew that the answer was to teach your­self to care less about more?

Learnt more about cook­ing, phys­ics, and chess. I used to be ter­rible at cook­ing and chess. So, when I’m not tak­ing pho­tos in my free time, I’m learn­ing new skills in the kit­chen, study­ing chess the­ory, and learn­ing more about intriguing cos­mo­lo­gic­al con­cepts. A bit weird, but that’s okay.

Removing daily frus­tra­tions yields sur­pris­ingly good res­ults. Instead of focus­ing on what makes me happy, I tried focus­ing on remov­ing what makes me frus­trated. Long story short: This approach seems to yield bet­ter res­ults than adding more pleasure.

Five years without alco­hol — check. I’ve nev­er been a big fan of con­sum­ing alco­hol, but when my son was born five years ago, I decided to exclude it from my life com­pletely. It was­n’t adding any value. 

What Didn’t Go So Well This Year?

Goal-set­ting: Too much brain, too little heart. I had plenty of goals set for 2019, but I quickly learned that I for­mu­lated these goals without pas­sion in mind. It’s pretty fas­cin­at­ing to real­ize that using only your logic­al brain makes you stupid.

Unable to break car­bo­hydrate crav­ings. I’ve suc­cess­fully giv­en up alco­hol, sweets, and snacks. I’ve also upped my daily intake of veget­ables by a con­sid­er­able amount. However, I still eat too many carbs per day on aver­age. What can I say? I love bread, pasta, and pota­toes. I must find a new and improved way to approach this. 

I’m going back to 100% strength train­ing. Maybe I’ve been doing it wrong, but I’ve been focused on car­dio pulse train­ing dur­ing 2019 without any sig­ni­fic­ant res­ults. Strength train­ing seems to be agree­ing more with my physiology, so I’ll revert to that.

What Am I Working Toward?

Grow as a lead­er. I’ve been in sev­er­al lead­er­ship pos­i­tions through­out my career, and I’ve always taken immense pleas­ure from coach­ing oth­ers and see­ing them grow into their full poten­tial. Exactly how I’ll be explor­ing this aven­ue of per­son­al growth is not yet entirely clear, but I feel highly ener­gized about this 2020 focus.

Simplification is power­ful as the primary mod­us operandi. I love and respect com­plex­ity, but remov­ing it makes the air easi­er to breathe. I will sim­pli­fy even more aspects of my life in the future.

Evolve my pro­fes­sion­al pos­i­tion­ing. I’m con­sidered an expert on digit­al strategy. But stra­tegic com­mu­nic­a­tion is where I belong. I’ve not entirely worked out exactly how to repos­i­tion myself, but I’m sure I’ll find a way.