It’s that time of year again. A somewhat arbitrary, yet useful, calendar day for individuals to reflect on their past 365 days, and plan ahead for the next 365 days. I’m no different. Although I try not to fall victim to the cycles of promised and lost “new years resolutions” that epitomize the human incapability of sticking to something, I try to do something to mark the passage of time.
Do you remember where you were on New Years Eve last year? I can’t. I urge you to try to recall what you were doing without the use of your camera roll. When I finally gave in and looked it up, I recalled why - I was inebriated at a big party with friends - so I’ll give myself a pass on that one.
This year is quite a different environment. At the moment I’m writing this, I’m sitting at a beautiful wooden bar counter at a cafe called Streamer Coffee Company on one of the side streets in Shibuya, Japan. I’m having a thick americano, listening to soft pop, surrounded by espresso sounds and the soft voices of Japanese conversation. I prefer this vibe.
If you’ve been following my reviews, I used to do a “12 challenges in 12 months” setup: I would pick 12 separate 30 day challenges, and assign them to each month of the year. I did that for a few years, particularly fun while working for Cirque Du Soleil. Eventually, I grew tired of this method, as my life changed along with my volume of free time. In an attempt to structure something more meaningful, I decided to track certain stats (more on this later) as well as list a couple of skills I wanted to acquire / tasks I wanted to complete by the end of the year. I have to say, this structure was much more enjoyable for myself in this stage of my life.
The numbers are the most fun, so I’ll start there.
2022 Stats
In 2022 I drank 437 coffees, cried 35 times, took 113 naps, exercised 322 days, and read 17 books. Of all of the money I spent (Instead of a budget, I just track where all my money goes and make sure I’m ok with it), 67% of that went to food and drink, or culinary experiences.
I asked on my Instagram what you all would want to track if you could, and you had some great answers. Some of them included:
time spent actually rock climbing
amount of time the sun is actually shining on you
the number of L’s dodged (to be interpreted on your own)
time spent with emails: responding to them, sending them, etc.
hours spent in a car
and more
It was quite fun (and easy) to track these stats this year, so I’ll be tracking some more in 2023. It’s particularly interesting to think about things we ingest / use as humans, both to understand the amount of waste / trash we produce, but also to revel in awe of our biological bodies. For example, 437 cups of coffee could be more than $2,000 spent on coffee (luckily Alexa makes me most of my coffee at home), 437 paper cups (again, grateful that I use my own mugs), crazy amounts of beans, and so on.
One thing I noticed this year was the general trend of people my age to drink less alcohol. I think we’re waking up to the harmful qualities of indulging too much. While I personally love the craft of cocktails, microbrews, organic wines, and the like, I tracked my alcohol intake this year - to see if I wanted to change anything. In total, I drank 228 alcohol drinks. 94 glasses of wine, 38 beers, 62 cocktails, 13 shots (ew), 11 sakes, 3 shochu, and 7 general mixed drinks. It is at the same time more than I expected and less than I expected. For 2023, I would like to see a reduction in this total number - ideally just by removing the drinks of lower quality.
The 17 books I read this year were:
The Mushroom at the End of the World - Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing
The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying - Sogyal Rinpoche
Klara and the Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro
Dopeworld - Niko Votobyov
Pachinko - Min Jin Lee
Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Over - Ray Dalio
Scattered All Over the Earth - Yoko Tawada
Walking the Kiso Road - William Scott Wilson
Noise: a Flaw in Human Judgement - Daniel Kahneman
Raising the Bar - Gary Erickson
The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller
Cult X - Fuminori Nakamura
Thinking in Bets - Annie Duke
Red Rising - Pierce Brown
Golden Son - Pierce Brown
Morning Star - Pierce Brown
How to be a Stoic - Massimo Pigliucci
As I curate my reading list for 2023, I always appreciate recommendations!
Finally, I played a total of 127 hours of poker :)
2022 Things I wanted to learn / accomplish
I would give myself a B+ for completing my original list of goals.
Learn to lead climb ❌
Share more of my art ❌
Order for myself at a restaurant in Spanish ✅
Raise a seed round ✅
Go surfing ✅
Play poker in Vegas ✅
Learn a faster card trick ✅
Memorize one song on piano ❌
Cook a big dinner for my friends ✅
Speak at a conference ✅
Get to Japan ✅
This method allowed me to be flexible in my timeline, while also gaining new skills in a directed way. I’ll be following this again for 2023.
2022 Reflections
For this year’s reflection, I followed Sahil Blooms’ 7 Questions
(https://www.dropbox.com/s/azuslvguz3t3qrs/The%20Personal%20Annual%20Review-%20Sahil%20Bloom.pdf?dl=0)https://www.dropbox.com/s/azuslvguz3t3qrs/The (https://www.dropbox.com/s/azuslvguz3t3qrs/The) Personal Annual Review- Sahil Bloom.pdf?dl=0
which was a quick and enjoyable way to reflect on personal growth over the past year. I would recommend taking 10-30 minutes to do it yourself!
I also asked a few questions on my instagram, and many of you answered:
What’s one skill or talent you acquired this year?
parenting
being patient with myself
handstands
cutting well-fitted overalls
bluffing you
networking
pain management
kite surf
and my personal favorite, a couple of these Image: https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/68c9943f-9bc3-4400-bf99-1180e1fb02a4/IMG_7279.jpg
What did you spend the most money on this year?
travel
ramen
climbing gear
college applications
food
rent
What did you learn this year?
sustainability and boundaries
decision making and execution
self love
how to workout in the way that’s right for me
the importance of gut health
becoming more independent and being comfortable alone
management skills
the key to going from good to great is focus
planning for the future
I loved the answers to this one
thanks to everyone who replied.
2023
I really enjoyed the structure of my annual review this year - and will be mostly keeping all of it.
As for stats, I’ll be tracking:
Days Exercised
Books Read
Hours Spent on Social media
Movies Watched
Shows Watched
Alcohol (amount and type) consumed
I always read a lot of cool things, articles, pieces, videos, and more - I want to log these better this year. In addition, I’ll track my poker playing time, wins/losses, and anything else that comes to mind!
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Finally, I’d love to extend a thank-you to everyone who I met and spent time with this year. One of my favorite things about life is shared experiences - and my fondest memories will be doing cool things with great people. Thank you for your patience, your friendship, and your humor.
See you in the new year.
