In his video “How to Reinvent Yourself in 2022“, Captain Sinbad talks about a 5-step process to prep for next year. It’s a nice mix of looking back and looking forward:
- Wins
- Losses
- Set goals
- Mind storm
- Reflect
A year feels like it goes by fast so it can be helpful to take the time to actually look back at what you did. You did more than you think.
I’ll jot some things down right now.
- Wins: Married Amy (and pulled off a safe pandemic wedding), gave Booster a good first year on earth, had some work success, officiated a wedding, and had some sustained consistency with working out
- Losses: Hit my highest body weight in the middle of the year (which did then lead to some success mentioned above in trying to fix it), really couldn’t get focused in the creator side of things, and could probably just be more present in many aspects of life.
- Set goals: Buy a house with Amy (and get Booster a yard), get in the best shape of my life (some combo of bodyweight + strength), and keep at it with the creator pursuit.
- Mindstorm: The house thing is sort of weird as a goal because it’s not entirely something that more effort moves the needle on, for fitness I’ve hired a coach for 3 months, and the creator pursuit might start with changing the domain to active-recall.com and actually participating in the Ship 30 for 30 writing challenge.
- Reflect: Do these goals matter? Health for sure. A house would be nice but I definitely don’t want to fall into the someday-isle thinking of “Someday I’ll be happy and that someday is when we have a house”. I’ve been happy with far less space.
The creator pursuit is something I’ll need to do a little more reflecting on. I just re-read Derek Sivers’ essay “How to do what you love and make good money“:
Do something for love and something for money. Don’t try to make one thing satisfy your entire life.
I already do something for money. And on many days open up The Five-minute Journal (okay, the app) and write “I have enough” then go on the rest of the day wondering how to get more.
Maybe some of that is because some of what should be my art pursuit is tied to some future where it replaces the for money side of things. And I don’t actually take the time to improve in the art because the other side of things is more interesting or just a more effective distraction.
Again, more to reflect on.
In the meantime, this is probably the day of the year to close this blog editor and get back to watching football with my dad.