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- 2023 Annual Review Preview
Howdy from Raleigh,
2023 is nearly over.
I’m heads down sifting through the journals, newsletters, and essays that I wrote this year to give you a full annual review.
Here’s a sneak peak of how my 2023 goals went:
7 are marked as ✅ - Accomplished
3 are marked as ❌ - Failed
The full annual review - complete with goals for 2024, my well-being scorecard, photos of the year, and more - will drop next week.
2023 Final Goal Update
1. 💰 Build Self-Sustaining Income Independent of a Corporation
(✅ - Accomplished)
Original plan of attack: build Feather AI: the premier speech-to-text summary service. See what sticks.
Update: the original plan didn’t work, but it was a huge stepping stone towards the one that did.
Frankly, I didn’t quite frame this goal properly. I phrased the goal as if success meant working for myself, but the truth is that I just didn’t want to work for a large corporation. I wanted experience with a much smaller team that could move fast, and I accomplished that with my new role at Howso (see write-up here). Goal accomplished.
(❌ - Failed)
Original plan of attack: collaborate with other newsletter writers, cross-promote each other's work, and gain new subscribers by marketing long-form essays.
Update: I’ve hit publish every Thursday, but I missed on audience growth. A lot of this was due to the fact that I spent less time on twitter in the second half of 2023. I needed that break.
The good news is that I spent this time refining what my true interests are. I feel as though I have a more firm understanding of what my personal monopoly will be moving forward: the convergence of theology, psychology, and technology.
3. 📱 Take a 1-Year Break from Facebook and Instagram
(✅ - Accomplished)
Original plan of attack: store the log-in info far away (off my laptop), delete mobile apps, log out from browser, and don't access FB/IG for 2023. Keep in touch with folks via text, phone calls, and the newsletter. Build meaningful relationships on Twitter by helping other people with their businesses, writing, and other projects.
Update: my well-being improved immensely as a result.
4. 🖊️ Publish 1 Essay Per Quarter
(❌ - Failed)
Original plan of attack: write one essay per quarter in 2023, market these pieces through channels of distribution such as Product Hunt and Hacker News.
Update: I published 2 essays. One was effectively a post-mortem of Feather here. The second is the upcoming 2023 annual review.
5. 🏃 Build Endurance, Balance, Flexibility, and Better Nutrition
(✅ - Accomplished)
Original plan of attack: go on two backpacking trips, participate in 1 F3 workout per week, walk to co-working space each day, do stretching sessions 2 times per week, buy local produce, get 8hrs of sleep, sleep with your phone in the other room, and drink 16oz of water when you wake.
Update: I crushed flexibility, balance, and nutrition. Endurance needs work, but my fitness improved immensely. Successfully completed 75 Hard this year, and I’m now in Phase 1 of 75 Hard (3 days left).
6. 📰 Improve Information Caption System
(✅ - Accomplished)
Original plan of attack: review Tiago Forte's content on Building a Second Brain, link instapaper + Readwise to Notion, decommission your broken Evernote/Apple Notes systems, and make time to read what's timeless (not just timely)
Update: I get e-books from my local library via the Libby app and take notes on them via Kindle. These notes automatically sync with my Readwise/Notion integration. It’s so cool. Goal accomplished.
7. ☀️ Rest fully on Sundays
(✅ - Accomplished)
Plan of attack: go to church, spend time with friends, get outside, get off your phone, meditate, read, and write. Just be still.
Update: my Sunday priority is to focus on rest and joy - major impact on my well-being.
8. 🧘 Build a 2x Daily Meditation Practice
(❌ - Failed)
Original plan of attack: 20min of transcendental meditation before the day starts, 20min of transcendental meditation in the late afternoon/early evening - mix in Wim Hof when in need of a more active meditation.
Update: simply did not do it. I’ll be incorporating “build a 1x daily yoga nidra practice” into my 2024 goals. Yoga nidra is essentially a guided body scan.
9. 🤟 Participate in a Local Service Opportunity 1x/week
(✅ - Accomplished)
Original plan of attack: meet with my local Pastor, identify a need I can help play a part in, and schedule a weekly cadence to participate in the service opportunity.
Update: I focused on volunteering heavily in Q2. The high frequency of volunteer opportunities in that quarter evened out to 1x/week for the year, but I then didn’t have a volunteer opportunity for the entire second half of the year. That was a bummer as I missed out on the opportunity to do some good, build new relationships, and have a greater sense of fulfillment outside of my normal day-to-day.
10. ⛷️ Try Things That Are Completely New & Do Things That Bring You Joy
(✅ - Accomplished)
Original plan of attack: go skiing, do some two-stepping, go in with an open mind to whatever other adventures come your way this year, and just have some freakin' fun, you nerd (calling myself a nerd, not you, lol).
Update: I did not get in a pair of skis yet, BUT I promise that I will in early 2024. I’m going to go with my cousin, RJ.
The funny thing about this goal was that the thing that brought me the most joy wasn’t a new activity. It was my tried and true love, baseball. I coached. I played. I loved it.
This is proof that something doesn’t need to be new in order for it to bring you joy. In fact, having the courage to return to that old hobby that you miss might be the highest leverage thing you can do in the pursuit for joy.
Thanks for reading
How did your 2023 go?
Reply and let me know!
Josh
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