Closing Out 2023

Howdy from Raleigh,

It’s almost the end of the year which means it’s time to reflect on how things went in 2023.

What's an annual review?

Last year, I published my first annual review.

It was nearly 5,000 words on how my year went and what I wanted to accomplish the following year.

With Christmas and the New Year nearly here, I’m gearing up to complete the process once more for 2023.

What does it take to prepare the review?

A lot of reflection.

Here’s what I wrote in my 2022 annual review appendix:

“This was the most difficult piece that I have ever written.

While this took 50+ hours to read, write, and reflect, it wasn’t the amount of time that made this difficult. It was that I reviewed and analyzed myself - both the good and the bad - unlike I’ve ever done before.

There was no hiding from myself in this essay.

How did I do this? I read every piece of writing that I produced in 2022. This included all 51 newsletters that I published publicly and 90+ pages in a handwritten journal that I recorded privately.

While reading all of my writing, I followed Tim Ferris’ lead. I sorted out what things were positive and negative influences in my life into a simple t-chart. This helped inspire the "Quick Hits" section (which you can think of as the superlatives of the year.)

Then, I jumped into Steve Schlafman’s Ultimate Annual Review Guide and Dickie Bush/Nicholas Cole's Yearly Review Guide to help me reflect on what I did and didn't accomplish this year. This information became the materials for my "2022 Goals Assessment" section of the review.

Finally, I reviewed Sahil Bloom's annual review guide which influenced my plans of action under the "2023 Goal Setting" section of the review.

Tim, Steve, Dickie/Nick, and Sahil's exercises allowed me to narrow down my inputs for this review. Many thanks to each of them for passing their wisdom onto others.

After these exercises, I placed my "Interactive VanLife Map" and “Quick Hits” at the top of the review as a way to ease the reader into this lengthy piece.

I also included my “2022 Photos of The Year” at the end of the piece as a way to ease the reader out of the review.

This process was exhausting but essential.”

Here’s what my 2023 annual review will look like when it’s finished:

I. Introduction
II. Quick Hits
III. 2023 Goals Assessment
IV. Well-being Scorecard
V. 2024 Goal Setting
VI. Photos of The Year

The only difference between last year’s annual review and this year’s is that there won’t be an interactive van life map.

That’s what happens when you dedicate a year to pursuing entrepreneurship/startups lol.

Thanks for reading

Let me know what steps you’re taking to close out 2023,

Josh

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