The year is rapidly drawing to a close and with just two weeks left, now is the time to do your year end review.
You may or may not remember that two months ago now, I wrote a post about treating each year as a football season, and that mid-October is one of the best times to sit down and take stock, because it means you have two solid months left of the year to either:
Really bring home all the things you’ve been working on, or
Salvage the year with a win or two if it’s fallen off the rails, or
At least start getting your act together if your life is a shitshow
So with that in mind, I wonder, how did you guys do? Did you make the best of those last two months? Did you do something with them? I’d love to hear if you’d care to write it in the comments.
So now that there’s just two weeks left, it’s time for all of us to sit down and take stock of this last year. Why? Because it’s only by looking back at where you’ve been, what you’ve done, what’s working and what’s not that you know the clear path forward. It’s also a point of accountability, and having the courage to look at yourself and admit it if you haven’t measured up.
So sit down for half an hour and do it. No excuses. I’ll have more to come on planning for the year ahead in the next week.
The best Instagram account you’re not following…
is without a doubt @TheWarKitchen.
I firmly believe that over the next 10 years, people won’t just be split between “haves and have nots” but intentional vs mindless consumers. We’ve firmly tipped over into an era where you can choose to be fed entirely by corporations, and due to measures intended to maximise profitability, the health of those who aren’t intentional about what they eat is going to nosedive.
Sites like marksdailyapple.com and TheWarKitchen on Instagram are a great way of keeping your head in the right space when it comes to your food choices.
Weaponise Your Impressionability
This feeds into a concept I conceived of. I realised there are a bunch of guys I follow on YouTube and other socials who don’t necessarily teach me anything, but they keep me in the right frame of mind. We’re all impressionable - that’s part of being a social species. And if you become the five people you spend the most time around, then what would you choose to become?
That’s why I follow accounts like WarKitchen above, but also the YouTubers I mentioned. Even if I only learn one new thing every so often, just seeing the same ideas and perspectives repeated to me keeps them in my head and keeps me moving in the direction I want to be going in.
Obsession
Six years ago now when I joined a new team at work, I was asked to give a presentation about myself. One of the things I said (somewhat offhandedly) at the time was “I don’t have hobbies, I have obsessions.”
That’s because when I find something I enjoy, I’m all in. There’s no part of me that wants to take it easy and do something “just for fun.” I do things because they evoke a burning desire in me and so I throw as much fuel on that fire as I reasonably can. Just this morning I spent my usual 2 hours at the climbing gym and afterwards I drove home, exhausted, sore…and completely satisfied with my life.
When you’re obsessed with things, people will wonder why you have to try so hard. Why you can’t just relax. Why you put so much energy into things that “don’t really matter.”
The response to this, of course, is that everything matters. And in that, what matters is what I decide matters - no one else. We’re all going to die. We’re all going to be forgotten. One day, even the sun will go dark. But right now? As Jack Donovan says,
Look up and see how it burns!
Do your yearly review. Work out what you want from 2024. Get excited. Get obsessed. Go and make what you will of it.