2020 - My Year in Review

This year writing became a much bigger part of my life, so it is only appropriate that I write an article about what 2020 meant for me. My hope is that in writing about what I learned I might help 1 or 2 people have a better 2021. Hindsight really is 2020 this year! So, here are my lessons learned from 2020.

Never stop learning

Continuing to learn has always been an important part of my life, but I think this year has bumped this priority up for me. And what I have “learned” this year is that I don’t really learn something until I apply it in some actionable way. If I read something and don’t take some action, I don’t really learn something - I just consumed it. The “tools” I have used to action the things I learn are: 

1. Habits: Habits, as described by James Clear in Atomic Habits, have become a daily, monthly and yearly … habit. I have found the best way for me to change my behavior is to determine the habits that implement the thing I just learned and then do them, track them, and evolve them.  Habits are one of the most life changing techniques I have every done.
2. Journal: Journalling has been one of the habits that I have taken on in 2020. it is now part of my morning routine (one of my “uber" habits of 2020), and has really given me some clarity and aha moments in 2020. For example, one of the things I think about quite a bit is my relationship with my management. I had thought I have a history of not hitting it off with my direct manager (definitely not the case in my current position at Barnes and Noble). What I realized is that there have been something like 3 managers out of about 10 that didn’t work out well, not the majority that I had thought was the case. This realization came about because as part of my journalling I listed all the managers I have had in my career (starting as a carpenter when I was 18) and categorized my relationship with each one. Journalling really does help me clarify some of the jumbled thoughts and misconceptions in my head.

Peak physical shape is all about consistency

This is not technically something I learned this year, but it is as clear to me now as it has ever been. How do I stay consistent in workouts and staying physically fit? Here are my key ways to make this happen: 

1. Find something you love to do: Soccer is currently my sport of choice. I love to play, even though I started playing in my 40s and am not nearly as good as the players that have a lot more experience. What I love is to pick up a sport and excel at it, based on where I am starting, not compared to others. I have done this with skiing, baseball, wind surfing, beach volleyball, whitewater kayaking, soccer and unicycling (roughly in that order). Doing a sport well is what motivates me to get out and practice, train and work on the mental game. 
2. Track your progress (with habits and journalling): Coming back around to using habits and journalling, tracking my progress to stay in peak physical shape has been key this year. I track each day I work out and what I did. My habit tracker lists weights, soccer (playing or practice), spinning (on the NordicTrack bike), or other. Most days have an X on at least one of those categories. 
3. Plan it into your day: if you don’t make working out a priority it probably won’t happen unless you don’t have much going on. I know that is not the case for me, so I have to plan workouts into my day. In my case I also coordinate with my wife because we share equipment and we need to get dinner on the table at a reasonable hour (one of the other things we improved this year).

Future self is important

This year I set a goal for 2028 for my career and our financial plan. This is in the context of my life goal which is to ski when i am 100. Once my career/financial goal was clear to me, I set out to break it down into actionable steps for the year, the months, the weeks and each day. In addition, I put an accountability structure in place that helps me keep my focus on the important, not the urgent. So I send my accountability team (of 2) my daily goals, and I structure my day around these goals. I no longer work all day on just the urgent tasks of my job, but I structure my day to do that and achieve my daily goals. 

Spend a lot of time in the present

This year was a very good year for me, and one of the reasons I believe that was is that I spent a lot more time “in the present”. What does this mean exactly? It probably means something different for each person, but for me it means having a calm mind, feeling my body relax, and letting all the thoughts I have drift by like clouds in the sky. How has this been possible with all the stuff that happened in 2020? Here are the key ones for me. 

1. Insight Timer: One of the things that has helped me immensely this year is an app called Insight Timer. Insight timer offers many training courses on many different topics, and the ones I focused on this year were how to stay in the present, how to find peace, and how to quiet my mind. I have experienced so many different ways to calm my mind, experience emotions, and interact with the world through meditation and mantras. 
2. Morning routine: I have a morning routine that, believe it or not, sometimes calls me at 4 in the morning to get started. I love my morning routine - and it involves coffee (gotta have my 3 shot Cortado), reading, meditating, stretching and journalling before opening my email or doing my “work” work. I truly look forward to this time. And it sets me up for a super day, no matter what happens. 
3. Evening routine: I am still working on making this a habit, but it is essential to getting the “big frogs” (from the book “Eat that Frog!” by Brian Tracy) handled first thing in the morning (as part of my morning routine). The key to making this work is to think about and be clear about what you need to tackle first thing in the morning for your Future Self. Not what is urgent, not what brings in the money (necessarily), but what will move your Future Self goals forward. 

Adversity is valuable

I have felt for a long time that I have it too good. Not that I mind that, I want life to be good, but I want to have things in my life that remind me that we are humans and we need to care for each other. When things are too good for too long, we lose our connection to other people, we lose the need to be helped and help others, and we live too much just for ourselves. Obviously this year we had some adversity, and that was a good thing. I thought more about the workers that had to continue to work to keep food on the table, medical professionals that sacrificed a lot to keep us from dying, and leaders who stepped up to make decisions even when it wasn’t at all clear what the path forward should be (not all leaders did this, I have to say! ?? ). We (I) am so privileged compared to so many people in the world, so how can I be part of the solution for them instead of just living for myself and my loved ones? Adversity helps me answer this question every day. 

One goal I have for 2021 is to have more failure in my life. And I don't want this failure to come because of lack of action (which is my MO), but failure because I tried something and failed. Adversity typically brings some failure. We were handed some adversity in 2020. Why not ensure there is adversity in 2021 so we get stronger? Adversity in 2021 for me is going to come the form of "Big Bets". One big bet will be a project that could change the world. Scott Adams wrote about this in his book, "How to fail at almost Everything and Still Win Big", where he talks about always having a project going on that could change the world. His point of view is that it doesn't matter that most of these projects will ultimately fail, but that it will bring benefits that would never have been realized if the project hadn't been attempted.

Who, not How

What has become clear to me this year is that I get a lot of satisfaction and enjoyment out of really connecting with people. And I have realized some of my connections from past lives (e.g., when I lived in LA, when I worked at a particular company) are people I miss and want to spend time with, so this year I did that. I created a list of people I “admire” (for whatever reason), and I set out to connect with one of those people every week. I talked to people I hadn’t talked to in 20, even 30 years. And it was great. It also led to some opportunities that I would never have uncovered if I hadn’t had the nerve to reach out.  One of the books I read this year was the book "Who not How”,  by Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy. This book inspired me to start my “reach out to people I admire” campaign. These are the people I have enjoyed being with, working with, playing with, so they are the people I want to be around. What better way to spend my time than to talk with the people I most admire! Of course, this campaign holds a line in my habit tracker so I am reminded to make time for this…

In Summary...

So to wrap it up, 2020 has been great, even though it has been one of the most trying years I can remember. It has brought new joy, new action and new experiences into my life, and probably most of all, that adversity really does make life rewarding. It helps us appreciate people, it helps us appreciate what we have, and it helps us appreciate what we can do with what we have to work with. I hope your 2021 is the best year ever! Happy New Year!