This year I’m writing my first Annual Review. The purpose of this yearly report is to reflect back on the last year, and to write an honest review of what went well, what could have gone better, and what I’m working towards.
I’ve been doing my annual Goal Setting and Review for 4 years now, and this is my first time doing a public annual review.
There are 3 questions that I’m going to answer in my Annual Review:
2018 was an awesome year, with many achievements, but few stumbles too.
Let’s get on with this.
Health/Sports: This was a very good year in my Health and Sports pursuit. Major Achievements:
I’m obviously very happy about these milestones. But even more than that, I’m happy that I was very consistent with my workouts.
2017 was the year where I learned swimming, 2018 was the year where I got decent in running. 2019 is the year of big gains in cycling!
Learning New Stuff: This year, most of my learning was done via Podcast medium. Though most of it was in the space of Triathlon (Science & Practical Training Ideas), there were other learning gems too - Tim Ferriss, Ben Greenfield Fitness, The Joe Rogan Experience. I even wrote an article about my top podcasts.
Travel: Travel is both in “what went well”, and “need more”. After Ironman, I took few days off to roam in the Philippines, which was awesome.
** Office:** Fantastic year, worked on a new product and new role and enjoyed engaging with different regional teams. It is so good when you’ve an awesome bunch of team members to work with!
Meditation: I really wanted to make Meditation as a regular habit in 2018. I did try multiple experiments, and even managed to do 200 sessions last year. But those were low-quality sessions, and Meditation as a habit is not yet formed. I have my takeaways on why it failed as habit Forming (no consistent timing of habit), and I’ll make myself better in this in 2019.
Writing: I want to be more regular in writing. Two main reasons - writing is a good way to clear the mind, and I also want to share my learnings with like-minded folks. I did not meet my the last year goals on Writing.
Travel: Can travel be enough? I guess not. I wanted to do a solo trek, and one with friends - didn’t yet happen.
Habit Forming: If I’m obsessed with anything more than my sports, it is the superpower of Habits, and Science behind Habit forming. I’ve experimented on this a lot in last few years, and it will continue in 2019 too. Right habits are shortcuts to achieve other goals; will power is so overrated.
Sports: Sports, particularly Triathlon, have been one of the changing moments of my life. By now, Sports is more or less an integral part of my life in a friction-free way. This year focus would be to continue to build on the gains, and do 2 Full Ironmans.
Sleep: Importance of Sleep is difficult to overstate. I’m not talking just about the number of hours, but the overall quality of sleep. This is an area I’ve stil not completely mastered, and experiements will continue in 2019.
Grow More, Contribute More: All my life, I’ve been obsessed with on consuming knowledge. Now I want to build things - via writing, building plans for friends for sports/health pursuit.
Meditation: Almost all successful people rave about Meditation as one of their superpower. My experiments will continue in 2019.
Blog Writing: Atleast one post a week, 52 posts a year. Simple.
Continue eliminate the non-essential: To say yes to all the stuff, I’ve to ruthlessly eliminate the inessential.
“We have two lives, and the second begins when we realize we only have one.”
Life is short, and not to be wasted randomly. I’m on the journey to explore, experiment, and discover more about myself in the process. There are so many areas of my life that can use some improvement. But the only way to influence future is do what I can do, now.
Cheers to a happy and progressive new year ahead.
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Footnotes: This review format is inspired by James Clear and Chelsa/Scott at Live Your Legend