2023 Annual Review - Alex
Sunday, January 14, 2024
4:56 PM
2023 is my first year of doing an annual review.
I was not prepared to do an annual review this year, as it was not something that I had put a significant value on or thought about doing. However, at the beginning of 2024, I read the book "Atomic Habits" by James Clear. He has a website where many of the resources from the book are located and upon looking into the website, I also noticed he did annual reviews. I really enjoyed the idea of having reviews (on-top of yearly goals) so that is why I am starting this now (and writing it) in January of 2024.
He asks the 3 questions:
What went well this year
What didn't go well this year
What did I learn
What went well this year?
I had a lot that went well this year, however, there are many things that I have room for improvement on that we will get to shortly.
Goal Planning - Completed my first year of annual goal planning. I originally got this idea in 2022 from listening to Bigger pockets Podcast. One thing that the hosts and guests talked about multiple times was that they do a annual goal planning session. I kind of ignored this until 2023, but decided to start it. I planned annual goal for 2023 alongside my girlfriend, Leah. We had (5) sections that we planned.
Relationship
Financial
Fun/Travel
Self Development
Other
We also tried to meetup once a quarter to discuss and review goals and progress. Admittedly, we only met (2) of (4) quarters. We have decided to carry these goal sessions into 2024 and recently completed our annual session. To make sure we meet quarterly going forward, we also scheduled all of our quarterly meetings in advance so that they are on the calendar. We also added (2) sections this year to our goal planning: Education and Business.
In summary of my 2023 goals, some were reached, some weren't. Some I made progress on and some I failed miserably. For 2024 some were carried forward and some are entirely new. But, overall, I think yearly goal setting is now a critical part of my life and offers extreme long-term benefit as I continue to do so.
Real Estate and Finance - April of 2023, I hired a property manager to manage the Duplex I own. I had been self-managing it since my purchase in October of 2021. This was a difficult but game-changing decision for me. Taking the constant thought of "what if something goes wrong" off my shoulders allowed me to spend so much more time thinking creatively and not worrying about "if" something went wrong and what I would do to fix it. This was especially important, since I live 7 hours away driving.
Stocks/Investing - I had a successful year of continuing to invest in stocks through fidelity. I did utilize approx. $26K of capital to purchasing and building out an Escalade for living, so total investment this year was down a bit (below investments just reflect my non-tax advantaged main investment account). I did not purchase any new investment real estate in 2024. I did not use any specific investment strategies this year.
Travel - This year was a big year for travel. Definitely able to do a lot more travel due to property manager on property and not having to worry about it at a moment’s notice.
San Diego/La Jolla (Feb)
Mendoza and Buenos Aires Argentina (Feb)
Arizona/Utah (Apr) - Grand Canyon and Lindsey Stirling concert in Utah
Wyoming (June) - Work trip
Colorado (July) - Met Leah at Colorado School of Mines, went to Garden of Gods, Camping in new Escalade, Pikes Peak
Cabo (Nov) - 3 Day DJ Tiesto Concert at ME Cabo
San Francisco (Dec) - AGU Conference with Leah
Nashville (Dec) - New year’s, my new 2nd favorite place in US. Great Music, New Years Bash, etc.
Total vehicle Mileage (43,680):
Buick:
Starting Mileage: 148,460
Ending Mileage: 174,000
Total Mileage: 25,540
Escalade:
Starting Mileage: 91,190
Ending Mileage: 109,330
Total Mileage: 18,140
Business
Started and ended curb painting business
Hired employee to hang door hangers and designer to create door hangers
Painted over 50 curbs
Built website, QR code sign up system, and automated invoicing system and tracking system using Pipedream and Stripe Payments. Meddled with Power Automate for automating, but ultimately Pipedream was more compatible with the apps I was using.
I began meal prepping this year for meals during the week with Leah on the weekends, and it is an absolute game changer. Having meals prepared and ready to go that are cheap and nutritious without having to spend time during the week thinking about has totally improved my drive to hit them gym as well overall mental and physical health of eating good and feeling good.
What didn't go well this year
Continuing Education, reading, and podcasts. I did not do a good job at keeping up with reading and furthering my growth through books and podcasts. I had stents of inspirations where I would start an MIT open course or book but was not consistent about finishing them or getting through more than a couple days of it. I think I was kind of burnt out on some of these topics. I used to listen to podcasts and books while driving but in 2023 I turned more to youtube. I would say the majority of my youtube watch list is educational and learning content where I did, indeed, learn a lot. However, you can watch youtube so passively that just watching the ideas is not an implementation of the ideas, and I need to implement ideas that I learn about to get better.
Fitness - I re-purchased fit bod app for workout tracking mid-year. From purchase date of September 14th 2023 I completed 54 workouts:
September - 14
October - 19
November - 12
December - 10
I also watched extensive lecture videos from Dr. Andy Galpin on maximizing hypertrophy training (training for size). I have a full section dedicated to these learnings but to summarize the takeaways:
Train somewhere between 30-70% of one rep max and take it to failure
Target 15 or more movements per muscle group/week to maximize hypertrophy
Macros: (per lb of body weight)
Fat: 0.5 g/lb (100 g)
Carbs: 1.8 - 3.2 g/lb (360g - 640g)
Protein: 0.9 - 1.8 g/lb (240 g) err on the side of more protein than less
What did I learn this year?
Tensioner wheel on Escalade broke off causing it to overheat, I had to pull over immediately. Was able to re-secure the belt and make it into town temporarily. Learned how and replaced the tensioner wheel.
Learned how to replace CV axles on Buick via Youtube and replaced them.
Learned how to build website and automate invoicing process for customers through Pipedream
Continued perfecting my ribeye recipe
Reverse sear on smoker
Sear on Stove and Cook in Oven Method