Half Year Review

“When facts change, I change my mind”

-John Maynard Keynes

Back in January I published my personal goals for 2021 here. Given we are a little more than half way through the year, now is a good time to reflect and reassess. I don’t want to pursue goals that are no longer as important to me.

My initial 2021 goals (summarized below, read the post for more detail) were to:

• Ski a bunch ✔️
• Hike a bunch ✔️
• Train martial arts (I picked up surfing as a new activity instead…✔️)
• Blog 🟡
• Meditate 🟡
• Read books ✔️
• Stay in touch with family/friends ✔️
• Start and grow a business ❌
• Manage investments decently 🟡

I performed very well across my exercise/physical exploration goals. These activities ended up dominating my time in 1h21. I materially increased my skiing ability, spent 15ish days in national parks, learned how to surf in San Diego, and went backpacking in Zion with buddies.

I read a decent amount (🙏 kindle). I didn’t blog even close to weekly…sorry my dear readers. I’ve found it challenging to really put myself out there on this blog, but will keep on trying regardless of the frequency. I struggled to meditate consistently, presumably because I was travelling and didn’t keep a regular daily schedule. I saw a lot of family and friends in 1h21 so that was good. My investments have taken a bit of a hit this past month (thanks J Pow 😭😭😭)…but that’s a story for another blog.

So overall 1h21 went decently well w/r/t most of my goals, but I made very little progress in the ~making money~ part of my life. I said I was going to start an online business. I got thrown off track in early February when a recruiter from my previous industry reached out with some compelling job opportunities (I wrote a post about how I would evaluate these opportunities). Once I began speaking with these potential employers my mindset completely flipped from entrepreneurship back to investing. I struggled to put effort into entrepreneurial activities while knowing I might take a new job (RIP macrofade.com). Unfortunately I interviewed with multiple firms for 3-4 months before they ultimately decided not to give me an offer! (Full transparency – I’m interviewing with 1 more firm, but I think it is unlikely to happen and I have mentally written it off.) So frankly 1h21 has been a waste of time regarding my professional life.

To quote my original 2021 goals post:

“I can’t distract myself with second-tier goals given the first-tier is difficult enough to achieve. Ruthless prioritization. I must avoid actively pursuing second-tier goals at all costs (obviously I’m not going to avoid massive investment returns if they occur, I’m just not putting any extra effort towards that lofty objective). I stole this from Warren Buffet via James Clear.”

So for the second half of 2021 I’m only going to focus on 1 primary goal and 1 secondary goal. My primary goal is to start a company (subject of my next blog), and my secondary goal is to train martial arts 2+ times/week. I’m not going to stop the rest of my life, but I’m consolidating my core focus such that I can clearly prioritize my time.