The Annual Review
How I'm wrapping up 2023
December brings two certainties:
- “All I want for Christmas is You” will play at every coffee shop, supermarket, and habitable corner of this planet.1
- It’s time for my 2023 annual review.
I love annual reviews. I carefully scroll through my photos, flick through my journals while I wince at the cringe2, and religiously follow the prompts from the YearCompass planner.
It’s vital to pause and look at the rearview mirror of our days. To contemplate the hard things we did in 2023, so we can remind ourselves we can do hard things. To spot patterns, good and bad. To ask ourselves “Am I going in the direction I want in life? Do my choices reflect the conditions I want to create, the life I want to live?”
I’ve noticed that I will go through the arduous work of summoning all my insecurities, desires, and dreams on paper, and then pretend that magically, on January 1st, I will transform into a new person—a pokemon evolution from Camileon to Camizard.
The Cold Start Problem
Why do we decide that our transformation begins on January 1st, right after our hangover?
We are not cars—you can’t just turn the key and ignite lasting personal transformation. Momentum is important for this endeavor. That’s why ideas like habit stacking exist.
Instead, I’m going to start in December. At first glance, this seems foolish, like trying to go up an escalator that’s moving downwards. December is generally for conclusions, not beginnings. The sweet spot is to focus on starting AND tempering our expectation.
Disappointment is a byproduct of our expectations, not our goals. Goals are the desired end-state. Expectations are the yearnings and attachments that stem from those goals.
As long as expectations are tempered, I can start in less-than-ideal circumstances and celebrate the small wins while picking up momentum. By January 1st, I will have a budding new habit that has learned to swim upstream, and is now buoyed by the societal pressure that comes with January transformations.
Any seasoned runner will tell you that it’s a bad idea to start your run at full speed. It’s best to warm up by running slower than your target pace. Starting on January 1st, is deciding to sprint like Wile E. Coyote chasing the Roadrunner and meeting his inevitable fate: Accidentally running himself off a cliff, leaving a body-print 6 feet deep.
So what habits am I going to start in December?
- No phone use after 9pm for 4 days a week (ultimate goal is every night)
- 3 hours of writing time 3 days a week (ultimate goal is 6 days a week)
- 2 TM meditation sessions per day 4 times a week (ultimate goal is 7 days a week)
I’m also adding a couple elements to my 2024 planning to ensure a strong start to 2024: Choosing my pains and affirming my identities.
Choose your pain
Throughout the year, I’ve asked myself “what are the things I enjoy?” I hadn’t really asked myself that question; and thus, was driving with no headlights on a foggy night. And while this question is useful, I’m also going to be asking myself the following question inspired by Mark Manson’s The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck:
“What are the problems I want to have? What are the pains I want to sustain?”
To think we can live a life of eternal bliss and no suffering is unrealistic. But we can minimize our suffering by choosing our pains.
Lately, I’ve wailed to my friends about continuing my writing journey as my bank account continues skydiving with glee. It’s anxiety inducing and painful. But a year ago, I was stung by a thousand frustrations that made me miserable–like getting a massage from a porcupine. I was dealing with asinine Salesforce bugs, customers that were more elusive than a snow leopard, and attending endless meetings where ten people showed up, four spoke, and two said something of any value.
I’m not where I want to be. Not even close. But the pains I’ve chosen are part of the creative journey I want to undertake. For so long as I can endure, this is a better way to live than trying to avoid all obstacles, only to realize that in the pursuit of avoidance, I ended up on a treadmill.
Affirm your identities
This is something that I started last year, and will be more deliberate about in 2024. It’s wisdom that comes from James Clear.3 He writes in Atomic Habits about creating identities to live up to as the key to building sustainable habits. Affirming your desired identity is about changing your beliefs. In James Clear’s words:
“Outcomes are about what you get. Processes are about what you do. Identity is about what you believe…It’s hard to change your habits if you never change the underlying beliefs that led to your past behavior.”
I wrote in this post earlier this year how one of the guiding identities for me in 2023 was: I am a writer. Adopting this identity is one of the reasons why I’ve developed a weekly publishing habit—I associate consistency with embodying the identity of a writer.4
As I look ahead to 2024, I’m affirming my identity as a writer, but I’m adding a few other things that I believe successful writers do (e.g. make ample time for editing, have strategies for distributing their work, ask and promote their work shamelessly, etc).
The Action Formula
I’m seduced by the sense of control I feel during my annual reviews. The benefit of hindsight, the manifestation of an ideal future. Both my history and fantasies are movies I can edit in my mind. Hence, that’s why I’m trying to tie the benefits of introspection and planning, with mental shifts that lead to sustained action.
Action is everything. Life will smack you in a thousand different ways until you understand it. And when you forget—for a second—life will deliver that lesson once again with an open palm.
As I started writing this, I felt there was a polarity between planning and action that I couldn’t reconcile. Though now I think of action as the following equation:
Action = Energy + Focus
And when you add the reflective and planning elements of annual reviews, you can see how they directly contribute to taking action.
Action = Energy (reflection) + Focus (planning)
Reflection helps you assess where you spent your energy that yielded results and/or felt good. Planning helps direct where you need to focus said energy so that you get the outcomes you want.
This formula reminds me of wisdom I received from a Google engineer many moons ago. His name was Tony. He spoke with the ease of a Zen master; I’m 10% certain that his man could levitate. Once I asked him how he managed to be so productive and composed. He told me how he always spent time in the evening reflecting on his day and planning the next one: “The next day is won the night before.”
Here’s to winning 2024 on December 2023.
P.S. Fellow writer
wrote a great post with six step template for your own annual review.
It’s been reported that penguins in Antartica have erected a shrine to their Goddess of Christmas, Mariah Carey.
My “journal writing voice” is that of a 15-year old girl it seems.
Every time you mention James Clear in a newsletter, a productivity guru is born.
There are tradeoffs, of course. And 2024 for me will be a journey of balancing quality with consistency.
Yes, I totally agree with starting your goals for the new year now for momentum. Recently I realised that I spend hours scrolling on social media late into the night and in the past week, I have successfully gone to bed by 10pm instead of 1am. I also noticed that it's easier to wake up in the morning for classes these days... I'm excited about this new habit I'm building and it has inspired me to 'fix up' other areas of my life.
I feel so validated! I literally said this yesterday in one of our speaking meetings, that I wanted to start a practice group now in December so that we hit 2024 with momentum. Either great minds think alike, or great minds think the same thoughts when both of them are subjected to dreary Pacific Northwest weather.