2017: Year in Review

It’s that time of the year where we get the opportunity to take a step back, reflect and be thankful for the year we’ve had. 2017 has been a challenging and rewarding year; and it’s my pleasure to share it with you.

2017 Performance

A brief review of this year’s activity:

As I wrote in my 2017 Resolution, this past year’s goal was “Exploration”. It was a type of a ‘Anti-Resolution’ that allowed for experimentation, divergence, and undirected continuous improvement. As you can see in my 2017 Kanban Board, the year was full of experiments, projects, ‘first tries’, and time with family and friends.

Final Scoreboard: 72 Kanban Cards

21 Craft
14 Health
14 Fun
12 Tribe
11 Wealth

Sounds like a pretty eventful year to me! (… click here to see the complete list!)

2017 Kanban Board

—

2017 Highlights

Some tallies of 2017:

567 Drinks with friends
164 Articles read and summarized
145 Hangouts with friends
83 Family Gatherings
66 Dates w/ Vickie
47 Movies watched
42 Workout Sessions
30+ Days of Intermittent Fasting
29 Learning Nights
19 Essays
13 Blog Posts
13 Books read (novels, short stories, and self-help)
8 Online Courses (Supply Chain Management, OmniChannel and Project Management)
6 Months of the 5-Minute Journal
6 Family and Friends hosted from abroad 🇨🇦
6 Cryptocurrency experiments (bitcoin mining, crypto trading, referral + google ads)
5 Skype sessions with friends
4 Months of High School Football Coaching
2 Travel trips (SFO, Japan 🇯🇵 )
2 Surf sessions @Palmar
1st Place Flag Football Champions with the Fuzzy Koalas🐨
1 Zip-Lining Adventure @Boquete Tree Trek
1 Canjilones de Gualaca Adventure
1 One-Day Juice Detox
1 Pet adopted (Luna 🐱)
1 10-km race across the Bridge of the Americas!
1 Heck of a year!

—

2017 Retrospective (Lessons)

Some of the things I learned this year…

On Opportunity Cost

Saying YES to one thing means saying NO to everything else.
Saying no is OK. You should say NO more often.
Beware the hidden costs of big, binding commitments.
“Yes man” is fun; until it’s not.
Understand the concept of leverage. Say yes to things with the highest ROI.

On Craft and Career Development

Anticipate the future. Build the skills you will need to face the challenges ahead.
Become credible. Put in the work to develop an opinion.
You get what you ask for. Be explicit with what you want. Don’t beat around the bush.
Prioritize. Few things matter. Most don’t make much of a difference.
Over-prepare, so that you can over-deliver.

On Tribe

Focus on the Critical Few. Think of concentric circles and allocate time accordingly.
Turn the smartphone off. Unplug from the Matrix.
Focus on deeply connecting with the other individual.
Be genuinely curious and interested.
Everyone has a story to tell.

On Health

Poor nutrition, little exercise and poor sleep is a recipe for personal disaster.
You need rules and routines. Great health is about doing a couple things consistently.
Prioritize Sleep. It’s the highest impact thing you can do to be more productive.
Leverage constraints. Limit junk food, caffeine, alcohol, late nights.
Stay active. Stand up, stretch out, keep the blood flowing.
Create empty space to relax and reset. Take a walk every now and then.

On Wealth

Be proactive. Understand the big picture. Manage the details.
Be strategic. Run yourself like a business. Have your own scorecard or kpi’s.
Think Long-Term. Understand the mechanics and impact of compound interest.
Be objective. Growth, Return on Investment, and Net Gains don’t lie.
Get advice. Nothing like doing it like a pro.
Seek asymmetrical rewards. Take a risk. Hedge your loss.

—

2017 Reflection

You have everything you need.

Most of us have everything we need to be happy and content; but get sidetracked chasing dreams and fulfilling others’ expectations. It’s up to us to learn to appreciate all the good things and great people in our lives. Happiness is a choice we make every day.

—

Thanks for everything 2017. You’ve been great. Cheers to a challenging and inspiring 2018!

—

And last but not least …