My 2019 Annual Review

I’d like to do an annual review for 2019 modeled on James Clear’s post of the same topic, so here goes.

What went well

I got engaged. This one’s a no brainer, but I got engaged to my girlfriend of almost 4 years - the adventurous, piquant Nanette - and I definitely feel like one lucky song of a gun! (I proposed underwater too, which is pretty neat)

I became more deliberate about building and tracking habits. One of my favorite books that I read this past year was James Clear’s Atomic Habits (yes, I'm definitely a fan) a book about the science of building habits to become just 1% better every day. As a result, I’ve become a lot more deliberate about what I do and don’t do consistently which helps me determine where I need to invest my efforts.

Lots of great travel. I am super lucky to say that I got to spend almost 8 weeks traveling this year including a month touring New Zealand’s south island in a camper van and, 3 weeks enjoying the surf and natural wonders of Costa Rica. As an avid fan of the outdoors, these were two countries that really got to satiate my need to be immersed in nature.

First multi-pitch climb, and long wave ride on a surfboard. Climbing, and to a lesser extent surfing, have been my two sport pursuits these last few years and I’ve been really pushing myself to get outdoors more. Though I got to several amazing climbs this year - including in Cape Town (South Africa), Lukenya (Kenya), Queenstown, Wanaka, Takaka (New Zealand), Exits 45,38 (Washington, US) - my highlight was definitely doing my first multi-pitch climb at Smith Rock in Oregon. It was a 5-pitch absolute beauty of a climb named “Wherever I may roam” (huge shout out to Matthew Quan, and the Smith Rock crew for making this happen).

Also, also we got to meet climbing legend Tommy Caldwell present at the AAC’s Cragin' Classic - what a year for climbing!

Good growth year for Data for Good (D4G). As some of you may know, I’ve been leading a data-science skill-based volunteering group at Deloitte called Data for Good which was inspired by my experiences volunteering with DataKind. While the first year or two was quite a slow, we’ve been able to line up 6 potential opportunities in 2019 and are heading into 2020 with 3 strong projects leads tackling issues ranging from helping shape a story for more affordable housing in Southern California to building data set to help ex-addicts find reputable recovery centers.

My instagram famous photo from New Zealand

What didn't go well

I don’t have a clear view of how to align my career and passions. When I returned from my sabbatical I knew that it was important for me to be more deeply connected with the work I do, so I started on my journey of “what motivates me” and used the book Designing Your Life as a guide - however, I don’t feel as though I’ve gotten past the planning stage!

While I did complete The Good Times Journal, the Mind Maps and the Odyssey Plans I still feel like there’s a lot to fill in between these activities and knowing how to move forward. By now I’d have hoped to be further on my search with a few clearly formed ideas as to what I’d want to do! I need to get to it!

There's a lack of urgency to my everyday habits. Hand in hand with, well, most things, that didn’t go so well is my general lack of urgency. By nature, I’m a patient person, and that serves me well at times, but the downside of this trait is being too patient. I’m not going to live forever, so I should feel more frustrated if things aren’t moving (or if I’m not moving things). While change can be scary, the prospect of not living a life fully lived is scarier still, isn’t it?

I still haven't really taken advantage of my newfound freedom. As an immigrant to the US, I remember waiting impatiently, and spinning tall stories, for that glorious day when I would finally get my green card so that I could do WHATEVER I want (well .. job-wise that is). An ex-coworker and friend of mine that also went through the same torturous process decided, for the sheer hell of it, to work as a car valet shortly after receiving his green card .. because, well he could now.

In short, given my newfound freedom, I should really be more adventurous about the opportunities that are available to me - like, maybe I should teach climbing on the weekends.

What I’ve learnt

Do fewer things! It’s hard to advance on anything significantly if you’re trying to do too much. One thing that I do not lack is a shortage of interests - over the last year I’ve been: searching for the next step, trying to improve my climbing and get into trad, planning my proposal, managing Data for Good, building a camper-van (including learning woodworking, basic electrical and more), picking up new maker skills, doing adventure travel, improving my surfing .. you get the idea (and yes, I still find time to procrastinate).

While I’m thrilled to have such a wide array of interests, it’s certainly challenging to make meaningful progress in any one area, or not to feel like I’m consistently neglecting some activity or another. So, one change I’d like to make going forward to take on fewer projects and to prioritize what’s really important - which leads me to my next point.

Prioritize or you will forever be busy with trivial things. Being a consultant and a business school graduate, I definitely come from a world where the idea of being busy is fetishized (someone aptly coined this as “struggle porn”), but being busy and being productive are two very different things.

While it’s hardly ideal that it’s taken 31 years for me to really grasp this concept, it’s become very evident that I could stay ‘busy’ forever, whenever and really not get anywhere. So, prioritize ... no, really, do it - otherwise you'll forever be occupied with trivial stuff.

Make it Obvious. Make it Attractive. Make it easy. Make it satisfying. As I mentioned earlier, Atomic Habits really made an impression on me, and this four-step mantra is a really compelling and science-based approach to being 1% better each day. I’ve been using it from everything to improving my flossing to ensuring I’m constantly moving forward on important plans (like planning for the proposal). In 2020 I'm hoping to double down, and apply this to changing my sense of urgency.

It's always worth being prepared - doubly so while climbing! Not much to say here other than there were two ‘incidents’ this year - one 12m whipper for myself, and one occasion of Nanette flipping upside down on a lead and conking her head on the wall (with a helmet, thankfully) - that made me realize, if I’m going to continue doing a sport like climbing I definitely want to know what do when things go wrong since it can happen pretty fast. In a more general sense, taking a bit of extra time to know how to handle yourself when sh*t hits the fan - be in climbing or otherwise - seems well worth the effort.

“You’re soloing now”. According to Mark Synnott’s book, The Impossible Climb, this what an 80’s climbing legend John Bachar responded to another climber berating him about him why he free soloed. The way I read this was, according to Bachar, we’re always at the risk of death, so why not embrace the moment rather than pretend we’re fully in control.