Revolutions and Resolutions: 2021 in Review

Escaping Innocence, Recharging Batteries, and Clean Starts

Happy New Year, everyone!

I use the beginning of every year to reflect on where life is, where it’s going, and what I want to focus on and accomplish in the next year. Here are some of the things I’ve reflected upon in the first full week of 2022.

Escaping Innocence & Echo Chambers

2021 was another eventful revolution around the sun, and as I’ve stated before in Embers, I expanded my circle of competence by learning a great deal about industries and events that I hadn’t focused on before. Last year I really began understanding how the world (actually) works.

2021 had its fair share of ups and downs, globally and personally; I’m certain everyone reading this went through some sort of trial and tribulation. Everyone has their own battles, and we’d be better off as a species if we took more time to remember that.

Finding and understanding different worldviews has been intellectually satisfying, but it’s also forced me to reconsider my empathy towards others. It isn’t easy to learn about different world views because second-hand insights aren’t nearly as compelling as personal experiences. But approaching these worldviews with an open mind is the only way you can actually develop a better mental map of the world.

People from different generations, raised by different parents who earned different incomes and held different values, in different parts of the world, born into different economies, experiencing different job markets with different incentives and different degrees of luck, learn very different lessons.

— Morgan Housel, Psychology of Money

This is a never-ending process, and it requires sustained curiosity in order to keep learning.

Refilling the Batteries

Sustaining output, curiosity — anything really — requires finding ways to recharge. The Holidays are a great time to do that, but even a short walk can serve that purpose.

I don’t think people spend enough time mentally and physically recharging themselves. You can’t do it all the time, otherwise you’d never get anything done(!), but this is one of the exciting things about the new year: everyone has spent some time relaxing and recharging in the past few weeks.

You can feel this renewed energy early in January: people are excited about trying new things, being better versions of themselves. My advice to you is tap into this energy — find something you want to do more of in January. Build some momentum, and let it carry you into this year.

Life is more fun when you have a destination in mind. It’s okay if part of that journey is figuring out where you want to go. It takes time to recalibrate and figure out where to go. I’ve found that as long as you’re moving forward with a prepared mind, things have a way of working out. You just have to be ready to capitalize on opportunities when they present themself.¹

The world is crazy right now, but it’s always been crazy, so don’t wait for the outside world to calm down. Focus on what you can control. If the past two years have been any indication, there’s no better time to take command of your journey than today.

Gratitude & Clean Starts

I would be remiss to conclude this piece without thanking people in my life who supported me personally and professionally over the past year. You know who you are: I’ve thanked you each individually, but I want to emphasize that the best part of 2021 has been the strength of these relationships. It’s one of the many ways life is so rewarding. Thank you again for being there for me.

Lastly, I want to thank you for reading this. Time is invaluable, and I fully appreciate that people spend time reading what I write. So, in an effort to maintain transparency: one of my resolutions for this year is publishing a new piece every week. Some weeks may be shorter (or longer) than others, but the goal remains unchanged. Each post will highlight interesting things I’m thinking about — as always, please let me know your thoughts and reactions.

It may be an arbitrary day on a calendar, but the beginning of the year is special. Humans need narratives to make sense of things, and having a clean start is one of the most powerful narratives we’re given. The best part is we get one every 365 days. I’m excited to make the most of this new one, and I wish you the best as you venture into yours.

1. Now, as I just said in the section above, people’s experiences vary! So bear that in mind. What works for you might not work for me, and vice versa. But keeping an open mind primes you for acting upon ideas that can change your life. And you can’t find new ideas if you don’t take time to listen to different perspectives.