Welcome to the 2015 year in review! As 2015 draws to a close, it is that time of year again to reflect on the events of the year and spend some time carefully looking at all the things that happened this year.

This is the fourth year I have published my annual review and goals for the upcoming year.  If you are curious about how I have honed the process, here are the yearly reviews for 2013 and 2014 and the goals setting posts for 2013, 2014, and 2015. This annual review process is inspired by Chris Guillebeau who has been publishing his annual reviews for several years and has a free spreadsheet for you to download and do you own review.

Because I am largely an optimistic person by nature, I tend to look back at most things as having been successful. And of this positive bias, this process is valuable because it enables me to take a brutally honest look at what did not go well, so that I can keep learning and improving. If you are someone who sometimes feels you have not gotten much done this year, you might actually be surprised once you go through this review process –  we tend to overestimate what we can do in a day and underestimate what we can achieve in a year.

This post will look at what went well and what did not for 2015. My hope for sharing this is to both inspire you to conduct your own annual review, and to give some insight into how I structure the process and reflect upon my year.

What went well in 2015:

The Art of Adventure:

We made it to 100 episodes! Yay! I attended the podcast movement conference and learned a ton. I hosted my first live podcast launch group here in Bali where we created 3 new shows, and over the course of the year, I helped over twenty new podcasters get their shows off the ground. I appeared as a guest on over 20 podcasts and gave eight speeches to a live audience. I did my first live video broadcasts on Periscope and Blab, and recorded over 20 short videos. If you haven’t listened to the show yet, I recommend checking out the top 10 episodes of the first year.

On the Red Carpet At the Academy Awards of Podcasting

Physical Movement:

While I didn’t complete a cyclocross season (because I still live in Bali!) I’ve had many other notable sporting accomplishments: Since returning to Bali at the end of the North American summer I have been dancing multiple days each week. I finally checked backflip off my Bucket list. I did quite a bit of riding and running while I was back in the states, including some epic trail runs in Colorado and epic bike rides in the Appalachians. Last month, I set a world record by climbing Bali’s three active volcanoes (Agung, Abang, and Batur) back to back to back in 14 hours 43 minutes. I went canyoning and did my first crossfit workouts at Ninja Camp. The most notable sporting achievement of the year was founding a week mens Ultimate Frisbee game with my housemate Nik Wood. We have since expanded to include a mixed game, the two of which get around 40 attendees each week!

Weekly Mens Ultimate Frisbee in Bali

Celebrating our World Record on Mount Abang, Bali

Canyoning at Ninja Camp Bali

Travel

I went to only two new countries in 2015 – Malaysia and Thailand, spending time in Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok. My best and longest trip of the year was spending the month of May in New Zealand. I was well taken care of by my good friend Mike and his wife Gretchen, who gave me an air mattress which took up most of their living room and letting me crash there on and off for 3 weeks.  Mike also took me mountain biking in Rotorua, one of the best spots for MTB in NZ. During the whole month I spend in New Zealand, I only paid for one night of lodging and got free transportation and housing for the rest of the time. In the February, I took a sweet road trip with my parents around Bali and did my first SCUBA diving here, in the national park. Back in the states, my parents and I took a great camping road trip after my best friends wedding in Colorado.

Great Sand Dunes National Park

Learning

I completed my goal of reading 100 books this year, and I started taking some online ecourses for the first time in business coaching, learning, body language, and leadership. I bought a cheap guitar in Bali and have started learning the basics. I learned to do my first magic trick where I tell you which card you picked from the deck.

Reading at 10,000 feet in the Spanish Peaks Wilderness

Writing

I became a contributing author for the Good Men Project and stated work on my first book, also titled the Art of Adventure. The AOA book will be told through the lense of the heroes journey about how we can all use adventure to gain more of the things we want for ourselves: Confidence, Happiness, Charisma, Decision Making Skills, Business Success, Leadership, Better Relationships.

Charity:

Through the help of Stephanie Burns and her coaching around Unreasonable Requests I partnered with the Invasion series of parties here in Ubud, Bali for my birthday party and we raised over 5 million Rupiah for the local Bumi Sehat organization.

Health:

I recently had a brain MRI done as a follow up three years later from my “Big Brain Blood Clot“ event, and I am extremely excited to report that this meatsack of mine (human body) is back to it’s original form, entirely free of residual damage. I met my goal of meditating at least 50% of the days in 2015 including the entire month of January and July, and it resulted in a greater sense of calmness that many of my friends were able to notice.

What did not go well in 2015:

Relationships:

This is the first time I am writing or talking about this publicly, but my wife Mary and I went through a divorce. It happened quite fast and I have been traveling solo for most of this year. As you might have guessed, divorce changes the whole outlook of one’s life and mine was no different.  I’ve had to reevaluate my future plans (didn’t move to Portland for example) and take some time for myself.  While I was only married for one and a half years, the emotions around separating were quite intense at times.

Adventure in Entrepreneurship Retreat:

I listened to popular demand and created an adventure style retreat for entrepreneurs here in Bali that was going to be awesome! However, even though I spent some energy marketing this course, I wasn’t able to fill it and we had to pull the plug in the month leading up to the course.  If I want to do another such even in the future, I need to make sure I get the marketing plan right.

Coming soon: 2016 Goals and projects!