This is the sixth 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, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and the goals setting posts for 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017. 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. This year I am also using Orian Marx’ Lifecrafting Annual 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 as 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 2017. 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.
One of the biggest things I did not plan for was the pregnancy and birth of our second child – this changed so many things from travel plans to business schedules – I spent hundreds of extra hours supporting my wife Heidi that I would otherwise have spent doing adventure and growing the business.
Other posts in the 2018 Annual Review Series:
- Top 10 books read in 2018
- 2018 Adventure and Travel Review
- Top Art of Adventure Podcasts of 2018
- 2019 Goals and Plans
2018 review by life segment:
- Got engaged on July 4th, married on Friday the 13th
- Welcome a new baby daughter to our family
- Moved in to our house in St. Louis
- Superconductors was published in July, long listed for best business book, UK book awards; Editor’s choice award – Flybe Magazine
- Activate Your Life was an International #1 Bestseller, published in October
- Launched the League of Superconductors group coaching program for thought leaders
- 5 months of operation for our Airbnb property in St. Louis
- Grew personal Instagram to 15K, Art of Adventure Instagram to 1K
- First paid speaking gig – $1500
- Participated in a year-long business mastermind for coaches
- Joined Nexcore Coworking space in St. Louis
- Published 50+ podcast episodes on Art of Adventure; 200,000 downloads
- Had my first 2 interns for Art of Adventure
- Received the first shipment of endurance boosting herbs from Tibet for future herbal supplement business
- Supported launches for 2 of my friends’ programs – Affiliate sales
- Living in Southern California in January
- Epic Bike Rides
- Living in Bali Feb-June
- AdventureQuest Bali
- Surfing
- Canyoning
- Climbing Mt Batukaru
- Beach Bonfire
- Ecstatic Dance
- 24 hour of adventure in Bali + Glamping
- Earned over 250,000 airline miles
- Took my family to the magic tree in central bali
- Living in epic villa in Bali with Patricia Parkinson and Ashe Oro
- Camping in Missouri – our son’s first camping and caving trip
- Hosted 3 friends in Bali for 1 week each
- Photography adventures in Bali to directional temple, secret waterfalls, rice terraces
- The most epic day of SUP surfing ever in Sanur, Bali
- Visited Tennessee for my grandfather’s 90th birthday
- Went hot air ballooning for Heidi’s birthday in SoCal
- Visited Langkawi Malaysia, stayed at Temple Tree Resort
- Went skiing in Whistler, BC, Canada with Macalester friends
- Played in Nusantara Cup Bali Ultimate Frisbee Tournament
- Raced both road and cyclocross – best results in Pro category: 3rd place in CX race, 13th in criterium
- Visited health specialists like chiropractor, acupuncturist, massage therapist, and healers more than 52 times
- Held my breath for 4:18 using the Wim Hof breathing method
- Began taking regular morning cold showers
- Fasted 10 days total
- Visited holy water temple in Bali
- Experimented with psychedelic mushrooms
- Float tank
- Continued work with dreams and magic stones
- Income from 7 streams: 1-1 coaching, group coaching, AdventureQuest Bali, Airbnb House, Affiliate sales, Public Speaking, and Book sales
- Published 2 books – Activate Your Life and Superconductors
- New Aero Racing bicycle
- Wedding rings
- Silver Jewelry from Bali
- Used Minivan
- Furniture for house (bookcase, standing desk, dressers, giant mirror)
- New tree in front of our house
- Won a grant to get our yard landscaped with native species
Education:
- Read ~ a book per week
- Listened to ~400 podcast episodes
- Completed online training for high performance habits, virtual summits, retreats, book publishing, and thought leadership
- Relationship coaching while in Bali
- Spending lots of time with my parents and kids in the US
- 2 epic house warming parties in Bali and St. Louis
Charity:
- Donated over 75 coaching sessions (~ $56,000 in value)
- Supported Macalester College with a monthly donation
- Supported New City School with a monthly donation
What did not go well:
- Overestimated how much I could get done, which led to:
- The League of Superconductors group coaching program has less people than I intended
- Superconductors did not hit NYT bestseller status, only wrote about half the PR articles I could have (12/20)
- AdventureQuest Bali could have been more profitable with 2-3 more guests
- I lost out on over $50,000 of potential income from not having perfected my client intake and contract systems
What I did not achieve from 2018 goals:
- did not record video training courses
- did not do a vipasana silent retreat
- only hosted 1 AdventureQuest trip
- did not do a book tour or RV trip
- did not visit any new countries (5 countries total)
Areas for improvement:
- Take on less
- Set up better systems
- Build a team
- Better purpose and mission for the business
- More video
- Increased content
- Sales Funnel set up
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