I’ve been doing my annual reviews (template here) which I occasionally publish online.
Last time I did this, I decided not to post any sweeping reflection of the past year (2021) because I felt slightly self-conscious. Not that anything horrific happened but that (at the time) I felt that nothing colorful enough did.*
I was coming out of a difficult event and I felt I didn’t achieve enough in my year to merit sharing.
In 2023, I said to myself, I’d turn things around. I wanted to achieve the following professional goals: 1) Find another cofounder 2) Grow conviction in an idea; 3) Raise an astonishing million dollars in funding; 4) Hire an awesome team
On top of that, I wanted to see family a lot after 3 years of distance, travel back home to Manila & spark old and new friendships in NYC.
I surpassed ALL those professional goals with flying colors and added multiple cherries on top to beat.
But I still felt unsatisfied. The hedonic treadmill of life keeps rolling; my goal posts keep moving; and the bar keeps climbing. I almost decided not to publicize my reflections this year because I again felt like I hadn’t fulfilled enough.
Not a good mindset especially since the challenges and ups and downs and colorful stories are the ones worth sharing and learning from.
That’s why my 2023 theme of the year is: Balance ambition with kindness.
I’m proud of how ambitiously I climb higher and higher. But sometimes that manifests in:
- under appreciating where I’m at and what I’ve done to achieve my goals
- negative self-talk when goals aren’t met
- always moving the goal posts higher, ignoring the celebration of achieving the current goal
However, kindness, celebration and self-love is not mutually exclusive from ambition. I want to keep setting big dreams while stopping to smell the flowers along the way.
With that, I’m excited to share (and stay accountable) to my 2023 goals or habits I want to keep consistent. I plan to review these every month/quarter and see if I’m on track or would otherwise edit the goals to stay flexible to life.
Keep me accountable!
- Wake up inspired to do what I do
- Write at least 12 new articles on my blog
- I’m learning & growing constantly
- Become an expert in [space]
- My team is strong, happy & empowered
- Exercise (e.g. CP) 150x in the year
- Go to a 1) dentist; 2) therapist
- Taking steps to stop my hair habit
- Create & enact plan towards buying property
- Plan & save for a trip for parents
- Read 12 books
- Perform again (dance/improv/singing)
- Travel to 1 new country
- Document & share life more
- Find an NYC barkada
- See family at last 3x this year
Happy new year to all! 🎈
*Not true though! In 2021, I boldly quit my job, nomaded across the country, raised a pre-seed round unexpectedly, met a set of founder best friends, moved to NYC, found & lost a business co-founder, tore my ACL & got my first every surgery, and discovered myself in many ways I never would’ve if I hadn’t taken the plunge.