My 2024 reviewed — the BIG year!
The usual disclaimer — I write this for myself, to take stock, plan and build a life we want and hold ourselves accountable
TL;DR:
❄️ Needed to move house again (👎) and hosted Emma’s birthday with all our friends
🌱 Went to South Africa and Spain, one for work, both were a pleasure! Also got a birthday present buying me books which I really enjoyed!
☀️ Stag, Married and Honeymoon — a stressful work period but a joyous time.
🍂 Started the house buying process, got a puppy and grew the Vula Team!
Another fantastic year!
My 2023 goals: How did I do?
1. Ride or die — we ride ✅
We rode and I am so happy where we are at the moment.
2. Best shape of my life — kind of 🟧
Certainly muscle-wise, yes. Managed to build a good routine of swimming and gym, though this didn’t expand from other time but instead ate up running. I also hit a wall around October where I didn’t feel
Diet-wise I would say it was more consistent with the previous year too, and near the end of this year has got worse (because of the dog and the season).
3. Read and write more — ish 🟧
Last year I had 5 books read but waiting to be written up and 5 books written up and finished.
This year I have 4 books written up and finished this year, with 3 random write ups about other things, and 6 waiting to be finished and 2 waiting to be read.
So that is:
- 1 less finished (but 3 non-book write ups) 🟧
- 3 more waiting to be finished ❌
Good intentions, no execution.
This largely has been due to the extra work that came from sorting out a mortgage, that I didn’t expect to be doing this year! The dog has also wrecked some schedules and frankly I have also reinstalled instagram, something I was hoping to sacrifice.
4. Flexible day schedule ❌
Better but still want to improve. I feel like we have done well @ Vula to install this but I am the worst at this in the entire team.
5. Get a dog ✅
Yes and she is a dream.
6. Continue de nada nights ❌
I did for 75% of the year would love to restart it, but with the wedding, house and puppy, something needed to give. More than that, I was getting a bit of anxiety about de nada nights and finishing on time which was removing the enjoyment too. Perhaps I start this up when things calm down a little bit more.
2024 reviewed
It has been quite a year honestly, especially nearer the end of the year. From this it perhaps isn’t that surprising that most of the goals are out of line, but looking back it has a been brilliant.
2025 Goals
Make our house our home
Fingers crossed, we will finally stop renting this year and move to a mortgage. There are so many projects I would love to start, but ultimately the goal is to make our house our home.
Lose body fat — 25% down to at least 20%
I have fancy scales and casually track it.
At my peak performance for the 70.3 Ironman I was 17%, it would be nice to be a little better than 25% currently…
Meal prepping, much less sugar, less meat, more exercise, etc. The usual stuff.
Give to charity much much more — somewhere between 5% to 10% of my income
I remember hearing at school that Sikh’s tend to give 10% of their income to charity. I think that is a brilliant target.
The more I do my job I see how large comparative purchasing power can make a difference in Africa. After reading Doing Good Better by William Macskill, I got a much better appreciation of how the pareto principle works in the world of giving, don’t buy fairtrade but do give the difference to charity, and the more action-focused of who to give to…
One thing which I really want to support is www.kiva.com. At Vula, we know that loans are probably the most capital efficient way to make Africa a prosperous continent.
I am now in a position to do so, so why aren’t I doing more!
12 books written up
Should be more than possible with the number I have outstanding. I have built a little system in Notion to manage this better and I want to change my bed time routine to jump from Duolingo and then to read.
Writing up is tough as after a full day of working on the laptop the last thing I want to do is open my laptop again, so I will experiment with a tablet, writing it into a book manually, and perhaps even get a writing tablet maybe? Let’s see.
2 pages a day minimum is the goal though.
Relax more — by the sea and by drawing
You see that old man with his easel at the park. I want to be a bit that way sometimes. I love the intensity we have had this past year, but few times have I felt calmer than when in the park drawing or in the sea. More please.
In short:
[ ] Make our house our home
[ ] Lose body fat — 25% down to at least 20%
[ ] Give to charity somewhere between 5% to 10% of my income
[ ] 12 books written up
[ ] Relax more — by the sea and by drawing
