My 2022 Annual Review

It’s time once again to sit down for my annual review. Although I’m a couple of days late now, seeing as though we’re already in the new year, I’m ready to share some of the good and the bad things that came out of 2022. I’ve done this privately for a number of years now but last year I decided to start sharing a public version which leaves out some of the extremely personal stuff but hopefully encourages others to reflect on their year in order to start moving them in the direction that they want to go.

To quote Socrates again, “An unexamined life is not worth living.”

Self-reflection is an incredibly valuable tool in your toolbox that allows you to step outside of yourself and view things more objectively and with more context - all of which should serve to help you make better decisions in the future. So while this post may come across as slightly self-important, I hope you can see it for what it is - an honest attempt to explore what went well and what didn’t in 2022 for me.

The Good

Here are some of the things that went well for me in 2022, in no particular order:

1. Cultural Immersion

One of the goals I set for myself in the prior year was to more fully immerse myself in the arts. I’ve long since realised that engaging with art of all kinds is one of the most meaningful and fulfilling things for me and Joburg has plenty of that to offer if you’re willing to look for it. In this year, I continued singing in the Johannesburg Symphony Choir where we performed some of the most beautiful choral music ever written, I continued ballroom dancing lessons with my girlfriend on a consistent basis, and I saw 16 different theatre and music shows across the year. The continuing investments in these activities were truly soul food for me and they are some of the biggest contributors to my happiness this year.

To add to this, I also started to look into the fine art world for the first time this year. It’s something that is completely new to me but along with Robynne we dove head first into the community and tried to make sense of it. This involved attending many different exhibitions throughout the year to engage with artists and curators, asking as many questions as we could. We even attended an art history lesson to delve into some of the underlying basics - all of which helped us to learn and grow our art appreciation. This is something I’m very proud of and hope to continue in this upcoming year.

2. Hosting

Another goal that I set last year was to host more people for dinners, drinks, and other social occasions. As an introvert, it is always a bit out of my comfort zone, but I wanted more long dinners with friends and set out to make that happen. I want to be able to create a welcoming environment for friends and family to come into my space and enjoy good food, good company, and meaningful time spent together. And this year we hosted 13 different dinner parties for friends and family, all of which brought immense joy and laughter to the year. This required a lot of effort, but most importantly it required us to go first - inviting people without any expectation in return. I see this as an act of self-care, in a world where we’re increasingly isolated, shallow, and busy.

3. Strong Business Growth

My business continued to go from strength to strength, and I made the most money I’ve ever made in a calendar year. I am immensely proud of this, especially when I consider the sheer amount of work I put in to make this happen. This was the year when I found some level of stability in terms of revenue and didn’t have to worry each month about where the money to pay rent was going to come from. Some of the key inflection points here were to let go of lower-quality clients and focus more attention on higher-paying and more serious clients who gave me the creative license that I need to do my best writing. There is still a tremendous amount of potential for the business as I’ve achieved all of this without a website and without any marketing or sales of any kind. The power of word-of-mouth referrals continues to blow my mind, and that’s what the business has been built on, but to scale to the next level I’ll need to seriously look at marketing as well as hiring to support the next stage of growth.

4. Travel

I was very fortunate to get back to traveling this year after the pandemic got in the way over the past two years. I did one long trip to the UK, spending time with friends in London and Scotland where I realised just how much I was missing travel in my life. It’s hard to explain the impact that it has, but I honestly don’t feel like myself if I don’t get to travel. It’s the kind of soul food that feeds my imagination, my wanderlust, and allows me the space to reflect on what I’m trying to accomplish and who I’m trying to be.

The highlight for sure in this travel department was getting to see Jacob Collier live in London. The way he thinks about music has completely transformed my appreciation for it, and to see him do his magic in person was out of this world. The signed poster that now hangs on my wall is a constant reminder to lean into creativity, take risks, and look for beauty all around me.

5. Curating a Home Intentionally

This year has been the first full year in my own apartment where I’ve had the opportunity to curate my space to my taste and instill some of the habits, values, and choices that embody the life I want to live. It’s been an absolute joy getting to do this – and I’m proud that it’s been a slow and intentional process that hasn’t felt rushed. Every month we’ve slowly added components that we love and it has been really cool to see the house transform into a home. There is still lots to do and it’s very much a work-in-progress but this year has been a great start on that journey.

The Bad

Here are some of things that didn’t go so well, in no particular order:

1. Prioritising Others Above Myself

I didn’t look after myself well enough this year. I spent large portions of the year prioritising and trying to help others as they dealt with difficult periods in their lives. While I’m proud of the compassion and empathy that I exhibited, I realise now that it led to some rather dark periods for me because I never set the right boundaries. There were moments when I felt completely drained and empty because I had done all I could for others and wasn’t actually investing in my own mental health. This is something I’ve struggled with my whole life – a so-called ‘hero complex’ – and it’s something that I’m really trying to improve on. It’s not about being selfish per se, but rather filling up my own cup so that I can be fully present and capable to help those in my life. I can’t live out the good that I want to without prioritising those things that keep me going. As the cliche goes, put your own oxygen mask on first, before attempting to help those around you.

2. Sugar Addiction

This is a repeat problem from last year and it’s safe to say that I made little to no progress this year. I find myself prone to binge eating at times - using food to try and paper over boredom, insecurity, sadness, procrastination, and other emotional triggers. My actual meals are going well, but it’s all the junk I eat in between that is the main problem. I tried a couple of times to quit sugar completely and found that I suffered insane headaches which can only be withdrawal symptoms - demonstrating again just how serious this is. I need to find a better strategy for dealing with this and intend to engage with a dietician and perhaps a mental health professional to try and get this under control. It’s the major factor that’s keeping me at a shape and size that I’m frustrated with, and it’s got a lot of long-term health implications that I know I need to take seriously.

3. Burnout

I simply worked too much this year. As the business grew it demanded more and more of me, and I wasn’t successful in building in periods of rest to keep me going. As such, I hit a wall in early December and experienced a short period of burnout – something familiar that I’ve dealt with before. I need to work harder on carving out dedicated times to rest both on the micro-level (every day) and the macro-level (across the year). This is crucial if I am to maintain sustainable productivity and continue making the time for other things in my life that aren’t work-related. Connected to this, I need to start looking to delegate things in my business to other people. Up until now, I’ve done basically everything myself and if I want to scale while maintaining the rest of my life, I need to bring others onto this journey with me.

4. No Self-Initiated Learning

I’ve always tried to prioritise continuous learning because I believe it’s paramount for maintaining mental acuity and relevance within a fast-changing world. However in 2022, I didn’t do any self-initiated learning. The business (see above) was all-encompassing and I didn’t make the time needed to take on any courses, lectures, or other programmes that can develop me. This is linked to the fact that I didn’t read enough books this year – a worrying sign because I felt the same in 2021. This year I need to pull back on my other commitments to make the time for this because it’s an important part of what makes me who I am.

5. Not Writing For Myself

I run a writing business which means that I write thousands of words every day that get published by other people under their name. The side effect of this is that I’ve barely written anything for myself over the past year. My blog and email newsletter have been neglected and even my journal entries have been sparse and inconsistent. I miss it. I need to write more under my own name because it helps me to clarify my thoughts, express myself creatively, and continue to sharpen the saw in terms of my writing skill. I hope to be much more active this year across the blog, newsletter, Twitter threads, and perhaps even a long-awaited return to my novel. We’ll have to wait and see.

2022 Favourites

Favourite Theatre Show: The Beauty Queen of Leenane

Favourite Book: The Psychology of Money- Morgan Housel

Favourite Documentary: Stutz

Favourite Film: King Richard

Favourite TV Series: Squid Game

Favourite Song: Come Unto Me - The Mavericks

Where To From Here?

I have no idea whether anything here has been useful for you, but hopefully, there was some value in something I’ve mentioned above.  Most importantly, I want to emphasize how powerful this can be if you do this for yourself.  You don’t have to share it publicly or anything, but hard-fought reflection on your past year is paramount if you want to continue growing as a person and you want to hold yourself accountable for the life you’re trying to create.

If you enjoyed this, please do let me know so I can get a sense as to whether I should be publishing these sorts of things more often.

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I hope that you have a wonderful 2023!