Twenty Thoughts For A New Year Reflection (2015 Edition)

Part of the reason I created this blog was to share a lot of personal anecdotes and journal entries that I've been documenting for years that I feel would be useful for other people. This is a throwback to a list I created at my end-of-year reflection in 2015 which still has some great takeaways and personal anecdotes that helped me as a self-reminder. It has been slightly modified to be written with a different intention and demeanor. I hope that it will help you as you think about moving into the New Year. I will likely publish a new one for 2023 once I have a chance to filter through my notes and come up with a fresh list, but in the meantime, here are 20 personal anecdotes/reflections (2015 edition) that may help you in your own life:

1. The sun is always just beyond the clouds

No matter how shitty things are going, no matter how cloudy of a day, the sun is just beyond.. it WILL get better..

2. Visualize the good stuff when things are going bad and eventually, things will turn 180 degrees in your favor.

This is basically the law of attraction - always visualizing the good things and you will create that reality for yourself.

3. Don't RE-Act, just ACT.

When your classmate bombs his portion of the presentation and dumps it on you.. when the track coach throws you in three races when your hamstring is already pulled, do NOT re-act - stop, think, and ACT. Reactions have an emotional bias and will cause you to make less optimal decisions in times that you should stop and think before acting. 

4. There are only two certainties in the world: life and death. What happens in between is an adventure you get to create.

5. The harder you work, the luckier you get

You can't get lucky if you don't play the game.

6. Once you have nothing, you're free to do anything.

Things can be distractions. Illusions. Think about people with all of these predisposed beliefs or with all of their gadgets and gizmos that they use to feed and fuel their ego and their life. Without those things, their lives lack purpose. It's only once you remove all of the illusory beliefs and gadgets and gizmos that you can start to really evaluate what you want to do in this incarnation - because when you remove all the bullshit, you're naked, and that's vulnerability, and a lot of people are afraid of that shit - they're afraid of challenging who they think they are against what they could be - much easier to just keep moving on the momentum of where your life is NOW versus sitting in silence and really evaluating yourself and your life... but that's where real freedom comes from.

7. College isn't even a fraction of the person you're going to be or the life you're going to create.

Look at all of these people who are way out of college. Your idols, your friends, whomever. They aren't even near the same person they were when they graduated. They've evolved. If you are reading this and you are years out of college and don't feel like this is relatable, ask yourself if you've grown if you're the same person you were then as you are now.

8. Don't worry about making the RIGHT decision - worry about making the decision RIGHT.

In the middle of 2015, I was conflicted about what direction I was going to go, with my studies, personal business endeavors, etc. My buddy gave me this advice mid-year: You have to just pick something and go with it. Start, and finish strong - MAKE IT RIGHT, don't worry about if it was the right choice, just COMMIT.

9. "One of the biggest deceptions ever perpetrated on the public is the persistent notion that your value can be gauged by what you consume"

This was taken from MJ Demarco's "The Fastlane Forum", an online entrepreneurship forum. Look at all these celebrity smokes and mirrors. Guys like lil bow-wow driving a Lamborghini but he's dead broke. On the surface, one might think "Guy has a lot of money". You can't gauge how much value someone has just by how much shit they buy. Keeping up with the Joneses, and being able to do so by always having the newest house or car or boat, does NOT mean you are doing well in life.

10. The only way to learn is to fail. The only way to fail is to DO.

There are a lot of people who are simply afraid to fail, but so anxious to learn...

11. 40% of things you worry about will never occur, 30% already happened, 12% are needless imaginings about our health, 10% are about what other people think (and we can't change what they think), and only 8% are legitimate concerns.

Stop worrying so fucking much.

12. "The old idea of being sacrificed is not what we think at all - going to your sacrifice as the winning stroke of your life is the essence of the early sacrificial idea. "

A quote from Joseph Campbell speaking on the religious idea of sacrifice being a physical slaying of an animal 'for the gods' - but contrary to this idea, we are all making that sacrifice NOW - we will all die one day - the real sacrifice is what we do between NOW and THEN.

13. "Keep F1 and F2 in your life - Fear & Frustration"

You won't learn grow and evolve without constant fear and frustration. "Diamonds are forged under pressure"

14. Objectively define what you're good at and what you suck at regularly and PLAY TO YOUR STRENGTHS

15. Appearances are NEVER what they seem

it's all smoke and mirrors, and comparison keeps us always looking on the outside - measuring what little we know of ourselves against what little we see of other people, it's a very masochistic trap to get in because you're constantly beating yourself down and building someone else up. "Comparison is the thief of joy" ~ play to what YOUR strengths are, not to what someone else is doing.

16. Always finish what you start.. and finish strong.

In 2015 during my track season, I pulled my hamstring in my first meet. It didn't matter that I pulled it halfway through my 200M race - I finished that race and crossed the finish line. It didn't matter that MY season was over. It didn't matter whether my team supported me, cared about me, or not. It didn't matter whether it was my fault, or my coach's fault, or that they may have lacked any level of empathy. The takeaway was this: You finish what you started. You go to every meet, and you cheer on your team. You don't do it for them, you do it for you, and for the case of finishing strong in everything you do.

17. Your life is an extension of your thoughts.

If you constantly think the new world order is going to win and life is on the brink of catastrophe, you will create that idea in your mind and it will manifest itself into reality.

18. It's not the symbols that we want, it's the feeling that they bring.

19. The process and the journey are what make you feel satisfaction - not the destination. You enjoy resting when you've worked out, you enjoy eating when you're hungry, etc.

20. Rome wasn't built in a day. It took TIME.

It doesn't matter how hard you work, you need work AND time to win. 


I hope you enjoyed these personal anecdotes and reflections. If you've found this useful, please consider giving it a share.