Reflecting on 2021, these were my top lessons that resonated with me.
We are a product of our prioritization
We can talk a big game of who we are and what we want to do, but what matters is execution. Prioritizing your time and activities is how you backup your talk. We will all make time for our real priorities. It’s important to critically think about your real priorities. I’m under the belief that we all know our real priorities based on our actions. If I’ve got a flight at 6am to go on vacation, best believe that I’ll be there on time. What about getting up at a similar time to go to the gym? It’s fully under my control of making the gym a priority just like it’s a priority for me to catch an early flight.
I have the ability to execute, when I’m actually committed
I told myself that I wanted to write one blog post a week. I made my blog a priority and I executed on my promise. Consistency on working towards a specific goal is something I’ve struggled with, so this year is evidence that I can follow through with the goals I prioritized. Another example is I told myself I would write a journal entry every day. Now I’ve got an entry every day going back to November 2018.
Life throws items unexpected high priority items at random times
I have the ability to write down what I’m going to do down to the minute for my day tomorrow. Not only can I plan it, I can also execute it. The only problem is this isn’t how life works. Life isn’t a computer script that you can run on a schedule time and get the same results. Things pop up at work, you get sick, someone needs your help, etc. This reaffirms the need to get your priorities done when you have the available time because you have no idea what’s going to be thrown at you.
The bigger the group, the larger the inertia
I knew this to always be true, but I have experienced it first hand this year. I have a greater appreciation that adding more people will increase the time it takes for mobilization. Speed isn’t the only priority in life, don’t get me wrong. Collaboration and cooperation is necessary for things to get done and adds enjoyment to the experience. The world wouldn’t be the place it is today if everyone was a lone wolf acting on their own time.
Make bets on behaviors that won’t change
I got this idea from Morgan Housel. The characters will change throughout history, but behaviors tend to stay the same. Consumers want goods and services at a higher quality for less price. People are looking to better their life and standard of living. People want to control their own time. There are many ideas that are timeless human behaviors and I want to put my investment dollars towards companies that are focused on these behaviors.
Peace and Love.