3 reflections from the year that went by –
(1) Show me the incentives and I’ll show you the outcome. I’d read versions of this quote before – but this was the year I began internalizing it. As is the case with lessons like this, they bed in after reflecting on experiences that brought intense pain. There was no dearth of that.
On the flip side, once I did understand this, it changed how I operated. Instead of focusing on fighting constraints individually, my focus turned to changing incentives. It is a significantly higher leverage strategy.
It was also the year where I saw this play out in the macro – the many elections included. There’s a great line – it is impossible for a person to understand what they’re paid not to understand. I have deeper appreciation for the wisdom of that line now.
(2) Habit momentum is real – the most important thing is to just get started. I started this year inspired by Outlive’s focus on exercise. This included near daily workouts, personal training twice a week (a gamechanger), and a weekly game of soccer.
But it snowballed into so much more. The workouts kept getting more consistent and elaborate. Then came Casey Means’ Good Energy and it is hard to overstate how these changes have continued to snowball.
Looking back 12 months, my habits and diet have changed a tremendous amount. And they will continue to evolve – now inspired by the Starretts’ Built to Move.
Habit momentum is a powerful force because habits build on each other and compound in incredible ways. The most important thing is to just get started.
(3) Design for memories. Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate how time blurs most things. All we’re left with are a collection of memories. Best to design those moments intentionally.
This means planning as many lovely moments as possible with people that matter. All of them won’t pan out exactly as we expect. But many will.
And those will be the ones we remember.
