I didn’t know what I was expecting heading into 2021. I don’t think I was expecting much. Either way, what I got absolutely blew me away.
A year ago, I just published my first book — and felt relieved. 2020 was a tough year for me, but it had nothing to do with COVID. My mind was all out of whack and I had to work really hard to fix it.
2021 was the product of that. I feel whole again!
I’m nowhere near perfect. But I’m where I need to be, and that’s all that matters.
As we end the first full year of this newsletter, I’d like to do some recapping. I want to talk about the best books I read this year, the best lessons I learned, the best stories I wrote, and anything else that comes to mind.
My Biggest Takeaways From 2021
I learned a lot in 2021. But these were my greatest takeaways…
You have absolutely no idea what’s coming next
At the end of January 2021, I was getting over a girl and still trying to figure out what I was going to do next in my life. I was working at Walmart ~8 months after graduating from college and was somewhat uneasy about the next step.
Then, I got a huge blood clot in my arm, and everything changed pretty drastically.
In a matter of two weeks, I went from kind of sad and confused to in a hospital bed. And while in that hospital bed, I befriended my nurse and ended up going on a date with her.
What a crazy year.
Things changed really fast. And that was great because I needed change.
The world made that change for me, though. Maybe next time I’m feeling stuck, I’ll just blow my life up on purpose and see if it helps.
Or… maybe not. But realizing that change isn’t so bad, and is often actually great, made the idea of making changes on my own seem not so scary.
Even really healthy people can run into problems
This goes off the first point, obviously…
I used to get sick in high school all the time. As soon as I graduated, I rarely got sick anymore. My diet is decent and I exercise on a fairly regular basis.
And yet, working at Walmart for four years caused me to develop thoracic outlet syndrome, reducing my blood flow and causing the clot. Random, completely unexpected, and yet totally real.
I hate the phrase “life is short” because it’s not really true. It’s true for some people. Maybe it feels short. But for most of us, life is long.
I like “memento mori,” or “remember that you must die.” We all die at some point. It could be from a health issue you didn’t even know you had.
You’re young. You’re healthy. And people just like you have dropped dead from random health issues.
Don’t sit and dwell on the possibility of your death. But remember that something completely out of left field could take you out tomorrow.
Or put you in a hospital bed, at least. And sadly, I can’t promise any cute nurses waiting for you.
Life is about what you feel, not what you have
I wrote a chapter in From One Young Soul to Another about materialism and its uselessness. In 2021, that lesson saw a level-up.
I connected with my “inner Being,” as I have referred to it in both of my books thanks to Eckhart Tolle, more this year than any other. I did it through writing. I did it through running. I did it through music.
The feelings that come out of this experience are greater than any other. And experiencing those feelings made me realize that life is really all about what we do and how it makes us feel.
I have spent way too much time fixating on finding a life partner. It’s just not productive. It makes me feel sad and does not help me get any closer.
I still do it today, though not nearly as much.
But experiencing those deep feelings, connecting with something so deep inside me, gave me a whole new perspective on how I should spend my time.
New hobbies can quickly take over your life
Did you really think I wasn’t going to talk about golf?
I got into golf in 2020, but I didn’t give it a try until 2021. I didn’t even play my first round until June. And it didn’t take me long to get hooked.
I have only played two full rounds on a normal, 18-hole course. But I have played plenty at a 9-hole par-3 course.
I shot a 52 in my first nine holes. The last time I played, which was a few weeks ago, I shot a 35.
I set a loose goal over the summer to get down into the mid-30s and I did just that. I’m really excited about that and ready for the spring to get here so I can keep improving.
Falling in love with golf was just another random thing that happened to me over the past two years. It has quickly become my favorite sport to play and one of my favorites to watch.
So don’t get so fixated on what you like now. Give something else a shot. It may become your new favorite thing.
Favorite Books I Read in 2021
By my rough estimation, I finished 14 books this year — with a handful of others partially read. These four were my favorite…
Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius
This is a book I will never stop reading.
Written about 2,000 years ago as a personal journal, Aurelius wrote down anything that he thought he should remember. And I’m not talking about grocery items.
He wrote about the things he was grateful for, the people he admired, and the values he lived by.
He taught me how to judge people less. He taught me how to accept anything that comes to me as something meant to help me. He taught me that only I can damage my character.
Every time I feel out of sorts about something, I read Meditations. It gets me through and teaches me something about myself. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.
The Comfort Crisis, by Michael Easter
This book was really fun because of the great storytelling as well as the interesting facts about humanity.
The point of this book is to essentially show how soft we are all becoming. This is looked at as a bad thing by most people, but it’s the expected outcome for a few generations of people that are constantly innovating to make life easier.
Going out and hunting for our food would suck. It would be terrible living with no air conditioning or no heat. Wearing shoes is an awesome privilege.
But there are downsides to our comfortable lives and Easter does a good job of pointing those out.
Many of us are overweight or obese. Forms of heart disease and cancer can be directly linked to our terrible diets and lack of movement throughout the day. Our lazy habits are quite literally killing us.
Easter gives a lot of alarming facts about this. But he also tells the awesome story of going up to the Arctic to hunt caribou. I’m not a huge fan of hunting, but even I was enthralled throughout the entire story.
The Third Pole, by Mark Synnott
This is cheating a bit as I’m not completely done. I’m close, though, and just can’t leave it off.
The Third Pole is a story about Mount Everest. There are a lot of fun facts about the history of the mountain, like how it got its name and the fact that it was probably underwater 250 million years ago (or something like that). But its main focus is on two English mountaineers that attempted to become the first to ever reach the summit back in 1924.
I won’t say much more for sake of spoilers. But anyone that likes random history like this will love it. This book is similar to The Comfort Crisis in that the author has his own story — a summit attempt — that runs alongside the history portion.
Greenlights, by Matthew McConaughey
I read this book faster than any other.
Earlier in the year, when I was unemployed and stuck inside during the winter, I purchased this book and read it in three days. I read about 100 pages in one of those days, which is about 70 more than I usually do in a single session.
This book is incredibly captivating. It is very well written and McConaughey’s stories are really interesting. There are also a lot of cool lessons that I found useful as a writer.
The Best Things I Wrote
What is the Metaverse? The Unfulfilling Dreamland We Already Know
So Long As Humans Are Involved, Markets Will Never Be Stable
The Consequences of America’s Metro Migration
PG&E’s Destructive Past Won’t Be Forgotten
Trading Warfare: Why Trading Cards Have Disappeared From Retail Shelves
Why America’s Farmers Rely on NASA for Growth and Sustainability
Demand for True Journalism is Low on Medium
Lessons From Every Book I’ve Read in the Past Year
Others Things I Did
For starters… I wrote two books! Check them out:
“No Pressure: Findings Happiness in a Fear-Driven World” (purchase here)
“From One Young Soul to Another: Lessons From the Many Challenges of Early Adulthood” (purchase here)
I do two podcasts, which you can find here. I posted a recap of the year for one of my podcasts, Divine Rhyme, discussing the impact the podcast has had on me this year.
I also posted a good amount to my own YouTube channel, though it’s been a few months. Here was my favorite video from the year.
Writing all of that out made me feel very accomplished this year. 2021 was the best year of my life and I’m thankful to have had all of you along for the ride.
Let’s make 2022 another awesome year!