My 2020 Annual Review
This is my first annual review, completed in a year full of chaos and uncertainty. I’m quite excited to write about this year’s accomplishments, setbacks, and lessons, despite the difficulties that made 2020 the odd year that it was.
The questions that will be answered in this review are:
What went well this year?
What didn’t go so well this year?
What did I learn this year?
Again, I want to thank James Clear for both the inspiration and the template for this personal project!
1. What went well this year?
Academics. Although I set the bar quite high for myself academically, it seems as though reaching it consistently every year continues to get more difficult. This year was no exception. Up to this point, I have managed to keep a 4.0 GPA, and I’m halfway through my junior year in university. With school transitioning online halfway through the Spring semester due to COVID-19, there have been a lot of challenges in staying on top of all my academic responsibilities. I also got accepted for my double major this year! I’m officially double majoring in Business Information Security and Business Communication.
Personal Finance. I finally opened a retirement account (after putting it off for two years)! In addition to opening a Roth IRA with Charles Schwab, I transferred my stocks from a Robinhood account to a Vanguard account (which suits my needs better, since I’m investing in the long-term and not day trading as much as I used to). I’ve managed to keep my credit score above 750 this year, and not go into debt paying for school thanks to my savings from the past two years.
YouTube. After being consistently inconsistent in my upload schedule for several years, quarantine has given me the time and opportunity to prioritize recording and uploading on a weekly basis (every Friday). I have missed these deadlines on a few occasions, but only if I am using the time to work on something bigger and better for the channel. I also have been working on my biggest YouTube project yet: The 12 Days of Christmas Collabs! Collaborating with other talented artists has always been intimidating for me, but reaching out to over a dozen people to work on this and creating a dozen collab videos is something I’m quite proud of!
Video Editing. To piggyback off the last point, creating these YouTube videos has taken me through several different editing programs. Prior to this year, I used Windows Movie Maker religiously and refused to use anything from the Adobe Suite because of how intimidating it looked. After getting my feet wet with Adobe Premiere Rush, I’m finally (and comfortably!) using Adobe Premiere Pro to edit all my videos. I have a lot to learn about it still, but at least I’m familiar with the basics. This year, I’ve learned how to mix audio, use color correction, create split screen videos, and much more.
Web Development. I never thought I’d have a personal website, and I don’t really remember what got me to make one. It just happened somehow, and I’m so glad it did! I’ve learned more about domains, WordPress themes, and overall just creating websites and having fun with it. This year, I started a personal website and a blog, and I’m excited to see what else will come from this experience.
Reading. I’m happy to say that I picked up several good books this year, and I rarely had to force myself to take time out of my day to read them. I suppose this habit came more naturally to me than other habits I’ve tried to work on, and I’m not complaining! Some books I’ve enjoyed in 2020 are Atomic Habits, Mere Christianity, Think And Grow Rich, and The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.
Personal Relationships. Quarantine threw a lot of my plans out the window and left me stuck at home since March, and I know the same has happened to millions of other people as well. After leaving my job, staying home all the time has allowed me to grow closer with my family in ways that I am beyond grateful for. I have also made a handful of new friends thanks to clubs and organizations at Arizona State University. I have yet to meet these friends in person, but it’s one of the first things on my list once quarantine is over!
Faith. While my relationship with God hasn’t necessarily been “on fire” this year, this calm and slow season at home has allowed me to reach out to more people with similar beliefs and join a church community where I feel welcome. I have been able to complete more Bible studies on my own and I’ve learned that Proverbs is one of my favorite books of the Bible! Sharing my faith with others has been a joy, and I am looking forward to see where God takes me in the coming years.
2. What didn’t go so well this year?
Personal Fitness. My exercise habits weren’t necessarily terrible this year. However, I was insanely inconsistent with any kind of workout routine. I would use the treadmill for a week straight, and then forget about it for a month. Some months, I didn’t even workout at all. I haven’t seen any noticeable improvements in my body for this reason. This year, I achieved some of my fastest mile times yet, but I have a lot of work to do when it comes to my personal fitness.
Music. I’ve plateaued in my musical abilities, especially in 2020. I’ve been playing instruments almost daily, but I haven’t made a great effort to push myself and improve. Piano-wise, I haven’t taken on many exercises to stretch my abilities, which is something I’d like to do. I have started playing the piccolo a little bit, learned some guitar scales, and practiced new and more complex ukulele chords. However, I know I’m capable of more than that and I would have liked to push myself more in this area.
Writing. More specifically, blogging. I bought a couple domain names over the summer, one of which was meant to be a blog. I wrote a handful of articles, scrapped most of them, and realized I’m not enjoying this blogging thing as much as I thought I would. Frankly, I might just stick to YouTube next year.
French. Ideally, I would have spent most of quarantine perfecting my French- especially my accent. While I did spend a couple months consistently practicing French daily, I completely pushed it aside once school started and haven’t looked back. Considering French is a language I want to be as comfortable with as I am with Spanish, I probably should have allocated more interesting ways to study the language instead of daily Duolingo sessions.
Lack of Novelty. I suppose quarantine is a pretty novel event for my lifetime, so there’s that. However, I have left my house roughly a dozen times from March to December. I do miss spontaneous trips to fast food places on the way home from school or work and random adventures with my friends, but who doesn’t? Although I didn’t see many new places this year, perhaps next year can bring some new experiences to the table- even if I’m quarantined for 2021 as well.
3. What did I learn this year?
Smaller habits build bigger ones. It seems as though I am working on new habits every year. This year, I learned that developing those strong habits start from seemly insignificant decisions made each and every day. Working out everyday is a habit on its own, but simply making small choices to be active- stairs over elevator, running over walking, etc., really are the foundation of this habit. Instead of saying I’ll spend a whole day off my phone, I monitor my screen time to make sure I’m not mindlessly scrolling through social media without any intention.
Novelty beats routine (most of the time). Yes, routine is great. I love having routine in my day. But after almost a year in quarantine and trying to come up with the perfect daily routine, I realized that novelty was the thing I was craving, not structure. Looking back, I was significantly happier on days that had spontaneous events that broke my regular schedule. Whether or not I’m spending the next year in quarantine, I will be prioritizing the incorporation of new and exciting things into my days.
Retirement isn’t the end goal. This is something I learned from “The 4-Hour Workweek” by Tim Ferriss. For the longest time, my goal was to retire early and work extremely hard for the next 10 years- all gas, no brakes. What this book has made me realize is all the things I want to do when I retire, I can do today. By creating ‘mini-retirements” throughout my lifetime, I’m not putting my life on hold for something I could have and enjoy today. Financial freedom is still important to me, but not as important as living out my life moment by moment and making the most of every day.
Wake up with the sun. Although I’m not very successful at this one, I’ve noticed that I’ve had much better days when I go to bed early the night before and wake up around the sunrise. Nothing beats watching the sunrise outside during the quiet and still morning. It sets the tone for a calm and focused day.
Don’t hold onto things too tightly. Great things will come to an end. It’s bittersweet. But, it only means that greater things are yet to come. I never thought I’d leave my job this year, but the circumstances didn’t quite give me a choice. I loved being a manager at Chick-fil-A, and I didn’t see myself leaving any time soon. The same happens with relationships and experiences.