5 Lessons I Learned in 2020

These are the lessons I learned in 2020.

Lesson #1 - You attain the goals you set your mind on

It is crazy to me that I accomplished most of the goals I set out this year. There were a few things I didn’t attain. Two of them are (i) not getting to 185 lbs and (ii) not memorizing a deck of cards in one go (I got to 37 cards). So couple this together, I’m even more excited to get after it in 2021.

Lesson #2 - Create rituals that will compound good habits

Rituals have a bad rep in modern society. Often within religious circles, rituals are frowned upon because they come across as mindless activities that people do out of laziness.

But rituals are powerful. They help build good habits that will compound over days, weeks, months, years, and decades. Anything can become a ritual. Reading 5 pages from a book when you first wake up. Or doing 20 squats every time you take a break. Or meditating once a day for 15 minutes. Rituals are a systematic approach to building habits.

Lesson #3 - Know your why

Your why gives much-needed direction when s*** hits the ceiling. There were multiple times during 2020 that I felt like walking away from many things I set out. But at the beginning of 2020, I had made up my mind on my why.

Ultimately we all have a why we’re doing what we do. The difference is whether we are consciously aware of our why. Becoming aware changes the game.

Lessons #4 - Purposefully make yourself do difficult things

When I came to Canada, my “winter” jacket was more like a fall jacket (great for weather over +14 degrees). I didn’t buy a winter jacket for many years because I had to allocate my budget to food, rent, and school. I survived many winters by limiting outdoor exposure to only necessary activities. This fueled my hatred towards cold weather.

Then in 2020, I decided it was time to withstand cold weather. My solution: cold showers every day. So, I always ended by showers with cold water. The first few weeks, I shivered and yelped. It was hard, but I’m getting used to it. It is still not pleasant. But making myself do this small difficult thing every morning empowered me to attack the rest of my day.

Lesson #5 - Read all sorts of books

For many years, I narrowed myself to reading mainly analytic, ancient, and medieval philosophy books. This drastically limited my scope of thinking and ability to tie ideas together.

The first book I remember reading outside of philosophy and being struck by the ideas was Zero to One by Peter Thiel (co-founder of PayPay, founder of Palantir and Founder’s Fund, et al). Zero to One not only began my journey to reading non-academic philosophy books but also began my journey away from academia and into startups.