021 Reflecting On The Year

Hello everybody,
Hope you're having an amazing weekend! Here's your weekly Amazing Things & Ideas Newsletter. Find one original idea from my side followed by the List.

 

One Original Idea

Reflecting On The Year

It's December. The last month of the year. Now is the time to reflect & review on this year, and redesign for next year.

- How many of your 'New Year's Resolutions' for 2021 have been accomplished and/or are still going strong?
- How did you improve this year? In what aspect? And by how much?
- What did you learn this year? 
- What were the best things that happened this year? 
- What were the worst things that happened this year?
- How could've you made this year better to your liking?
- What things do you want to keep and be consistent with, and what things do you want to throw out and change?

I let these fundamental questions guide my reflecting and reviewing period for the year. I write on subjects relating to these questions in my notebook, or occasionally just think about them.

I feel it very important to do so (to have a yearly reviewing period) since it helps bring down the progress made, the time wasted, the skills learned, the abilities forgotten or destroyed, the relationships nurtured, the friendships neglected, the plans executed, the ideas gone to waste, the improvements taken place, the collapses occurred, and a whole lot more.

It makes the whole year feel clear. And in a simple way, tells me where I went good this year, where I went bad this year, and finally the things I learned, and the necessary changes to make for next year.

Rather than goals and new 'New Year's Resolutions', I think it better to first review the past year. And improve on the things that went bad. Then, I'd craft my new goals for the next year.
(That's the subject for next week's newsletter)

I hope you'd do something similar as we come close to the end of this wonderful year of 2021, and discover for yourself the impact caused by this year on your total life and perspective.

The Amazing Things & Ideas List

• Book I'm Reading:
  The Tao of Seneca: Practical Letters from a Stoic Master, Volume 1 (Foreword by Tim Ferris)
  These volumes are a collection of all the 124 'Moral Letters to Lucilius' by Seneca.
  If you don't know, Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger, or simply Seneca, was a stoic philosopher. His writings include a dozen essays and one hundred and twenty-four letters dealing with moral issues addressed to Seneca's friend, (the then-procurator of Sicily) Lucilius Junior. These writings constitute one of the most important bodies of primary material for ancient Stoicism, it is believed.
  
  And the three volumes of The Tao of Seneca break down the 124 letters, along with interviews and profiles of "Modern-Day Stoics". I really learned a lot from the first volume. And I'm definitely going to read the other two.
  
  Moreover, all three volumes of The Tao of Seneca are available for free as a PDF on Tim Ferris's website. No strings attached. You can download the free PDFs here on Tim's blog. 
  Stoicism is an interesting and thought-provoking philosophy to delve into. I highly recommend it for everybody. These volumes could be a great start on your stoic journey to becoming a master of your mind.
  
  Once again, you can download the free PDF's here.
   

• Quote of the week:
  
  "Any person capable of angering you becomes your master; he can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by him."
  — Epicurus
   

• A short idea on resilience to keep in mind, always:
  "They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds."
  — Dinos Christianopoulos 
  (Adopted with appreciation from James Clear's 3-2-1 Newsletter - December 2, 2021 edition.)
   

• My new favorite motivator:
  John "Jocko" Willink
  Jocko is AMAZING! He's a retired US Navy SEALs officer. His motto is “Discipline equals freedom.” And he shows it, all right!
  I came across him on the pages of The Tao of Seneca (of which we talked about a moment ago). In the book, it was parts of an interview with Tim Ferris (you can check out the whole interview/podcast here). And I found him to be incredible. Just incredible. I followed him on Twitter, and next thing I know, he's my new favorite motivator! Check out this short video posted by him on Twitter last week on fighting the algorithm! You'll love him (or become scared of him), I can assure you that.

Check out the articles posted by me on the blog this week:

• Summary: How to Win Friends & Influence People (#114)
  Excerpt: The most fundamental message I received from the book:
  The other person is only what matters in handling people, making them like you, aligning their thinking with yours, and leading and managing them. It is always the other person.

• How to Remember What You Read (#113)
  "I just sit in my office and read all day." — Warren Buffett

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  Thank you for reading. I hope you found that helpful.

Onward, 
Arjun

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