2021 was a big year for me. See what I accomplished this year (and more) in my 2021 integrity report.
2021 Annual Integrity Report
This post is going to be a bit longer than usual and a little bit more reflective. I’m adding a table of contents to help with navigation and the ability to jump around.
Table of Contents:
Abbreviated Monthly Report for December
December was a challenging month. There were constant struggles for motivation and consistency in the work I’m trying to accomplish. There were far too many days where I was distracted and wasn’t focusing well. Perhaps it’s just the winter blues starting to catch up with me.
The biggest milestone I crossed in December was completing the application for Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS). This is one of the steps I’m taking to become a better everyday leader in my communities and I’m happy to be making progress. I still need to be matched, but I’m expecting to start meeting with my new Little in January.
Aside from the progress with BBBS, there weren’t really any major milestones in December. Most of my activities maintained their previous trajectory, though it took a little more effort to maintain that trajectory.
Review of 2021
Zooming out to look at 2021 as a whole, there have been some big accomplishments, big lessons, and big changes since this time last year. There were two primary goals I set for myself in 2021:
The first was to complete Ironman Wisconsin. I’ve wanted to do an Ironman for as long as I can remember, and instead of pushing it off for another year, I decided to just do it. I signed up for it in September 2020 and crossed the finish line in September 2021 with a slow, grinding time of 16:40:46. But hey, I crossed the finish line and that’s all I set out to do.
The second goal I set was to finish my first year of a master’s degree in data science that I started in January. It went well for five months, but then I learned a very important lesson about myself. No matter how much I want to learn something, I can only stay motivated in online learning for a certain period of time. This was an online program, and five months was that certain period of time. I decided not to continue with the program, but learning the importance of in-person activities feels more like a “win” than stopping grad school feels like a “loss”.
Guiding Principles
As of right now, I’m currently operating with these guiding principles:
- I am a lifelong learner of diverse and interesting skills.
- I am generous with my time and money.
- I am a leader within my communities.
- I am healthy and fit in all areas of my life.
I am a lifelong learner of diverse and interesting skills.
Emphasis here goes on skills. I’m not learning things for the sake of learning things. I’m learning things so I have demonstrable skills that I can use in my everyday life.
Some of these skills are career focused, such as learning how to build cloud-native technology solutions or learn how to lead a team. Some of these skills are focused on enriching life, such as learning to skydive or becoming a better salsa dancer.
The important part is that all of these skills are practiced skills that I have actually done, not just things I know.
In 2021, I definitely lived according to this principle. I finished several triathlon races of varying lengths and difficulties. I restarted salsa dancing once again. I am relearning how to write effectively by starting this blog. It’s an ongoing process of moving things into the “doing” category.
I am generous with my time and money.
I found generosity to be more difficult during the pandemic. I think this is because I spent less time out and about interacting with people. Most of my charitability with money comes with supporting my friends’ efforts to raise money for good causes, such as donating to a friend who’s running a marathon to raise money for charity.
This serves a dual purpose of sending money to a good cause and growing closer to my generous and charitable friends. The pandemic shut many of these opportunities down, so I have some work ahead of me to get back to using my money more charitably.
Being generous with my time was also difficult during the pandemic because so many volunteer opportunities were entirely shut down. However, my recent steps to get involved with Big Brothers Big Sisters is a good sign that I’m still more than willing to give my time to a good cause.
I am a leader within my communities.
Communities is intentionally plural to signify that this applies to all my communities. In addition to the city I live in, this also includes all of the activities I’m a part of. I’m a leader within the triathlon community. I’m a leader within the Ann Arbor dance community. I’m a leader within Big Brothers Big Sisters.
These aren’t always explicit leadership positions that I’m pursuing. It’s more of an “everyday leader” mindset. For example, going out of my way to make sure the new triathlon club members feel welcome and encouraged. Making sure I’m acting like a positive role model when I’m in front of children. That’s what it means to be a leader in all my communities.
Everyday leadership is hard to track because it’s an accumulation of small moments. However, taking on explicit leadership responsibilities seems to improve everyday leadership abilities. As such, I’ve started taking leadership roles in the triathlon club, at work, and with Big Brothers Big Sisters.
I prioritize health and fitness at all times.
Health and fitness have always been important parts of my life. When I’m healthy and fit, life is simply better in every way. This guiding principle is my way of staying proactive about fitness instead of letting it fall to the side.
Health and fitness were perhaps the most impacted areas of my life in 2021 with the training for Ironman Wisconsin in September. I reached a new level of fitness and learned how to swim properly. In fact, swimming is now one of my favorite fitness activities. 2021 was a good year for my health and fitness.
Goals for 2022
Now for the forward-thinking part again. There were so many goals and activities that I wanted to pursue in 2022. I’ve managed to narrow them down significantly, but 2022 is still far more ambitious than any other year for me.
Goal #1 - Write a blog post every week in 2022.
That’s a total of 52 blog posts in the next 365 days. For somebody who doesn’t do a whole lot of writing, that’s a whole lot of writing.
Even more, I expect most of the blog posts to be at least moderately technical posts. That means doing research, testing my solutions, code examples, pictures, listing extra resources, and anything else that is required of writing high-quality informative blog posts.
This is definitely my biggest time committment of 2022, but it has the biggest benefits as well. I will learn new skills and learn existing skills deeper by exploring them in blog posts. If all goes well, I’ll also develop a small readership that I can interact with and learn from.
Building a small readership will also help with goal #2…
Goal #2 - Get accepted to the University of Michigan Ross Full-Time MBA
With my recent shift towards leadership, I’m finding MBA programs to be more and more appealing. Unlike other MBA programs, the Ross MBA is uniquely focused on “action-based learning”. Action based learning means emphasizing skills and experience above classroom knowledge, which is strikingly similar to my first guiding principle which focuses on learning and practicing skills instead of learning knowledge that is never applied.
This is going to be a real challenge for me. Ross is a top-15 program, but I do not have a top-15 application at the moment. I have a lot of work to do if I want to make this happen, and the first piece of the puzzle is cranking out a stellar GMAT score. I’m talking about a top 1% GMAT score.
There are some other areas that will require significant work as well, such as…
Goal #3 - Reach a major milestone with my new project at work
About a month ago, I started a new project at work. It’s a project I’ve wanted to do for a long time and I’m finally getting the opportunity to run with it.
It’s still in the early stages and it’s quite a large project so it’s hard to know what a reasonable milestone will be in 2022. I suppose the first milestone of the project will be to figure out the rest of the milestones for the project.
Although this project is still in such early stages, it’s the kind of project that could define my professional career up to this point. It has “make it or break it potential” when it comes to applying to the MBA program later this year.
Goal #4 - Complete a 10k swim
This is the only fitness goal I have set aside for 2022, although I expect to maintain most of my triathlon fitness throughout the year.
I really liked swimming while training for triathlons. I liked it a lot. A 10k swim is 6.2 miles and is commonly referred to as the “marathon swim”. I’m expecting it to take a marathon length of time with 3-4 hours or continuous swimming. It’s long enough that I’ll need to train to eat and drink throughout the swim.
Goal #5 - Become a licensed skydiver
I went skydiving for the first time this summer and thoroughly enjoyed it. Jumping out of a plane definitely gets your heart pumping and forces you to ignore the fearful voices that hang out in the back of your mind.
It was such a great exercise in working through fear that I decided to become licensed this year. It takes ~25 coached jumps to become licensed in skydiving, and this can be accomplished in 3-4 full days worth of jumping.
This is a summertime goal since skydiving in the winter is likely not all that pleasant.
Goal #6 - Keep up with the other things in life
This isn’t really a goal at all, but I’m still going to put it here because it’s going to be a priority in my life. While I’m pursuing the first 5 goals, I don’t want to forget about the rest of my life. Maintaining friend and family relationships, continuing to grow in the triathlon club, continuing to develop as a salsa dancer, and working with Big Brothers Big Sisters are just a few of the other activities I have going on in life.
Goal #6 is about maintaining balance and not dropping everything I’ve built in previous years. Emphasis goes on goals 1-5, but don’t forget about everything else.
Conclusion
2021 is officially behind us and we are now looking forward to 2022. There are so many lessons to learn from previous experiences and so many lessons to look forward to with future experiences.
Cheers to another great year - let’s make it the best one yet!
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