your year's achievements in one simple sheet of paper

By the end, we had a full page and two empty glasses.

“So the first thing I do is I look back at my year: what went well and what I could have done better?”

We were now three Jack and cokes in and there was no turning back: I wasn’t gonna let my friend leave until I knew his system.

I mean…

Every single step.

No matter how many Jack and cokes that would take.

I wanted to know all of it.

“Can we do it right now?”—it sounded like a question. We both knew it wasn’t. This was happening.

He frowned as if asking “must we do it now?”.

It was past 2 am.

I just stared at him, in silence.

Then, I poured some more Jack.

He sighed.

“Okay. Grab a piece of paper and a pen.”—it sounded like a request. We both knew it wasn’t. It was an order. This was happening.

“Draw a line in the middle. Write what went well on the left side, and what could have gone better on the right side. Ready?”

“Born ready.”

So we started talking about my year, month by month.

“Yeah, that was super cool. That was in April, right?”

“Nah man, that was still February. We’re only two months in!”

I wrote down my “wins”, as he was calling it, on the left.

And my “lessons”—again, his lingo—on the right.

By the end, we had a full page and two empty glasses.

“I gotta pee, man. I’ll be right back.”—and he stormed out

I just stared at my page.

Wow, that was powerful.

An entire year on one single sheet of paper.

Incredible.

I still do this exercise every single year (with a small variation).

It’s part of my system to plan my years.

Wanna make it yours too?

​Click here to review this year and plan your next year.

Keep an eye on your inbox tomorrow.

I’ll let you know the last piece of the puzzle.

Dan