It was only a year ago when I wrote my personal development 2015 review (what a surprise), and a lot of things seem to have changed since then.
2016 was my first year of real growth. Real personal development. Although no additional focus was given on the health or relationships/lifestyle pillar, nonetheless I managed to keep them both at an okay level, and I learned many new ways to set them up to run on auto-pilot.
Let’s take a look at them one by one.
Health
What I primarily managed to achieve in 2016 was to keep a steady body weight. Like I said in my previous annual report, one of the biggest mistakes I was doing in previous years, was that I was gaining and losing a lot of weight each year.
And I mean severe fluctuations, like 8-12 kilos a year. In 2016 I made it being very steady with my weight, and I didn’t gain or lose more than 4 kilos at any point. Maximum weight I got was around 69kg in August (lots of ice cream), and lowest around 65kg.
After all these years of non-optimized processes, I managed to find a system that helped me remain steady while I eat very healthy, well-balanced but also tasty foods.
How’s that working?
My system is very simple, here’s how it works.
After I had dropped at my desired weight, I set a threshold for myself to always be around this weight. But to achieve that and eat my favorite foods at the same time I had to set a strict schedule.
My weekly schedule goes like this:
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday: One meal per day, around noon no more than 1000 calories in total.
Thursday: Two meals per day. A lunch less than 1000 calories, a dinner of 500-1000 calories as a mini reward.
Friday: One meal per day, around noon no more than 1000 calories in total.
Saturday: This is my cheat meal day. I have a light lunch and a hefty dinner. All the calories I can eat actually.
Sunday: A full lunch of about 1000 to 2000 calories.
The whole idea is to let your body become hungry and then fill it up.
So 4 out of the 7 days of the week I eat very few calories (don’t worry your body is designed to eat much less than that), 2 out 7 days I eat moderately, and 1 day I eat like a pig.
Needless to say that if you don’t feel the need for a cheat meal, you don’t have to do it. The less input (calories) in your body, the better it is long-term. Fasting also has many non-obvious benefits.
Another great addition was my wonder morning routine, that helped me achieve far improved productivity, mind clarity and better biorhythms within my day. I highly recommend it.
Exercise wise, I didn’t change much in 2016 over last year. My primary goal is to stay in a good overall shape, acceptable body fat (around 15%) with moderate exercise.
That means I hit the gym 5 times a week, for about 40 minutes weight training and 30 minutes of cardio, Monday to Friday. That’s it.
All in all, 2016 was an excellent year health wise. I managed to optimize my routines, I managed to stay at a relative steady body weight and fat percentage and most importantly I didn’t have a single instance of sickness or injury for the whole year.
I always feel vibrant, energetic, and full of eagerness to achieve more. I sleep like a baby around 10 pm, and I wake up at 6 am in the morning.
Health goals for 2017
I don’t intend to push any harder that this in 2017. I am pretty satisfied with my results up to now, and I don’t expect to expend more energy in that pillar.
I will try to keep the same rhythms, routines, and systems I have in place and make micro adjustments.
I want to switch to only organic meats because the rest of my nutrition is natural. Fish, eggs, veggies, etc. are all biological. Organic meat would be a nice addition to my diet, although not that crucial because I only consume a few portions of meat. Maybe 2 or 3 meals per week maximum contain non-organic meat.
Giving up coffee would be another desirable addition, although it doesn’t concern me too much. I already sleep fine. Also coffee helps me with reduced appetite, for these days I eat only a single meal.
Relationships
Relationships/lifestyle front took a huge blow in 2016. My social life was virtually non-existent. I can’t say I miss it much though.
My long-lasting clubbing sessions are a thing of the past now, and my only social interactions are strictly with close friends, business associates, and potential prospects into the world of self-development.
To be completely honest I miss the action sometimes, but since my sex life (which I’m not allowed to talk publicly), is healthy, I don’t feel the urge for more game and nightlife at this point.
Moreover, like I said before, health, wealth, and social game don’t mix too well – according to my experience.
So for 2016 I decided to give up on my social life, and focus on my wealth and health pillars.
I did the best job I could to grow some empathy in me and try to maintain rapport with regular people, which mind you isn’t as easy as it sounds for some guys like me. But the more aware I am of this goal, the better I do. You see, handling regular people is another skill you can learn. Most of them have a similar approach to life (it’s other people’s fault, we’re unlucky, you can’t do anything about the system, wealthy people are frauds, etc.). So the more you pace and deflect, the better you get along. Just say yes and nod with a ton of empathy.
The government is screwing us. – Sure, these bastards!
Taxes are killing my business. – Yes, tell me about it!
Did you see that pig of capitalism? He takes advantage of his poor workers to become filthy rich. – Yes yes, let him burn in hell.
All these accompanied with the appropriate facial expressions and body language.
Boom! Instant rapport!
I also tried to connect with more successful people the best way I could. A few days ago, I had the pleasure of visiting Patrick Bet-David in Dallas, Texas for a one-day mentoring session. The whole experience was a blast. You can read more about this trip and the lessons I learned here.
Relationship goals for 2017
To be honest, I don’t plan to change much in my social lifestyle in 2017. I think the pace I have right now, works very well for me and fully aligns with my health and wealth goals.
I will have two main focus points for 2017 then.
Firstly I want to work a bit on my empathy and rapport skills (especially with men). I think I lack considerable talent in this area, and as a self-improvement freak, I can’t let that go so easily. The sad truth is that the larger the gap in the value two people have the larger the gap in the rapport they need to bridge.
Which brings me to my second point. I want to step up my game relatively to my networking. I prefer to associate myself with better people and feel inferior for a while rather than be with people that I can only give value and receive nothing in return. And I’m not saying this in an egotistical way either. Unless I can grow myself, the level of help and inspiration I can offer to other people will be limited.
The only area I want stability is with my weight nowhere else. In every other sector, I want to achieve rapid growth. The more, the better. I have a huge appetite for life, and I need to fulfill this. And I won’t be able to do so unless I grow myself into a better person that more successful people will want to associate with me.
Wealth
Here comes the pain. 2016 have been by far the best year of my life so far. Total income was more than $45k and my Digital Publishing business grew more than 30% month over month. I will provide a lot more details on my next, monthly (and yearly income report), most probably next week.
I learned a ton of stuff this year, I implemented a lot of new things. Some of them worked, some of them failed miserably.
But the most important lesson I learned is that perseverance and single focus sooner or later will take you there.
Although $45k isn’t that much money, it’s a milestone for me, especially compared to previous years when I averaged like $10-$15k.
Like I said before, I won’t go into great details business-wise since you’re going to read most of that in my next analytical income report.
In all honesty, the game of wealth building is hard. But it’s fair. Which is why I like playing this game. Capitalism is fair. The more value you can provide the more money you’ll get back in return.
In 2016, the books I published were read by thousands of readers, hence the majority of my income. If only I can turn this audience into hundreds of thousands or millions, my income will skyrocket accordingly.
Retrospectively, I can say that 2016 was a very productive year. My downtime due to holidays, days off, etc. was kept to a minimum. I believe I worked as hard as I could.
But although effort wise I did my best, efficiency wise, I may be able to make some improvements.
Wealth goals for 2017
Somehow in 2017, I’ll need to focus on actions that have a significant impact and leave micro-tasks behind me (most probably through outsourcing). At this point, my Digital Publishing business is self-sufficient, and it can produce some good profits.
I will need to find the ways to increase these profits even more, and re-invest as much as possible back in the business to grow it fast. I will need to stop trading time for money as much as I can, which is something I still did in 2016 – I got to admit.
My biggest wealth goals in 2017 are all related.
The first milestone will be to pass the 5-figure mark per month. I am not far from making my first $10k month from the Internet, but I still haven’t achieved that.
The second milestone will be to move into a new place if things go as planned. Don’t get me wrong. My house is cool, warm and relatively spacious, but I really hate the neighborhood I live in and the level of people that surround me as well.
It’s a real mindset killer to open your window or your door and see all these poor people who have lost hope about life, a long time ago.
That’s not to say that I live in some kind of war zone, it’s a pretty peaceful neighborhood actually. I just don’t feel I fit in.
So if all things go as planned, I want to move into a new larger place, with a couple like-minded people before August 2017.
The third milestone will be to pass the $100k income in a single year. That means I’ll need to more than double my 2016 revenue. I know it sounds like a tough job, but I’m fairly optimistic here. I firmly believe it’s doable.
Remember when I talked about goal setting? One step at a time. Since I made around $45k this year, it wouldn’t make much sense to aim for a million in 2017 right? I can always make that in 2018 :p
That’s why I will revise a bit the homepage of projectbebest.com to reflect this goal. I will make it visible to you (and me) how far I am in my $100k goal in 2017 with a visually pleasing progress chart.
Closing remarks
I’m gonna leave you with an excellent quote from Grant Cardone’s Instagram profile.
In 2017, I hope you get rich.
Rich in knowledge.
Rich in adventure.
Rich in laughter.
Rich in family.
Rich in health.
Rich in love.
And so much money you can never spend it all!
