Despite Covid19 hitting 2020 with a bang and upending our lives in many ways I was pretty happy with what I made of it. I was very lucky to have a job in which I could work remotely which lessened the effects on my day to day life.

Some of the things I was especially happy with in 2020 were:

1. My time as Captain of Cork Boat Club
   • I really enjoyed my time as Captain of the club. I learned plenty that will stay with me for life. It was a pleasure to be a part of something which has been around for so long and to be a part of keeping the club going for yet another year. As a great man once said – in Cork BC we’re standing on the shoulders of giants… so true.
2. My stock investments
   • Some nice investments worked out which helped with my decision to quit my job. Once you’ve money saved up the need to be a slave to a job is no longer there.
3. Living in Blackrock
   • I had a great year living with some great guys in a beautiful area of Cork. Plenty of tea was drunk also.
4. Coaching Rowing
   • Despite Corona, we still had a pretty good year. I felt like I learned a lot and would do plenty of things differently if I had another chance – I’m sure I will be coaching again in the future – I love it.
5. Malin to Mizen Charity Cycle
   1. A great trip – very sore, tired, grumpy & miserable for a good portion of it but it was incredibly rewarding. Also nice that we raised over €9,000 for charity. It’ll be something I look back on in years to come, if I can do that why can’t I do something more challenging?
6. Quitting my job
   • While I had a good time in Dell (The best place I worked so far), I’ve always yearned to be doing my own thing. I can’t explain it but it just makes me feel more alive. There’s nothing more rewarding than the buck stopping with you.
7. Moving to Berlin
   • I had thought about living in another country for years and had been to Berlin on a trip years ago and had really enjoyed the vibe. So when I had nothing keeping me in Ireland I thought if it’s not now it’ll probably be never… I’m not getting any younger!
8. My year in sport
   • Overall in 2020, I did the most running and cycling I’ve ever done in my life was is a nice achievement. I also did my first marathon & 52k ultramarathon.

Some of the things I wasn’t happy with:

1. Not getting enough sales for my startup
   • After putting in a mountain of work to create a pretty good system that is working well for my current customers I had hoped that some online advertising would help bring in more customers in bulk. After spending a chunk of money and designing several ads I found that this was going to be harder than I thought initially. I had said to myself that I was going to do some sales calls but didn’t follow through on this. Something I want to change for 2021…
2. Corona (Obviously)

Plenty of people have goals for year ahead, I prefer to keep things more general.

Here are some things I want to work on/keep up for 2021:

1. Work on adding value in business
   • I feel like I need to try and actually engage with customers more to understand pain points and what they actually need insead of just guessing and coming up with things that no one wants/needs. I know a big reason I do this is fear of rejection, and the falicy of saying to myself if I just do this one new feature then I’ll get more customers… So this is a big one I need to work on over the long term. I’m going to keep a personal track of this weekly by asking myself what value did I add to others both on a personal one to one level and through my websites. I’m hoping that will keep me on track to improving this and not hiding away from reality…
2. Work on voicing my opinions more
   • Something I’ve always found difficult is to put out content when I know someone will read it. This blog is where I’ve put out most of my content but I’d say there is all of 20 people who might read something on this blog a year… I can’t remember the last time I posted on FB etc etc. Not that I want to be someone who broadcasts their life on social media but I don’t want to be holding myself back in fear of what people will think and what someone might say about me – which has 100% been the case in the past.
3. Keep within a healthy weight range
   • Since I reached my all-time heaviest weight in 2020 I’d like to not repeat that in 2021. Ideally, I’d drop down to between 85-90kg – I was at 100kg in March 2020… I’ve done a few fasts in December and I’d like to get to a point where I’m not going from one extream to another but I find something which works for me consistantly. Lets see in a years time where I am on this!
4. Consistent exercise
   • I’d like to keep up what I was doing in 2020 fitness-wise – exercising 2-4 days a week and setting some different goals to keep myself interested.