2022 recap, how did it go for you?

[Black_Dragon43]

Just some advice:
Don't fall for the self-improvement bullshit.

You don't have to have a morning routine, meditate, write in a journal and other 7 random daily habits.

You keep relapsing to bad habits and fail to stick to the new ones because they mean nothing to you. It's just a cookie cutter prescription made by a youtuber that encourages everyone to be the best version of themselves... by doing this one special morning routine followed by 1 million other idiots on their "self-improvement journey".

The real way to actually improve your life and character, is by taking decisive action and progressing towards the things that you find meaningful in life. Growth will happen as a byproduct of taking action and cannot be pursued directly.

Figure out what you want to do in life, and just do it.

There is no single path, no single "best version" of yourself, and certainly no single protocol or routine that can be applied to millions of people to improve their lives.

Very well put.

Goals -> Aligned Action -> Growth

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/how-to-achieve-your-goals-without-changing-your-thoughts-or-mindset.106227/

F*ck “self-improvement”

 

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[nnogalaxy]

You don't have to have a morning routine, meditate, write in a journal and other 7 random daily habits.

it took me a while to understand this. i couldn't get the point of journaling or reading a book a week? or F*cking gratitude i kept falling off the habits and it just frustrated me until i realized theyre actually bullshit. I still meditate because i like it, i'll try journaling again to see if its actually helpful. the 3 things that have helped me the most have been nofap, meditation and exercise. aswell as waking up early, i guess. i enjoy it.

 

[nnogalaxy]

F*ck “self-improvement”

I guess its alright for someone who has no clue what to do, someone who is at level 0 or just startng. once you get into it you realize its bullshit. it took me 8 months to realize that its just retarded.

 

[Bro Rex]

Just some advice:
Don't fall for the self-improvement bullshit.

You don't have to have a morning routine, meditate, write in a journal and other 7 random daily habits.

You keep relapsing to bad habits and fail to stick to the new ones because they mean nothing to you. It's just a cookie cutter prescription made by a youtuber that encourages everyone to be the best version of themselves... by doing this one special morning routine followed by 1 million other idiots on their "self-improvement journey".

The real way to actually improve your life and character, is by taking decisive action and progressing towards the things that you find meaningful in life. Growth will happen as a byproduct of taking action and cannot be pursued directly.

Figure out what you want to do in life, and just do it.

There is no single path, no single "best version" of yourself, and certainly no single protocol or routine that can be applied to millions of people to improve their lives.

I knew something was wrong with those bullshit that has been circulating for some time now. All those concrete things thought to be the major stuff to do to self improve has turn out to be a total waste of time(For me)

 

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[Bro Rex]

For me? Not being able to get a Laptop to start my web designing training

 

[Robin 133]

Lol, this turned into a long post.

• What are your major milestones? What makes you proud?

Turning my life around. This time last year I had got myself in a pickle, overweight, drinking every day, taking antidepressants, fresh out of a breakup and single, semi-homeless, in essence, my life sucked. I made the decision to change, built a vision and got to it. Within 3 months I lost 3 stone and I’m now in the best shape of my life. Stopped the antidepressants. I stopped drinking entirely, didn’t find it difficult and thoroughly enjoyed the process. I found mentors, took courses and engaged with online communities.

I took back control and decided that I needed to remove the negative inputs, so I left the UK in January and spent 5 months living in Nepal and Turkey while working remotely.

I spent time working hard on the early stages of setting up a business (noted below).

I started making content for the first time, sharing my story and getting great feedback.

I helped others stop drinking.

More recently I have met a new girlfriend, and am in the best relationship I have ever been in.

• Major setbacks? What could have gone better but didn’t?

Mindset. Mindset. Mindset. I know some above have said mindset is not necessarily important, however, I have to disagree, in my case anyway. Applying the Fastway way of thinking is applying the Fastlane mindset (be that beliefs or processes), so it feels odd to me to think it's not important. I can't read the linked post as I'm not in INSIDERS yet, but will make sure to check it when I am.

But anyway, in my situation, I didn’t take the action I needed because I had a terrible worldview when it came to money, and receiving this from other people. I didn’t believe in my ability, even though I got great feedback and results. I still felt loyal to a job system that takes a lot and gives little in return and was terrified of packing in it and relying on myself.

I did a lot of work on this, and made excellent strides, but when I returned to the UK and started spending time in the old circles. People sneered when I talked about entrepreneurship and trying to leave the traditional job world. Negative thinking started to surround me again. To combat this I have been reducing my time with certain friends, left toxic WhatsApp groups and started finding people on a similar mission online again. For the past few months I’ve reviewed a plan every morning and night. My mindset is transformed, I now know it's not if I’ll get there, it's when. And now taking the action is (often) easy.

I worked hard on setting up a stop-drinking alcohol business, after taking a loan out to pay for a business coach. Even though I secured my first high-ticket client, I gave up on this, mostly due to my mindset and struggling to work a highly demanding full-time job. My get-out-of-debt plan has landed me in more debt, the kind @MJ DeMarco would call parasitic debt. I have to work my job to keep up with repayments, I can’t get out the debt because my job doesn’t pay enough, it’s a challenge forging a way out as the job takes a lot of energy and time. But… it’s not impossible.

My sister of 30 years old passed away suddenly. I am proud of the way I navigated this. I managed to not become entirely derailed and can support those around me. However, it’s for sure been the biggest thing I have gone through in life. And unfortunately, before this happened I had come to realise that although I love my family deeply, they can bring me down and have certain behaviors which impact my progress greatly. This period of grief has in many ways brought out the worst in some and I have needed to be extremely stoic when navigating this. I'm learning how to support those who need support, without taking on too much of their emotions.

And although the above are ‘setbacks’ they have been strong teachers. I am clear on my mission and I have absolute clarity that I need to work the fastlane.

• Major “completes”? Anything worthy of a solid check mark and “I did it!”

Got my first ever paid client outside of the 9-5 and showed myself that it is possible.

Reached out to someone I respected and asked them to mentor me.

I took back control of my health, mental and physical.

I organised events at the UN, as well as a workshop in Africa attended by people from 4 other African countries.

Recruited a group of successful people to test a coaching program starting in January.

• What you’d like for 2023!

Jan 1st - March 31st - complete focus on the mission.

Priorities

Match my salary through business, or work (probably sales) that is building on needed skills, so I can leave the 9-5 and go all in.

Decide on my niche. Either a stop drinking program or, get your health/well-being back.

Surround myself with successful people - finish Fastlane and join INSIDERS - build current accountability group or find an established one to join. Find entrepreneurs locally.

Release 20 videos on youtube. Not focusing too much on quality. Just pumping them out, learning as I go and building momentum. 1% better every video.

Build a website that gets people on sales calls.

Make sales calls, be that for my business or someone elses.


Skills to build

Business mindset - finish Fastlane. Put a summary of key points up somewhere obvious, and review every day.

Networking and communication.

Copywriting - finish course. Make website and ‘irresistible offer’.

Sales - I have the knowledge, scripts and talent, I just need to do it more.

Coaching - future-focused.

Habits

Daily progress actions towards Fastlane, TBC.
Meditate 20 mins daily
Exercise 5 X per week - walk on days off
No caffeine (sadly coffee destroys my focus, weird I know)

 

[Robin 133]

For me? Not being able to get a Laptop to start my web designing training

Not sure if you have libraries close to you, but they normally have computers you can use for free, and lots of web design stuff can be via browsers.

 

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[Tacko6]

Lol, this turned into a long post.

• What are your major milestones? What makes you proud?

Turning my life around. This time last year I had got myself in a pickle, overweight, drinking every day, taking antidepressants, fresh out of a breakup and single, semi-homeless, in essence, my life sucked. I made the decision to change, built a vision and got to it. Within 3 months I lost 3 stone and I’m now in the best shape of my life. Stopped the antidepressants. I stopped drinking entirely, didn’t find it difficult and thoroughly enjoyed the process. I found mentors, took courses and engaged with online communities.

I took back control and decided that I needed to remove the negative inputs, so I left the UK in January and spent 5 months living in Nepal and Turkey while working remotely.

I spent time working hard on the early stages of setting up a business (noted below).

I started making content for the first time, sharing my story and getting great feedback.

I helped others stop drinking.

More recently I have met a new girlfriend, and am in the best relationship I have ever been in.

• Major setbacks? What could have gone better but didn’t?

Mindset. Mindset. Mindset. I know some above have said mindset is not necessarily important, however, I have to disagree, in my case anyway. Applying the Fastway way of thinking is applying the Fastlane mindset (be that beliefs or processes), so it feels odd to me to think it's not important. I can't read the linked post as I'm not in INSIDERS yet, but will make sure to check it when I am.

But anyway, in my situation, I didn’t take the action I needed because I had a terrible worldview when it came to money, and receiving this from other people. I didn’t believe in my ability, even though I got great feedback and results. I still felt loyal to a job system that takes a lot and gives little in return and was terrified of packing in it and relying on myself.

I did a lot of work on this, and made excellent strides, but when I returned to the UK and started spending time in the old circles. People sneered when I talked about entrepreneurship and trying to leave the traditional job world. Negative thinking started to surround me again. To combat this I have been reducing my time with certain friends, left toxic WhatsApp groups and started finding people on a similar mission online again. For the past few months I’ve reviewed a plan every morning and night. My mindset is transformed, I now know it's not if I’ll get there, it's when. And now taking the action is (often) easy.

I worked hard on setting up a stop-drinking alcohol business, after taking a loan out to pay for a business coach. Even though I secured my first high-ticket client, I gave up on this, mostly due to my mindset and struggling to work a highly demanding full-time job. My get-out-of-debt plan has landed me in more debt, the kind @MJ DeMarco would call parasitic debt. I have to work my job to keep up with repayments, I can’t get out the debt because my job doesn’t pay enough, it’s a challenge forging a way out as the job takes a lot of energy and time. But… it’s not impossible.

My sister of 30 years old passed away suddenly. I am proud of the way I navigated this. I managed to not become entirely derailed and can support those around me. However, it’s for sure been the biggest thing I have gone through in life. And unfortunately, before this happened I had come to realise that although I love my family deeply, they can bring me down and have certain behaviors which impact my progress greatly. This period of grief has in many ways brought out the worst in some and I have needed to be extremely stoic when navigating this. I'm learning how to support those who need support, without taking on too much of their emotions.

And although the above are ‘setbacks’ they have been strong teachers. I am clear on my mission and I have absolute clarity that I need to work the fastlane.

• Major “completes”? Anything worthy of a solid check mark and “I did it!”

Got my first ever paid client outside of the 9-5 and showed myself that it is possible.

Reached out to someone I respected and asked them to mentor me.

I took back control of my health, mental and physical.

I organised events at the UN, as well as a workshop in Africa attended by people from 4 other African countries.

Recruited a group of successful people to test a coaching program starting in January.

• What you’d like for 2023!

Jan 1st - March 31st - complete focus on the mission.

Priorities

Match my salary through business, or work (probably sales) that is building on needed skills, so I can leave the 9-5 and go all in.

Decide on my niche. Either a stop drinking program or, get your health/well-being back.

Surround myself with successful people - finish Fastlane and join INSIDERS - build current accountability group or find an established one to join. Find entrepreneurs locally.

Release 20 videos on youtube. Not focusing too much on quality. Just pumping them out, learning as I go and building momentum. 1% better every video.

Build a website that gets people on sales calls.

Make sales calls, be that for my business or someone elses.


Skills to build

Business mindset - finish Fastlane. Put a summary of key points up somewhere obvious, and review every day.

Networking and communication.

Copywriting - finish course. Make website and ‘irresistible offer’.

Sales - I have the knowledge, scripts and talent, I just need to do it more.

Coaching - future-focused.

Habits

Daily progress actions towards Fastlane, TBC.
Meditate 20 mins daily
Exercise 5 X per week - walk on days off
No caffeine (sadly coffee destroys my focus, weird I know)

Hi Robin,
Really intresting to read your story. I’m sorry to hear the passing of your sister.

Like me it sounds like you’ve dipped your toe in the fast lane world and want more. Its great to read others stories who you can relate to. I’m also from the UK.

Wishing you all the success for 2023.

 

[Andreas Thiel]

• Major setbacks? What could have gone better but didn’t?

Mindset. Mindset. Mindset. I know some above have said mindset is not necessarily important, however, I have to disagree, in my case anyway. Applying the Fastway way of thinking is applying the Fastlane mindset (be that beliefs or processes), so it feels odd to me to think it's not important. I can't read the linked post as I'm not in INSIDERS yet, but will make sure to check it when I am.

In previous years I felt pretty alone saying that I feel mindset alone is often not the answer. Interesting to see that more people are stressing the importance of doing / habits over mindset recently.

My take on this: the whole self development that puts the mindset in its center is based on the premise that you actually are an active person whose actions are aligned with your beliefs.

A life is an insanely complex construct and many people need to dig deeper to figure out where their exact issues lie. Yes, a mindset that holds people back might be the most common issue, but people who made it here are likely to have the mindset basics in place.

Falling into the trap of wondering which mindset problem is holding them back now, when they need to look into behavioural, identity or other kinds of issues is a problem. When you notice that your actions are not aligned with your beliefs, for example, then that disconnect means that spending time on your beliefs will get you nowhere.

Some might not even have problems and waste time on mindset games that could be spent on the business.

 

[Robin 133]

In previous years I felt pretty alone saying that I feel mindset alone is often not the answer. Interesting to see that more people are stressing the importance of doing / habits over mindset recently.

My take on this: the whole self development that puts the mindset in its center is based on the premise that you actually are an active person whose actions are aligned with your beliefs.

A life is an insanely complex construct and many people need to dig deeper to figure out where their exact issues lie. Yes, a mindset that holds people back might be the most common issue, but people who made it here are likely to have the mindset basics in place.

Falling into the trap of wondering which mindset problem is holding them back now, when they need to look into behavioural, identity or other kinds of issues is a problem. When you notice that your actions are not aligned with your beliefs, for example, then that disconnect means that spending time on your beliefs will get you nowhere.

Some might not even have problems and waste time on mindset games that could be spent on the business.

Yep definitely agree with pretty much all of that. I guess it's a case of a never-ending cycle of Actions/events and mindset reinforcing the other.

But the cycle is most likely to start with an action (or event). Be that stumbling across a book, a random opportunity appearing in your life, an opportunity appearing in your life through hard work, observing how others do things etc etc.

Action/event --> introduces/reinforces mindset, identity, attitude, beliefs - or whatever you want to call it.
Mindset, identity, attitude, beliefs --> Trigger action

An example from my life.

Drinking alcohol

Mindset - Alchohol adds value to my life, it gives me confidence, helps me relax, and makes life fun.

Action - Kept drinking

Event - Felt like shit

Mindset - I think I want to stop for a bit

Action - Stopped drinking over dry Jan, read some books about alcohol and met others doing the same.

Event - Saw a wealth of benefits from stopping, understood it stopped me from building true confidence, ruined my sleep and gave me anxiety, stopped me from doing the things that would truly bring me fulfillment.

Mindset - I don't want to drink for a while.

Action - Continue to not drink, and focus on the positives.

Mindset - Alcohol adds zero value to my life. Stopping is easy. I will never drink again. If I can change that easily, what else is possible?

Action - Attack other areas of life to level up in.

Event - Life gets better

Mindset - Keep pushing forward and taking actions.

As you say life is complicated. I kinda view it as a long winding path of cause and effect. Actions and events come in and knock you around, influencing your mindset/identity which results in the next actions within your control.

For now:
Mindset - I want financial freedom
Action - Looked for books
Event - found TMF
Action - Started reading + joined this forum
Mindset - TMF is possible
Action - make a plan, take action, lol.

 

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[Robin 133]

Hi Robin,
Really intresting to read your story. I’m sorry to hear the passing of your sister.

Like me it sounds like you’ve dipped your toe in the fast lane world and want more. Its great to read others stories who you can relate to. I’m also from the UK.

Wishing you all the success for 2023.

Thank you! Good to see someone else from the UK here. Same to you, hope 2023 is fruitful for you.

 

[Intax]

2022 is coming to a close, I’m slowing down with my business and taking it easy the rest of the way.

End of year is a great time to reflect. Looking back at the last 12 months:

• What are your major milestones? What makes you proud?
• Major setbacks? What could have gone better but didn’t?
• Major “completes”? Anything worthy of a solid check mark and “I did it!”

For the above it can be anything: actions, habits formed and even development of new attitudes!

I’ll start.
This has been a terrific year. A true roller coaster ride with higher highs than ever before and lower lows. Lots of stress and joy. In the end the business grew significantly. And I’m excited to expand the office space when others around seem to be scaling down (working from home, hybrid work etc).
The most challenging part second half of the year was getting lenders to be happy… with inflation, and higher interest rates we went from “easy” to “hard” with no stops in between. Its been 10 years since the last time I had to put this much effort with banks.

Fun side bar story, I talked to Grant Cardone and he just closed a deal and I did too. While market is panicking, we are still buying real estate. First of all, how cool is that that because of Twitter Spaces I spoke to Grant Cardone! Not a text, but a real conversation about Real Estate. What is even cooler than that is both of us seem to think alike about the current market opportunities.



Look forward to reading your replies! Share your story and maybe even what you’d like for 2023!

• What are your major milestones? What makes you proud?

I incorporated my first company and I made the first revenue in my life. It's a great feeling after 2,5 years of work and to have the knowledge "I'm able to find customers and generate revenue" is amazing. Furthermore we also had the first several hundred clients which were processed through our company and our first customers are super happy with us. This year we also received a grant which finances us until June next year. And I moved in together with my girlfriend which was a great choice. We found a great flat for a great price and I'm super happy with the move. I'm also super happy with my co-founders. They are all great people to work and spend time with.

• Major setbacks? What could have gone better but didn’t?

My working habits still have a lot of upside potential. IMO they are holding me back the most currently. My financial situation is pretty bad at the moment. Before I left my job to work full time on my startup I was used to have a way higher income and also had higher spending habits. Now it's hard to getting used to the low spending I have to do right now but I'm optimistic to getting better at that.

So in total a pretty exciting year for me.

 

[fridge]

2022 was.. interesting personally and professionally for me.

Major Achievements:
1) Left a toxic $48k year in office job that was crippling me mentally and now making $150k+ year IT contracting working from home full time. I live in the Midwest so this is more than enough money to support myself, start an emergency fund, and save capital to fund business opportunities
2) Promoted to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu blue belt - huge accomplishment for me and took quite a bit longer than most people (took me 3 years of training vs the regular 1.5-2). Still learning every practice and going to lots of other academies in the area.
3) Finally starting to break free of analysis paralysis and started a couple of businesses - a Google Ads agency and an FBA business.
4) Finally got to use my passport for the first time going to Mexico. Went scuba diving and saw a tiger shark. Typical tourist vacation of getting drunk from 8 am till sundown. Good time. Definitely going to travel more in 2023.
5) Leveraged freelancers way more. I'm now starting to see the power in scaling. This year alone freelancers have saved me about 1000 hours of time.

Major setbacks:
1) - Had a falling out with roommate/old best friend in January/February. We just grew apart and our relationship grew unrecognizable. Both of our faults, I've matured a lot and won't point fingers here. Will never roommate with anyone besides a spouse again.
2) - Sunk quite a bit of money into the FBA business (about $15k) testing two products. I've narrowed down to one product and am selling off the rest of the inventory for the other product. This went way over budget and its my fault for not consistently checking the numbers.
3) - Neglecting mental health and socialization skills.
I went pretty balls to the walls trying to leave my old job and spent many hours holed up inside my office working on finding contracts to work on and working on my businesses and learning.

Finally starting to get out of my shell again and going out for drinks, meeting new people, and focusing on my mental well being through meditation, journalling and in 2023 will be going back to therapy to work through some personal problems.
4) - Neglecting environment. This year made me realize how important it is to surround yourself with people with the right mindset, and to keep your home/working environment clean. Going into 2023 I'll be moving into a much nicer place closer to Chicago (my current place is really trash for how much money I make, but I'm grateful to have somewhere to live and work).

Overall, not a bad year. Lots of learning through mistakes and working hands on. 2023 will be a lot better/higher quality of life especially now that I have access to some more capital. Even though I make more than enough money to live a full life contracting, I'm still going to focus on building a business that can support me without 40+ hour weeks.

 

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[Vinz]

Just some advice:
Don't fall for the self-improvement bullshit.

You don't have to have a morning routine, meditate, write in a journal and other 7 random daily habits.

You keep relapsing to bad habits and fail to stick to the new ones because they mean nothing to you. It's just a cookie cutter prescription made by a youtuber that encourages everyone to be the best version of themselves... by doing this one special morning routine followed by 1 million other idiots on their "self-improvement journey".

The real way to actually improve your life and character, is by taking decisive action and progressing towards the things that you find meaningful in life. Growth will happen as a byproduct of taking action and cannot be pursued directly.

Figure out what you want to do in life, and just do it.

There is no single path, no single "best version" of yourself, and certainly no single protocol or routine that can be applied to millions of people to improve their lives.

Double up on this, tried all the habits many times but just didn't matter enough.
What I see most important is focusing on the problems ahead of you, prioritizing, navigating life, becoming comfortable with yourself, accept reality etc

 

[starttoday123]

Every year I get older I’m more able to see my humanity, and laugh at myself more and this year was no different. It’s humbling that no matter how much I work on myself I can still be a very dumb or weird person at times. It’s fun to laugh at myself though and share that experience with others. The experience of being human.

I didn’t see any great outcomes on my goal of having my own business (supposedly my goal because if it was really that important I’d do it..) but I feel I did the best I’ve done in a long time at taking action on my ideas, learning about how to evaluate my ideas, and at observing my patterns and particularly I got distracted for 3 months 3 times so that’s 9 months of the year I was significantly distracted and I know I can improve on that

 

[starttoday123]

2022? 0/10 would not recommend.

As I wrote in previous years, I don't see my options ... I have no idea how life is supposed to work.

Lol “would not recommend”. You have humor about it at least! I know the feeling of not seeing any options. Why not try for a 1/10 for 2023? 2/10 for 2024 3/10 for 2025 etc. you’ll be at a 10/10 in 2032! 2031 and 2030 and 2029 won’t be too bad too..I’m curious what you were you aiming for in 2022 and if you missed the mark by a lot or a little. Certainly with work you can reach a 1/10 year and isn’t that better than 0/10 if you’re going to be stuck on this planet anyways..

I’m super sorry to hear about your laptop. I hope it’s partially salvageable, that sucks if not

A mature mind (there’s some science behind this but i don’t know the source) is able to hold two opposing thoughts at the same time, like “I don’t know how life is supposed to work” and “yet by my efforts slowly I’ll learn how life is supposed to work”

If you end up deciding on sobriety I highly recommend the “I am sober” app it really helped me get through the first 6 months and I’m at almost 2 years now. Lots of funny/tragic/relatable stories on there people share too about before they were sober that are if nothing entertaining

 

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[fastlane_dad]

Some brief notes for 2022 to recap the year

• Tied up loose ends and completely dismantled what was left of our all our previous businesses including every physical asset.
• Started several new projects, including one that is bringing in revenue.
• Got a good grasp on investing, structured in a way to give financial freedom
• Saying NO to more things, and choosing where we spend our energy and time towards more carefully
• Having no employees OR a boss, and not taking on either - and the daily mental clarity that comes from that. Way more responsibility now towards a family (with a young child).
• Over 300+ posts on TFF (started in 2022), with enough time and energy for participation. Realized what a great of people hangs out around here (mostly). Guided some people publicly and privately towards their goals.
• Read several books (would like to increase that for ’23, keep a more accurate log).
• Turned 40 - figuring out how to spend the rest half of my life (and probably even less 'active' years).

---------------------------

Have some ideas and plans for 2023 but will keep this as a placeholder to add to later on.

 

[Antifragile]

Turned 40 - figuring out how to spend the rest half of my life (and probably even less 'active' years).

I’m surprised to read this statement. I’m 40 and feel like I’m just getting started. My sports races placements are better and better. In 2022 I beat my personal best ranking in GranFondo from 2019… (when I qualified for Word Championship, so I wasn’t slow back then either) pandemic cancelled a few years. But still… with age, more time to train as businesses are running reasonably well, I’m improving. Shouldn’t you?

With your business exit, you must have free time. Time to take care of your body!

 

[YanC]

2022 has been good. It could have been better, as there is always room for improvement, but let's appreciate what has been accomplished.

I completed a major real estate project and tripled my short term rental income. I am now at a point where I make a bit more than I would if I was still an engineer, even double if you factor in amortization, the difference being that there is the thrilling feeling of independence, no boss, and something like 3 or 4 hours a week to run the business smoothly these days. I wouldn't call it fastlane, but it's definitely not a bad spot to be in.

On a side note, I picked up options selling "à la MJ", and after making all kinds of rookie mistakes, sit at +6% YTD, while my local market is down 8% YTD. Nothing crazy yet, but I think I now have enough experience to make something significant out of it.

I feel like I'm now at a crossroads, which basically boils down to the fact that I'm running a lifestyle business and need to grow into an enterprise if I want to take it further, which I have no idea how to handle. Or start something totaly different. Anyways, I need to take on new challenges as comfort is slowly but surely creeping in, boredom is awful when it gets to that point and I'm far from being done income wise. This fastlane stuff about creating massive value and getting paid handsomely for it seems pretty cool too !

Good luck everyone.

 

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[DCG]

2022 is coming to a close, I’m slowing down with my business and taking it easy the rest of the way.

End of year is a great time to reflect. Looking back at the last 12 months:

• What are your major milestones? What makes you proud?
• Major setbacks? What could have gone better but didn’t?
• Major “completes”? Anything worthy of a solid check mark and “I did it!”

For the above it can be anything: actions, habits formed and even development of new attitudes!

I’ll start.
This has been a terrific year. A true roller coaster ride with higher highs than ever before and lower lows. Lots of stress and joy. In the end the business grew significantly. And I’m excited to expand the office space when others around seem to be scaling down (working from home, hybrid work etc).
The most challenging part second half of the year was getting lenders to be happy… with inflation, and higher interest rates we went from “easy” to “hard” with no stops in between. Its been 10 years since the last time I had to put this much effort with banks.

Fun side bar story, I talked to Grant Cardone and he just closed a deal and I did too. While market is panicking, we are still buying real estate. First of all, how cool is that that because of Twitter Spaces I spoke to Grant Cardone! Not a text, but a real conversation about Real Estate. What is even cooler than that is both of us seem to think alike about the current market opportunities.



Look forward to reading your replies! Share your story and maybe even what you’d like for 2023!

I found this forum and MJ DeMarco. That's gotta be something

 

[Isaac Odongo]

Went bumpy bumpy
What the F*ck am I doing?
Why the F*ck am I not getting ahead?
Why the F*ck must I do this goddamn job taking round and round in cycles?
What the F*ck am I gonna do with my life?
Why the F*ck am I here anyway?
Maybe I need to get a job in the damn capital.
Maybe I need to get a job in one of those damn big schools.
Well I applied to one of them F*cking big schools and failed interviews. I think they were dumb. First half of the year gone. That day I met an entrepreneur called Anthony on the bus back to my shithole town and he shared something that ignited me. I began to read about wealth creation. Saw MJ's titles and thought this is fishy shit. What the hell is fast Lane. Read all the others and felt empty, stuck, lost. Then read MJ. Wow. A grand eye opener. Read all his books and decided to stop reading and think and think and think. I am still thinking. And acting from my tight corner. Second half of the year gone. I feel better. I know better. I am unplugged.
Completed revising my first novel manuscript.

 

[heavy_industry]

@MJ DeMarco & @heavy_industry , looking forward to seeing your posts in a few weeks!

A bit overdue, but here it goes:

The bad:
Truth is the only path to improvement: I've wasted Q1 and Q3 because I was unable to control my emotions. Although losing 50% of the year is a disaster, this is an actual improvement from the previous two years (pandemic).

I am glad that the problem is now clearly parameterized and I am determined to never let this happen again in the future. Time is too precious.

The good:

• started recovering my life after the pandemic
• massive change in lifestyle that resulted in significant health improvements
• furthered my education and started learning a new skill set that I will need in my future projects
• discovered a gold mine: this forum (Thank you @MJ DeMarco )

Lessons learned:

• Mental health is the #1 priority. If this goes away, everything else crumbles like a house of cards.
• Your life is your making. The way you do it is the way it happens. You are creating your destiny.
• Time is running out. Work harder.

I hope everyone had a good year.
Let's all learn from our past mistakes and make our lives and this world a better place.

 

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[Jeix]

• What are your major milestones? What makes you proud?

In 2022 me and some friends finally opened the hobby store we've been dreaming about for who even knows how long. It's still too early to say much about it but the first few months have gone well and we hope to be able to continue growing and eventually expand into a franchise.
On a personal note, I got married to the person I've been dating for the past 3 years. Sweet!

• Major setbacks? What could have gone better but didn’t?

I moved my content creation job to a side hustle. I could have managed the transition better and turned it into an earning opportunity, diversifying myself over multiple platforms. Instead, burnout and my desire to move on to managing the store made me take long breaks and cost me some money. Looking at my growth data, I've still experienced good growth year-on-year (+22%, same as the previous 12-month period) despite my diminishing hours of effort, which one could consider a win. However, I was hoping to increase the growth rate to be bigger than last year's. Hoping to bounce back in 2023.

• Major “completes”? Anything worthy of a solid check mark and “I did it!”

Getting married for sure. It's still too early to say "I did it" when it comes to the store I've opened, not enough months of data available. Hoping to come back to this in 12 months and say "I did it", talking about our first franchise location.

Happy new year!

 

[Runum]

2022 started great for me and then kicked my a$$. It was a series of tough lessons about physical and mental health. I am experiencing a different season of life than most of you. Being over 60 and having health problems sucks, but it is what it is. I am now having to rewrite what my future will look like and how to overcome new limitations.

Treasure and take care of your health.

I am ready to kick 2023 with my new leg!

 

[Antifragile]

2022 started great for me and then kicked my a$$. It was a series of tough lessons about physical and mental health. I am experiencing a different season of life than most of you. Being over 60 and having health problems sucks, but it is what it is. I am now having to rewrite what my future will look like and how to overcome new limitations.

Treasure and take care of your health.

I am ready to kick 2023 with my new leg!

Most of us were following your health challenges @Runum. It was like sitting on needles. While we never met, the feeling of “rooting for you” was as strong as with someone close. Glad you are on the other side of that crazy ordeal!

Life… sometimes it just has its own plans for us. And when that happens, we can only control how we react to it. And that’s what separates so many people.

So yeah, glad to see you kicking 2023 with the new leg!

 

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[Skroob]

.

My man. My heart hurts for you reading this. I went through something similar back in the day, and I know that it says a lot about you as a person that you would comfort her at that point.

I hope you don't mind some unsolicited advice. My bet is that you have all the tools you're going to need to make this year a lot better than last year. Your marriage is likely over, all but the thud at the end of the fall. Financially and emotionally, you'll be better off acting as if its already done, because it's going to be sooner or later.

Don't worry about the other guy. Lots of people earn more money and degrees, but you've got the sizable advantage of not being the kind of garbage person that knowingly has an affair with another man's wife. You'll increase your income, you'll get smarter and more articulate, but he'll always be that.

If you take only one thing from this post, please let it be this: You will not be at this low point forever. It'll feel like it, it'll hurt for a while, maybe longer than you think it should, but it will get better. Expend what emotional energy you have on your daughters, and walk through the rest one step at a time, and you will make it.

 

[Arithen]

2022: Did I retire at 33? No. But, what did happen was that I started a few businesses which both failed, and I learned more in those months thanks to action-taking than I ever did using any other method

 

[jwhanke]

2022 - The good - Took a sabbatical from normal work and life for ten months. The focus was refreshing and focusing on items on the life bucket list, including travel. I tried not to make too many goals and projects while away because the goal was a refresh, it was tempting to create a full "Away from work agenda," but managed to really refresh myself! The only real "productive item" was on implementing options selling strategies on the SPY (MJ's guide was a great start), covered call selling, naked puts for well-liked securities, and dividend capture, which was a success and continued the momentum in 2023.

The bad - Since I took a break from a significant portion of my income and wasn't on employer's health insurance, my buffer capital took a hit, and didn't bleed into long-term investment soldiers.

 

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[fosterzz]

Lol, this turned into a long post.

• What are your major milestones? What makes you proud?

Turning my life around. This time last year I had got myself in a pickle, overweight, drinking every day, taking antidepressants, fresh out of a breakup and single, semi-homeless, in essence, my life sucked. I made the decision to change, built a vision and got to it. Within 3 months I lost 3 stone and I’m now in the best shape of my life. Stopped the antidepressants. I stopped drinking entirely, didn’t find it difficult and thoroughly enjoyed the process. I found mentors, took courses and engaged with online communities.

I took back control and decided that I needed to remove the negative inputs, so I left the UK in January and spent 5 months living in Nepal and Turkey while working remotely.

I spent time working hard on the early stages of setting up a business (noted below).

I started making content for the first time, sharing my story and getting great feedback.

I helped others stop drinking.

More recently I have met a new girlfriend, and am in the best relationship I have ever been in.

• Major setbacks? What could have gone better but didn’t?

Mindset. Mindset. Mindset. I know some above have said mindset is not necessarily important, however, I have to disagree, in my case anyway. Applying the Fastway way of thinking is applying the Fastlane mindset (be that beliefs or processes), so it feels odd to me to think it's not important. I can't read the linked post as I'm not in INSIDERS yet, but will make sure to check it when I am.

But anyway, in my situation, I didn’t take the action I needed because I had a terrible worldview when it came to money, and receiving this from other people. I didn’t believe in my ability, even though I got great feedback and results. I still felt loyal to a job system that takes a lot and gives little in return and was terrified of packing in it and relying on myself.

I did a lot of work on this, and made excellent strides, but when I returned to the UK and started spending time in the old circles. People sneered when I talked about entrepreneurship and trying to leave the traditional job world. Negative thinking started to surround me again. To combat this I have been reducing my time with certain friends, left toxic WhatsApp groups and started finding people on a similar mission online again. For the past few months I’ve reviewed a plan every morning and night. My mindset is transformed, I now know it's not if I’ll get there, it's when. And now taking the action is (often) easy.

I worked hard on setting up a stop-drinking alcohol business, after taking a loan out to pay for a business coach. Even though I secured my first high-ticket client, I gave up on this, mostly due to my mindset and struggling to work a highly demanding full-time job. My get-out-of-debt plan has landed me in more debt, the kind @MJ DeMarco would call parasitic debt. I have to work my job to keep up with repayments, I can’t get out the debt because my job doesn’t pay enough, it’s a challenge forging a way out as the job takes a lot of energy and time. But… it’s not impossible.

My sister of 30 years old passed away suddenly. I am proud of the way I navigated this. I managed to not become entirely derailed and can support those around me. However, it’s for sure been the biggest thing I have gone through in life. And unfortunately, before this happened I had come to realise that although I love my family deeply, they can bring me down and have certain behaviors which impact my progress greatly. This period of grief has in many ways brought out the worst in some and I have needed to be extremely stoic when navigating this. I'm learning how to support those who need support, without taking on too much of their emotions.

And although the above are ‘setbacks’ they have been strong teachers. I am clear on my mission and I have absolute clarity that I need to work the fastlane.

• Major “completes”? Anything worthy of a solid check mark and “I did it!”

Got my first ever paid client outside of the 9-5 and showed myself that it is possible.

Reached out to someone I respected and asked them to mentor me.

I took back control of my health, mental and physical.

I organised events at the UN, as well as a workshop in Africa attended by people from 4 other African countries.

Recruited a group of successful people to test a coaching program starting in January.

• What you’d like for 2023!

Jan 1st - March 31st - complete focus on the mission.

Priorities

Match my salary through business, or work (probably sales) that is building on needed skills, so I can leave the 9-5 and go all in.

Decide on my niche. Either a stop drinking program or, get your health/well-being back.

Surround myself with successful people - finish Fastlane and join INSIDERS - build current accountability group or find an established one to join. Find entrepreneurs locally.

Release 20 videos on youtube. Not focusing too much on quality. Just pumping them out, learning as I go and building momentum. 1% better every video.

Build a website that gets people on sales calls.

Make sales calls, be that for my business or someone elses.


Skills to build

Business mindset - finish Fastlane. Put a summary of key points up somewhere obvious, and review every day.

Networking and communication.

Copywriting - finish course. Make website and ‘irresistible offer’.

Sales - I have the knowledge, scripts and talent, I just need to do it more.

Coaching - future-focused.

Habits

Daily progress actions towards Fastlane, TBC.
Meditate 20 mins daily
Exercise 5 X per week - walk on days off
No caffeine (sadly coffee destroys my focus, weird I know)

mate so much you shared on that post, how's things going for you? would love to get an update on your current situation

 

[Robin 133]

mate so much you shared on that post, how's things going for you? would love to get an update on your current situation

Thanks for bringing me back to that and reminding me.

I'm doing good. I've got a base program designed and am logging progress on INSIDERS, not as much as I should be though.

I've got a test group of three people going through the program. It's going great.

I've been posting regularly in groups to build copywriting skills, connect with potential clients and starting conversations. I've been getting great engagement, hundreds of likes and comments.

Ive not secured my first client yet. But I know it's round the corner

Meditation and exercise pretty solid, other than a bit of a break due to illness.

Things going great with my partner. Never been happier in a relationship tbh.

Been opening up old connections and making new ones.

Still finding it a challenge to juggle my more than full time job and getting started on fastlane, but making good steps towards it everyday. I only need a few clients to go full time, so just focusing on adding value.

It's good to reflect as things haven't been moving as fast as I'd like but they are definitely moving.

@fosterzz what's you current situation?