2021 Self Reflection & 2022 Goals

Oof, it’s been a while since I have posted and funny enough my last post was on the last day of 2020. I was so ready to tackle on 2021 and man, did time fly by.

Spoiler alert: I did not check off everything I wanted to do in 2021 nor complete all the goals I had listed.

I’ll start with some self-reflections for the year and end with what I’m hoping to accomplish in 2022.

Starting with my goals I had for 2021 (comments bolded):

1. Work on rebuilding healthy and productive habits
   • Set aside at least a hour a day for learning (from a new hobby to something that I’m interested in). Rock climbing (bouldering) was a hobby I picked up in 2021. Web3 was another that pretty much consumed a good portion of my life in 2021. More on this later.
     
     
   • Exercise more consistently instead of going through monthly sprints. Fail. I wasn’t able to maintain consistency 2021. I had a good groove going for Q2-Q3 but I always relapse after a day of skipping.
     
     
   • Read daily even if it means setting aside some time to read on the sofa or before bed – getting back to completing my annual reading challenge goals. Unfortunately I failed my reading challenge for 2021. 8/18 completed, which marks the 3rd consecutive year of not completing my reading goal. 3-3 since I started my annual reading challenge in 2016. With my crippling web3 addiction, I ended up spending more time researching and reading whitepapers than actually books in 2021.
     
     
   • Sleep earlier and wake up earlier FAIL – I’m just not a morning person.
     
     
   • Continue this blog. MEGA FAIL. I mean, look at my last post.
     
     
2. Spend more time checking in and connecting with friends and family. Check. This is something I still think I should continue doing more but it won’t be a goal for 2022.
   
   
3. Create a 3-5 year roadmap/plan – something that I have not done since my first year out of college. Nope, can’t check this off my list. If anything, 2021 made me realize that I’m not 100% sure what I want next. I do have an idea and a plan for the 2022, but not a tangible, thought out plan for 2025. I’m going to have to play it by ear.
   
   
   • Not solely focused on professional aspirations but also personal goals as well
     
     
   • Map out all the hard and soft skills that I need to learn/work on
     
     
   • Create milestone goals but being flexible because things can change throughout each year
     

Some 2021 accomplishments that I felt proud of:

1. Getting promoted (at work). I didn’t know what to expect with work and my professional career after a couple of months of the pandemic. I was feeling a bit lost since I only started at my current company for 5 months before everything became WFH. Honestly, I was feeling a bit bitter since I felt like there was an external factor that I couldn’t control that was holding me back from my professional career. I’m going to keep this one short – I’m grateful for all the people I work with and the opportunity to learn and take on new things/challenges.
   
   
2. My interest for web3. It started with my curiosity around play to earn gaming/blockchain games/web3 game which led to NFTs… and then the rest was history. I never expected myself be in such a deep rabbit hole and I haven’t felt this way since I was a junior in college learning about the types of companies are out there. It has been an enriching journey so far in 2021 and web3 might be a bigger part of my life in the future (hopefully). #WAGMI
   
   
3. Hiking Tour du Mont Blanc in August. 100 miles in 6 days. One of the best and longest hikes I have done. I was happy enough to be able to travel at least 1x internationally in 2021, but TMB was a major highlight of 2021.
   
   

2021 flew by quicker than I’d imagine and I feel content with saying that I made the best out of the weird year that was given to us. COVID is still here, with a new variant every other day. I still remember when everyone was talking about the Delta variant for a bit and then all of a sudden Omicron took over.

With much more optimism for 2022, here are a couple of goals I have:

1. Maintain consistent healthy and productive habits
   • At a minimum, at least exercise 3x/week but try to at least be active for 10 minutes every day.
     
     
   • Read at least 20 books for 2022. I’m 3-3 for doing this challenge for 6 years, I need make my score positive.
     
     
   • Maintain some sort of creative outlet – I don’t mean writing this blog specifically because look how well that went. I’m opening this up to any form of writing since I often struggle with it. Here are some of my other outlets so feel free to check it out:
     • My notion for web3 – where I keep an ongoing list of interesting resources and thoughts
     • My medium – where I’m planning to write most of my web3 related content
     • My mirror.xyz – this is probably where I’ll duplicate my content from my medium
     • Twitter! – I wrote my first thread the other day and it was pretty fun. I’ll probably be writing a couple more regarding web3 gaming and education.
       
       
2. Pick up another hobby. Try at least 3 new things with the goal of having a new hobby.
   
   
3. Professional development & expanding my network. I’ll keep this vague since I don’t want to share too much, but future-Kenneth should know what I’m talking about here.
   
   
4. Hike Patagonia. Hoping this is possible this year. If not, I’ll be happy to be able to travel 2x internationally this year.
   
   

I think that’s a good amount of goals for 2022. I didn’t want to get too specific (aside from Patagonia) since it leaves room for subgoals that could be grouped with these.

We’re on day 8 of 2022, and I have a feeling that 2022 is my year. Cheers.

The End Of An Unprecedented Year

It has been a crazy year and 2020 was full of unexpected events. Unprecedented – probably heard that word a million times. A shit show – might be an understatement for 2020 to be honest. Tomorrow is a New Year and I do believe there’s a light at the end of the tunnel and things will get better, hopefully by the summer of 2021.

With a week off between Christmas and New Years (blessed), I had a lot of time to relax and take some time to reflect on everything that happened this year, along with everything I want to focus on, in 2021. 2020 has definitely made me appreciate things a lot more and I couldn’t be more grateful with everything I have and all the wonderful, amazing people around me that I get to interact with each day.

I always understood how important and valuable time is because it’s a resource that you can never get back. Heard that a million times. Everyone has the chance to make the most of the time they’ve got by spending it however they want, but once you use it, it’s gone. Whether you “wasted it” or did something productive with it is subjective and really depends on the person.

Being locked up at home like everyone else whose quarantine, I realized that I don’t really spend my time efficiently. I thought I had a better grasp of being productive with my time. Maybe it just has to be adjusted because I just don’t get to enjoy the little things when we were all living normally pre-COVID times.

• I’m way off my 2020 reading challenge goal of 18 books. I usually get most of my reading done during my daily commute, which is impossible now since my new commute is from my bedroom to my desk in the living room.
  
  
• When I was furloughed, I should’ve spent the time studying for the GMAT – which would been a great opportunity to do so. Instead I spent 3 months doing a few things here and there. One of my biggest mistakes this year, but I started this blog so I guess something good came out of it.
  

Instead of recapping everything I should’ve done differently, I would like to focus on the future. Cliché as it is, but here’s a couple of goals I have in mind for 2021 in no particular order of importance:

1. Work on rebuilding healthy and productive habits
   • Set aside at least a hour a day for learning (from a new hobby to something that I’m interested in)
   • Exercise more consistently instead of going through monthly sprints
   • Read daily even if it means setting aside some time to read on the sofa or before bed – getting back to completing my annual reading challenge goals
   • Sleep earlier and wake up earlier
   • Continue this blog
     
     
2. Spend more time checking in and connecting with friends and family
   
   
3. Create a 3-5 year roadmap/plan – something that I have not done since my first year out of college.
   • Not solely focused on professional aspirations but also personal goals as well
   • Map out all the hard and soft skills that I need to learn/work on
   • Create milestone goals but being flexible because things can change throughout each year

Cheers to the end of 2020. See you all in 2021 where things will be better.

This is not a post about Podcasts.

It’s just a list of my favorite podcasts and I thought it would be worth sharing since I get the question a lot.

It’s crazy how popular podcasts have become over the past couple of years. 6 years ago, Spotify didn’t even have podcasts on their platform and Apple was pretty much the only player in the game. Fast forward to today, podcasts plays a huge role in Spotify and there’s even a podcast subscription service, Luminary.

I won’t get into it too much and I’ll save it for a different time when I’m not distracted by having season 2 of Master of None on the background. Please I desperately need a Season 3.

Here’s my favorites:

• Snacks Daily – My daily morning listen on my commute to work. They even have a newsletter that you can subscribe to get your daily dose of financial news.
  
  
• How I Built This with Guy Raz – I love learning about how people built their companies especially companies that I love. Guy Raz is a great host and his voice is so soothing.
  
  
• StartUp – The second podcast that I listened to. I don’t even remember how I found it, but I glad I found it when the host Alex Blumberg just began his journey of launching Gimlet Media.
  
  There was something about waiting for each episode and getting a raw intimate view of the challenges that was mind opening. Also, I recommend you give all podcasts from Gimlet Media a try – they are all good – especially Reply All
  
  
• Millennial – This was the first podcast I stumbled upon that got me into listening to podcasts. I recently graduated and was a couple of months into my first full time job. I wasn’t exactly lost, but I had a lot of thoughts and questions as I started a new chapter in my life. Listening to someone who was beginning their career and having those same thoughts was comforting.
  
  
• Motley Fool Money – Motley Fool has all of my favorite investment content listens

• Bored House – My friends started their own podcast earlier this year and listening to it feels like I’m in the conversation but I’m only able to listen.

For the rest of my current podcast rotation:

• Asian, Not Asian
• Business Wars
• Business Casual
• Medium Rare Podcast
• Crime Junkies
• HBR Podcast
• Secret Societies
• $6.99 Per Pound

If you have any favorites lmk!

Earth Day Special: National Parks

Happy Earth Day! I had planned to do a post about Netflix’s Q1 2020 earnings today but in the spirit of Earth Day, I want to thank the NPS (National Park Service) for managing and preserving the National Parks that we all love.

When I first started traveling, every destination that I had in mind was international. It wasn’t until my first LA to SF road trip that I realized that there’s so many travel gems in my own backyard. Yeah, I keep forgetting how big the U.S. is, in my coastal bubble.

Visiting all the National Parks eventually became an item on my bucket list. Here’s a list of all the parks I have been day dreaming about and a list of the ones that I managed to cross off my list:

• Yellowstone – This has been on my list since I was a kid and I can’t believe I still haven’t been to Yellowstone yet. Camping in Yellowstone has always been on my bucket list.
  
  
• Sequoia – I always get this confused with redwoods in Muir Woods since they are both tall. Sequoias are way thicker (or thicccc with 4 c’s.)
  
  
• Glacier – the Garden Wall and the mountains ofc!
  
  
• Joshua Tree – I wanna see these weird trees outside of Minecraft.
  
  
• Olympic – there’s something about the PNW and nature. I’m sad that I didn’t get the chance to visit when I did my solo trip to Washington + Vancouver.
  
  
• Denali – there’s something about Alaska that makes me want to rent a RV and do a long road trip. I’d imagine there might be similarities to Iceland.
  
  
• Hawai’i Volcanoes in Hawaii – I want to be in Hawaii in general!
  
  
• Mount Rainier – I feel like climbing Mt. Rainier is something you should do before tackling on Patagonia and Mt. Everest.
  
  
• Everglades – I’m a bit nervous about this one. I can deal with the cold and with dry heat but I’m not sure if wetlands is my thing.
  
  
• Saguaro – I just want to see cacti in their natural habitat

These are all the parks I been to so far and I wish I had more memories of each as all of trips to these parks pre-dated my travel blog. At least I had majority of them documented on IG!

• Zion – to date, Zion is one of my favorite National Parks that I have been to. One of my all-time favorite hikes was Angel’s Landing. Definitely one park I’ll be back to do the Narrows!
  
  
• Yosemite – from my IG, Vernal Falls, the closer you hike up to the top, the wetter you get.
  
  
• Bryce Canyon – from my IG, unfortunately our second day at Bryce was rainy so we ATV’ed. Our third day was ruined because it was too muddy to hike 😦
  
  
• Arches – the only memory that sticks out was that we were hiking and going off trail by climbing to get the best view of the arches.
  
  
• Grand Canyon – wish we had time to actually do some of the hikes in Grand Canyon
  
  
• Great Smokey Mountains – one of the first national parks I visited with my parents, don’t remember much though. Will have to move this up.
  
  
• Acadia – One of the few parks I visited twice! First time with my parents and second time there was so much snow that it was impossible to hike. There is some sort of nostalgia that Maine invokes in me.
  
  
• Monument Valley – from my IG, had a wild stormy drive through the valley where we saw thunder hit some of the monuments.
  
  
• Muir Woods National Monument – from my IG. First time at Muir was the beginning of our LA/SF trip
  

This post has definitely brought back some wonderful memories!

Sunday Coffee

It’s been a month and some change of making my own cold brew to stay caffeinated at home. I miss picking up coffee before work, but what I really miss is finding a cozy seat in a cafe and absorbing the atmosphere around me.

The wonderful thing about NYC is that there are endless amounts of coffee shops. Just when you think you tried every single coffee in the neighborhood, a new one pops up.

In no particular order, these coffee shops have been on my list of must-try next.

• Felix Roasting Co. – this photogenic upscale coffee shop has been on my list for quite some time. The decor looks similar to what you would expect from a high tea experience. I need to try their artisanal coffees and ofc, it’s insta-worthy.
  
  
• Summers NYC – I passed by this surf themed cafe a couple times after work when I’m walking to SoHo. It reminds me of California and it looks like a perfect place to get coffee and some light bites. Relatively small spot tho.
  
  
• Sey Coffee – Located between East Williamsburg and Bushwick, I haven’t had the chance to check out Sey because it’s so damn far from me. I seen pictures of the interior and it reminds me of a coffee shop I went to in Bogota.
  
  
• Sawada Coffee – okay, I’m in Chinatown quite often but I don’t know how I missed this every single time. Sawada Coffee was started by Hiroshi Sawada, who was the first Asian World Champion Barista. His first shop was in Chicago and now he has one in NY.

If anyone else have recommendations or favorites – lmk!

Originally I was going to rank my favorite coffee shops but I guess that will be something I’ll do next time!

Missing my Usuals

I miss dining out and the one thing that sucks about living in LIC is that I can’t get food delivered from my favorite restaurants. Once the craziness is over, I’m going to hit up my usuals and I have my whole day of pigging out planned out:

1. Breakfast at Dudley’s. It’s my weekday staycation brunch spot. I’m going to get my go-to: the brown rice bowl with a side of brussels sprouts. Didn’t forget about the cold brew either.
   
   
2. Early lunch at Shanghai 21 fka Shanghai Asian Manor. It’s my soup dumpling restaurant of choice since high school. Those pan fried noodles & fried bork puns. /drool
   
   
3. Mid-day snack at KazuNori. Ugh. I miss KazuNori hand rolls so much. So addictive that when they first opened in NY, I swear I went to KazuNori like 10x within 3 months. Ofc, I’ll be getting the 6-hand roll set. Trust me, you’ll be hungry afterwards.
   
   
4. Two words before dinner: Korean tapas. Thursday Kitchen is the spot for light snacks and their famous glowing capri-sun cocktails. My all-time favorites: the truffle mac & cheese, pork belly and the steak. Gotta go early cause that line is no joke.
   
   
5. For dinner, the Korean steakhouse Cote. Okay, this is the only place I had once on this list but I couldn’t think of another spot worthy for my first dinner post-rona. I’m getting the Butcher’s feast – from ban-chan to four selected cuts, their amazing egg souffle and a couple of other chefs’ favorite dishes. Omg, don’t get me started on their kimchi wagyu paella.
   
   
6. If the desert at Cote wasn’t enough – I’ll head to LES to get ice cream from Ice & Vice. Milk & Honey is my fav but I’ll probably end up choosing one of those wild seasonal flavors that I never had before.

Ugh, I already know I’ll be bloated AF but it’s worth it.

I Miss My Daily Routine

Yesterday I had a team happy hour and it made me realized how much I missed being at work and how bad I want to get back into my daily routine.

1. Getting dressed for work in the morning
   
   
2. The whiff of fresh air in the morning when I leave my apartment building
   
   
3. Listening to my daily podcasts on the train while reading the news on my phone. It’s not the same when you do it at home
   
   
4. MTA train delays
   
   
5. Stopping by a coffee shop before getting into the office and the smell of roasted coffee beans that somehow always get stuck to your clothes
   
   
6. The first sip of cold brew
   
   
7. The walk to the office
   
   
8. The horrible elevators that take forever to get to the….. oh man i don’t even remember what floor my office was on, was it the 6th floor?
   
   
9. Office noise – if anyone else is missing this, I found this cool project here where you can get office background noise.
   
   
10. Turning left or right on my desk to talk to co-workers
    
    
11. Meetings and 1:1s
    
    
12. The walk to get lunch
    
    
13. Afternoon coffee breaks where I decide if I want to just drink the nitro cold brew on tap or go for a nice coffee break walk
    
    
14. Leaving the office and the train ride back home
    
    
15. Sometimes, spontaneous plans
    
    
16. Laying on the sofa, looking at my phone with the tv on for background noise. Okay I do that now while I’m quarantined but it’s not the same after a long day away from home
    
    
17. Going to the gym when it’s dark out
    
    
18. Blasting music while running on the treadmill and listening to podcasts while working out
    
    
19. A nice refreshing shower and laying in bed afterwards
    
    
20. Thinking about what I need to do tomorrow and how my daily routine sucks sometimes