This year I spent most of my time with my family. I did many new things for my personal growth like starting this blog and a weekly newsletter. And there were some scary moments. In early December, all of us in our family tested positive for Covid. Luckily, all of us recovered within a few days. It has been an up and down year for me in 2020. This is my personal review of the year and what to look forward to in the new year 2021
Highlights from 2020
Family: I started homeschooling my son this year.
“What we learn with pleasure we never forget.”
– Alfred Mercier
It was a bold decision. No one I know has ever homeschooled their children. So I didn’t know what to expect. After homeschooling my son for a few months, I say, this is the best decision I made this year. Homeschooling has absorbed some of my personal and work time. Here are a few things I learnt about homeschooling.
- Until 10, kids learn to read. After 10 they read to learn. Reading out loud to kids is the best education you can give your kids. Even after kids can read for themselves, we should continue to read. The most important part of my day is reading out loud. Even if nothing else goes well, I consider the day a win if I read a book to my son.
- Learning can be fun. We as a family play a lot of games. I teach my son few lessons along the way. Even though I have to stick to the state guidelines for curriculum, I get to choose when I want to expose/teach my kids and how I want to teach.
- Kids do not have to wake up at 6 and hurry to school without breakfast. With homeschooling, my son gets plenty of playtime, proper nutrition, and enough sleep.
- When we started, one of my big concerns was my time. I didn’t know how much of my time will go into homeschooling. Since I started working from home, my personal and work time has taken a dip. I started spending more time with kids. After a few months now, I can say, you do not need to spend a lot of time. I spend a few hours daily with my son to read and teach. And he does his independent reading and other activities for a few more hours and we are done.
What’s for 2021 – Since discovering that reading out loud is the most important part of homeschooling, I have read to my son almost every day. I will continue to do the same in 2021. I am planning to share what I read in this blog so others can discover good books to read to their kids.
Health: I exercised almost 350 Days this year.
After reading Atomic Habits in late 2019, I started a workout routine. I started small with just pushups and only 10 reps. In early 2020, I had a good routine of 5 exercises with 50 reps each. I continued the routine this year and I very rarely missed to workout in the morning. Here is my current routine if you are curious
- Stretch
- 250 Jump Ropes
- 50 Pushups
- 50 Situps
- 50 Swings(40lbs Kettlebell)
- 50 Shoulder Press(50lbs Kettlebell)
- 50 Squats(50lbs Kettlebell)
What’s for 2021: I want to repeat this in 2021. I want to exercise for at least 350 days. And I want to improve my weight on each of these exercises. I also want to incorporate a daily meditation practice as well.
Personal Growth: Started this blog and Being Less Stupid Newsletter.
I have never written anything other than emails since college. So I challenged myself to write in public and this blog was the result of that. This will be my 26th post.
In June, I started sending a weekly newsletter called Being Less Stupid. I share the posts I publish in my blog and curated interesting articles I read during the week. I have sent 22 weeks without a miss.
Was my writing good? No. Did I reach a lot of people? Defiantly not. When we start something new, first we need to get all the bad ideas out before good ideas emerge. Julian Shapiro calls this The Creativity Faucet
At the beginning, you must write out every bad idea that reflexively come to mind. Instead of being self-critical and resisting these bad ideas, you must openly accept them. Once the bad ideas are emptied, strong ideas being to emerge.
What’s for 2021: I will continue to write. I want to focus my writing on Parenting, Programming, Personal Growth, and Investing. And I want to share more of what I read in my Being Less Stupid newsletter.
Work: Completed one Project and did not even start the other.
I had two projects identified for 2020. One was to rewrite the product we have at work in a new manageable architecture. We completed this successfully and it has been a huge success. The other project was a side project I wanted to develop to improve staff productivity. I did not even start the work on this.
What’s for 2021: Develop the Neotrack application and make it available for staff to manage their work. And I am a full stack developer. I want to ship a side project this year.
Finance: XPEL had been 23 bagger
The investment I made in $XPEL back in 2014 has become a big winner for me this year. What a ride it has been over the six years. When 3M filed the lawsuit in 2016, I was sitting on a 75% loss. But I did not sell because of the trust I had in the management. After 6 years, it has returned 2500% from my lowest price, 1800% from my average price. I still hold every one of the shares I bought.
“Time is the friend of the wonderful company, the enemy of the mediocre.”
– Warren Buffett
From my experience, psychology plays more role in investing that intelligence. I was not smart, but I had the patience. I waited for more than six years.
“Opportunities come infrequently. When it rains gold, put out the bucket, not the thimble.”
– Warren Buffett
Another important skill is allocation. When you see an opportunity, you should load up your truck. That is exactly what I did with XPEL.
This event did not change my life a bit. But it gives me the freedom to do things otherwise I may not be able to pursue.
What’s for 2021: I will continue to invest in good companies. To do that, I should spend more time reading 10Ks and 10Qs. I am planning to share my research and lessons on my blog.
COVID Scare
In early December, all of us in my house tested positive for COVID. It was a stressful few days with the kids. But we all recovered and got through it in a few days. We were careful like you. We wear masks all the time and avoid going out when not needed. But we met friends during the Thanks Giving weekend and that could be the source. Anyways, we are happy to come out of it quickly.
Looking Forward – The Year Of Sharing
My theme for this year is ‘Sharing’. I have always been reluctant to share in public even after creating a blog and newsletter.
Next year, I want to share more and connect with more people with my writing and making. I did not care to promote my posts on Twitter. I did not grow my newsletter other than sharing it with my friends. I do not participate in conversations in online communities. I want to change that this year.
My Focus for 2021
- Improve the Quality and Quantity of the Content I Create – I want to create more meaningful and quality content. This means, sharing the notes I capture while reading, recording videos of the book I read to my son, and writing essays about parenting, programming, personal growth, and Investing.
- Participate in Community Conversations – I want to participate in the conversation happing in the online communities. I want to promote my work on Twitter, online communities, and sites like Indie Hacker and Hacker News.
- Ship a Product – I am a full stack developer. I want to use the skill and make some side projects. I want to learn in public. I have few ideas and I want to ship at least a product out this year.
More than anything, I hope to connect with you in meaningful ways next year.