My 2022 Year review

Contents

1. AI-generated blog post
2. The actual review
3. My favourites of the year –
   1. Quotes
   2. Books
   3. Movies
   4. TV series
   5. Music
   6. Podcasts
   7. Anime
4. Goodreads Year review
5. Top 9 of Instagram
6. Goals of 2022
7. Setting goals for 2023

🤖 ChatGPT-generated blog post

“As we look back on the year 2022, it’s clear that it has been a year full of change and progress.

One of the biggest events of the year was the continued rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which have brought hope and a sense of normalcy to many parts of the world. We’ve also seen significant progress in the fight against climate change, with the launch of new clean energy technologies and the adoption of more sustainable practices.

In the realm of social justice, several key moments stand out. The Me Too movement continued to gain momentum, leading to important conversations about consent and workplace harassment. There were also important discussions about race and inequality, as well as the LGBTQ+ community’s fight for equal rights.

In the world of technology, we saw the continued growth of artificial intelligence and the development of innovations in fields like virtual reality and cybersecurity. The widespread adoption of remote work also opened up new possibilities for how we work and connect.

Overall, it’s been a year of progress and change, and we’re excited to see what the future holds. Here’s to a bright and hopeful future for us all!”

AI has come a long way and easy access to the general public means it’s should be getting rapid adoption. I’m excited about the future!

📈Let’s start with the actual review

So many memorable things happened this year, but here are my top picks –

1. Checked off Dubai(this includes Burj Khalifa, Dubai Mall and many other beautiful architectures) from my bucket list! ✈️
2. Made a trip to Auli & enjoyed the snow!⛷️☃️
3. First time I managed to clock in 52 books in a year! 📚
4. Got a promotion at work!🧑🏻‍💻
5. Moved to a new apartment that has roof access! 🔭✨
6. Got a 1000-day streak on Duolingo! 🎯
7. Sold my iPhone 11 Pro and got a new iPhone 14 Pro! 📱

Apart from these, I am stoked to see the following events that happened this year –

1. Apollo mission kick-off 🚀
2. Nuclear Fusion success ⚛
3. Progress in AI(ChatGPT, Dall-E etc) 🤖
4. The rollout of 5G in India 📶
5. Argentina Winning the Qatar FIFA World Cup! ⚽️

🤩 My favourites of the year

Here, I share my top 3 in each category mentioned below. These could be my favourites or something new that I discovered this year.

💭 Quotes

1. “Best work is that brings peace to you and the world” – Vivekananda
2. “Impressing people is utterly different from being truly impressive.” – Ego is the enemy
3. “Be active! Take on responsibility! Work for the things you believe in. If you do not, you are surrendering your fate to others.” – Wings of Fire

📚 Books

1. ‘Can’t Hurt Me’ by David Goggins
2. ‘Project Hail Mary’ by Andy Weir
3. ‘Meditations’ by Marcus Aurelius

🍿 Movies

1. Avatar 2 – The Way of Water
2. Kashmir Files
3. The Batman

📺 TV series

1. Love Death + Robot
2. Panchayat
3. Rocket Boys

🎧 Music

1. Calm Down by Rema & Selena Gomez
2. Enemy (from Arcane) by Imagine Dragon
3. ABCDEFU by Gayle

🎙️ Podcasts

1. Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal
2. Waveform
3. Huberman Lab

🇯🇵 Anime

1. Demon Slayer – Mugen Train
2. Demon Slayer – Entertainment District Arc
3. One Piece

📖 Goodreads Year review

📸Top 9 of Instagram

My Instagram Handle – @ theclassicbee

👨🏻‍🏫 Key Learnings

1. It’s never too late. Find your passion, make it a top priority and give it everything you got.
2. Nurture your friendships daily.
3. Make yourself a better version of your past self. Compete with yourself, not others.

🎯 Goals of 2022

Time to review last year’s goals [link to my last year’s review] –

1. 😇 Mindfulness – ✅ The target was to meditate daily for at least 10 mins. I tried and did it most days. I used the app Balance. But due to some days of not having a data connection, I missed the meditation. So I stopped using the Balance app and moved back to Insight Timer. And now I am doing it regularly. Glad to have maintained this habit.
2. 🏃🏻‍♂️ Fitness – ❌ The target was to improve my running pace to under 6’ per km and to bring my VO2 max to 40-50. Sadly, I didn’t meet both of these. I didn’t run much these days. Instead, I switched to strength training in the latter part of the year after moving to the new apartment. Hence not much improvement in VO2 max either. My average pace was 6’25” per km and my average VO2 max is 39.34. But I’m sure I’ll be able to improve in this area this year.
3. 🥗 Food – ✅ I tried keeping my meals in check this past year. I have successfully avoided junk food and added additional ‘Daily Greens’ tablets to add all the nutrients and vitamins to my intake.
4. 🧑🏻‍💻 Blogging – ❌ The target was to make at least 20 quality posts. Here again, I missed the mark with only 6 posts(excluding this one). I will have to improve on this and focus more on writing. I have a couple of posts in mind to post in the new year, so stay tuned.
5. 🈂️ Language Learning – ❌ Although I could not complete the course, I made the streak to 1000 days. It was getting overwhelming in my daily life so I stopped learning the course. I dropped this goal in November this year.
6. 📚 Reading – ✅ The target was to read 20 books. This one, I had surpassed even my expectations by reading 52 books! That’s 1 book a week! I’m proud of myself for achieving this. I enjoyed reading so many books.

🎯 Setting goals for 2023

Reviewing the progress I made this year, I realise that my priorities got changed, eg. instead of running, I switched to strength training and dropped Duolingo to learn Japanese.

Also, I am setting these goals keeping in mind that I will be a better person in the long run. These are not necessarily related to my career or my life’s purpose. So for the year 2023, here are my goals-

1. 🏋🏻‍♂️ Fitness – Currently, I weigh about 85kg, which is a lot IMO. I aim to bring it down to 75kg and sustain that. I will be doing a mix of running and strength training and have a healthy diet.
2. 🧑🏻‍💻 Blogging – To be more active in writing, I aim to write 15 quality posts in the year 2023.
3. 📸 Photography – This year hasn’t seen me much active on Instagram as I am put off by the state of the social media app. And that had an impact on my photography as well. I took photos, but barely edited or shared them online. In 2023, I aim to take photos and post them on Instagram, Vero, and Mastodon every week. So, that should be 52 photos(just like I did with the books in 2022 😉) in a year.
4. 😇 Mindfulness – Sustaining & improving on my progress, I aim to keep this habit of daily meditating for at least 15 mins.
5. 📚 Reading – Sustaining this habit, I am setting my target to read 52 books again.

And there we have it! That’s my yearly review! Now time to enjoy the last day and move forward into 2023 with a better vision in mind. I am enjoying my yearly review practice, which keeps me motivated. Lemme know if you guys also set these goals or do you have any other mechanism in place to keep yourself on track.

Hope the new year 2023 brings happiness and prosperity to your lives. Wish you a very Happy New Year, 2023! 🥳🎊

(P.S. – You can find me on Mastodon at theclassicebee@masto.ai and on Twitter at theclassicbee)