2015: Married my kickass wife on an island. Watched said wife become a doctor. Acquired badass adventure dog and house. Remodeled said house & trained said dog without losing a limb. Honeymooned in asia, got crazy massages. Ate my weight in bahn mi, drank my share(s) of 25 cent beers. Traveled the Erie Canal, RV’d around Michigan. Surfed in Costa Rica, Ice-fished in Maine. Hiked the AT and throughout AZ. Found a bar nearby that allows dogs, a local sushi place that is BYOB. Gained new friends, made wife dinner.

All in all, 2015 was once for the books, especially in the travel/life categories. Fitness & business suffered a bit, but I’d say every few years it is good  practice to gain a few memories for a couple extra pounds added and a few dollars lost.

Life: 4.5/6

• Get Married, Move: Check. We managed to host a couple weddings, get a dog, find a home, and manage to find time to remodel the bulk of it.
• Shed Crap: Check(ish), moving a few times forces you to get rid of most unneeded crap, but I’ve been able to re-accumulate plenty of unneeded stuff since we’ve become homeowners.
• Read 12 Non-Fiction Books: Check. Dead Wake, Island of the Lost, One Summer, Gumption, Thunderstruck, Paddle Your Own Canoe, Small Giants, Do Over, Life on Foot, Dancing in the Glory of Monsters, This Will Never Happen Again.
• Volunteer Once Per Month: Check. Between working with Big Brothers Big Sisters, IM Able Foundation, and Trust for Life this was easier to hit than in years past.
• Start the Lake House: Fail.
• Organize, Formalize:  Half fail. We managed to knock out all the marriage related logistics pretty quick, but I’m still mid-process of consolidating bank accounts and etc.

Business: 2/5

• Formalize Growth Plans: Fail.
• Blog once per month: Fail.
• Attend 2 Non-client conferences: Fail.
• Get out of the way: Check. I was able to step away for 3 full weeks in a row, and the sky did not fall down.
• Fully Fund Retirement: Check. Profit-wise, we grew this year despite all the upheaval life wise. I consider that a win.

Health, Fitness, Wellness: 1/4

• Complete Multi-day Adventure Race: Fail.
• Bike Around Seneca Lake: Fail. But I did manage to swim across it again, so +.5
  
• Spend one day a week disconnected: Half Fail, between all the travel I was disconnected more than ever, but not as consistently as I’d of liked.
• Meditate 3x Per Week: Hard Fail.

Travel: 4/5

• Nab States 49 & 50: Half Check. Alaska yes, Hawaii no.
• Spend 20 Days Overseas: Check+ 33.  7 in Honduras, 20 in Vietnam, 6 in Costa Rica.
• 1 New Continent: Check. Heyo Asia.
• 1 Backpacking/Camping Trip Per Quarter: Half Check.
• 1 Motorcycle Trip – Check. Heyo Hoi An & Phu Quoc.

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About my annual review: For the last 5 or so years, I’ve tried to look back at the year before and see how it stacks up, while also setting goals for the year to come. I find the exercise invaluable as a mechanism to be inspired to do more cool stuff. The Life, Fitness, Business, Travel categories work best for me, but if you’d like to do your own I recommend checking out my buddy Chris’s template to get started.