What 2016 Taught Me

They say compare yourself to your past self, not others. Cool. But 2016 set a bar I’m still chasing. The year of beast mode.

That year taught me our nervous system and capacity can expand far beyond what we think, when we’re aligned with purpose.

2016 was a quiet rebellion.

The world was pulling people apart. Shortening attention. Shrinking creativity. Numbing curiosity. So I chose the opposite: bring people together, read more, write more, create more, and protect what actually mattered.

Looking back I’ve been building community and bringing people together for over a decade. WOW!

The themes: Community. Habits. Family.

Personal Development Nerds (PDN): What if we gathered people committed to all the inner work? Not just a running club or book club, but running AND reading AND writing AND growth; together, with the same people. What started as small meetups became 2,000+ members and some of my closest friendships.

Burning Man: My first year. I’ve gone every year since. It pulled me out of a depression I didn’t know how to name and showed me what humans can build together in chaos.

Career: Left fintech to decompress and rediscover my why instead of optimizing for someone else’s definition of success.

Writing: Found The Artist’s Way. Wrote 750 words every single day. By December, I had two books worth of words.

Reading: 65 books. The most I’ve ever read. Proof that ADHD wasn’t the ceiling I thought it was.

Fitness: Joined the 1,000-lb club combined on bench, squat, deadlifts.

Dinner Series: One private dinner a month introducing my people to each other.

Speaking: Started talking publicly about inner engineering and quantified self.

Family: Took my youngest brother on a field trip every month. All in all, stepped up for my family when they needed me most.

2016 taught me the power of self-love, consistency, and that people need people.

A decade later, I am filled with immense gratitude, joy, memories, and hope for the future. I’ve come out with a number of decade plus friendships, so many learnings, a lot more courage and agency. Cheers to the next 10 years.