Q2 2021 Review
This is my sixth consecutive quarterly review. It's a reflection on my goals for the second quarter of 2021. I plan to conduct these quarterly reviews to track my progress on my ten year plan, which I published at the end of 2019 and suggest you read to get the most out of this article.
I'm posting this publicly as a way to hold myself accountable and so others have a framework to follow if they so choose.
I've been writing these reviews for a year and a half now, and this is the first quarter where I don't think my performance is anything to brag about. My lack of accomplishment during Q2 wasn't unexpected. I started a new job, got married, went on a honeymoon, and moved from Connecticut to North Carolina.
I lacked both the time and the discipline to keep up with the pace of progress I'd made in the preceding quarters. Surprisingly, I'm not upset. I think my acceptance of the outcome is a sign of two things: being more mature and having appropriate expectations.
As I get older, I am (very slowly) improving at enjoying life as it is rather than forcing life to be exactly how I think it should be. In Q2, I wasn't able to exercise as much as I wanted. I didn't publish as many podcasts, articles, or Twitter threads as I would've liked. I spent a lot less time reading than normal. And I spent a lot more money than I usually do. But the decrease in performance wasn't due to laziness or avoidance. It was due to fully enjoying the major life events I was experiencing.
I've been thinking about regret minimization lately. The exercise is simple. When faced with a decision, fast forward to yourself at 80. Looking back on the moment from your advanced age, will you regret the decision you made?
If I had traded time exploring Hawaii with my wife to sit in our hotel room writing, I would definitely regret it. If I'd skipped a night out in our new city with my wife, sister in law, and her husband to stay in and record a podcast, I'd hate myself in 50 years. And if I'd opted for a perfectly programmed workout on the morning of my wedding rather than an impromptu run through the woods with my wife, father in law, and best friend, I'd be ashamed of that decision in my later life.
So I'm learning that accepting life as it is sometimes means accomplishing less but living more. And if you can strike a good balance between grinding ahead and living for the moment, you'll look back on your life with pride and fulfillment rather than sorrow and regret.
The second piece I mentioned was having appropriate expectations. Satisfaction in many areas of life boils down to one simple question: did the experience exceed your expectations?
Luckily, with a little practice, you can consistently ensure your experiences are better than your expectations.
It's easy to build up an event in your mind, especially something like a wedding or a vacation. You can conjure grand expectations of what you hope your experience will be. You can brainstorm every detail and envision exactly what the "perfect" day looks like. The trouble with doing this is that life isn't perfect. Certain parts won't go according to plan. And if the plan you formed in your mind is your measuring stick for a perfect day, you're bound to be disappointed.
Here's an example. When my wife and I arrived at our wedding reception, we realized the DJ had set up on the wrong end of the building. I honestly hadn't put much thought into where he should be, so this minor detail didn't phase me. A couple of our friends told us later that they loved how the dance floor was next to the yard games—a nice bonus of one detail not going according to plan.
You can't totally check out, never plan anything, and have no expectations for your life. But I've found if you take care of the basics, plan what you need to plan, then focus on the present and enjoy the event when it arrives, your experience almost always exceeds your expectations. This is the entire reason I stopped looking at pictures of places before I visit them. Almost every day in Hawaii, I was overcome with excitement about some cool new thing we saw. Because I had no expectations, I fully enjoyed every moment and never compared it to what I thought it should be.
Tying this back to my Q2 performance, going into the quarter, I had low expectations for what I would accomplish. At the end of the quarter, my performance was lagging behind other quarters, but it actually wasn't bad compared to what I was expecting.
All this to say, Q2 2021 wasn't a standout quarter in terms of accomplishing goals. But it was an awesome quarter for living, and I wouldn't trade it for anything.
Complete Successes:
These are the goals I nailed.
One investment program analysis
Much like the last quarter, my investment activity was minimal. Remaining consistent, I continued to dollar cost average into VTSAX and VEMAX every two weeks.
After re-evaluating my cash position, I decided to put a little more money into investments. I added to two existing positions this quarter: PINS and LMND. I grabbed PINS when it was down a little bit ($67.27) and LMND when it was down a lot ($63.35). I also started a new position in NNI which seems to have long term potential.
I'm still holding all 26 small cap stocks I mentioned in previous quarterly reviews. I purchased equal dollar amounts of all 26 companies in May and November of 2020, and I made the third and final purchase in May of 2021. Now the plan is to hold for at least four more years and see what happens. As of this writing, the "fund" is up about 58% since inception, which is mind boggling for a one year return. In the previous three quarters, it was up 64%, 61%, and 37%, respectively.
I also added a little cryptocurrency this quarter. Taking advantage of some dips, I added another ETH and about 30 SOL. Based on what I've read about SOL, it seems like a complement to ETH with a lot of potential. If you want to learn more about SOL, I recommend checking out this piece from Packy McCormick, along with this thread and this thread.
Send 13 newsletters
This one is pretty straight forward. I sent 13 issues of The Lake Street Journal - one each week. This has become an engrained habit - one I enjoy very much.
I was slightly disappointed with the quality of my newsletters this quarter because I had less time to spend on them. But often consistency is more important than quality. I'm proud I didn't break the chain, and I'm excited to crank up the quality bar again in Q3.
Add one interesting person to my contacts (who I speak with 1-2 times per month)
I added one interesting person to my contacts again this quarter. These connections have come almost exclusively from Twitter, which I think is pretty cool.
Of the eight people I added to my contacts as part of this goal over the last five quarters, I met seven of them on Twitter. I've stayed in regular contact with five of them.
These relationships have been super enjoyable and beneficial for both sides. I've given and received advice. I helped one person get a job, and one person helped me work through the decision to take my new job. Most importantly, I've enjoyed the friendships with the people I've met and kept up with.
Twitter can be a very positive place if you use it correctly. I'm working on an article about how to make friends on Twitter. Let me know if you have any thoughts.
One workout program analysis
My exercise approach remained consistent with prior quarters, although I wasn't able to exercise as often during Q2.
I'm still doing three days of weight training per week—one push day, one pull day, and one leg day. I'm also running a couple days and/or playing basketball. After moving earlier in June, I joined a gym with regular pick-up basketball games. I'm excited to be able to play again on a regular basis.
I anticipate my workout routine will remain fairly consistent for the foreseeable future. What I'm doing is working, so I don't see any reason to change it.
Partial Successes:
These are the goals I didn't quite nail but I didn't strike out on either.
Publish six podcasts
I began the quarter hoping to publish six podcasts, but I knew it would be unlikely. I was busy with big life events and only made time to publish four podcasts. All things considered, I'm not upset about my performance here.
I published episodes with:
I have some episodes on the calendar, and I plan to get back to my regular cadence of 2 per month in Q3.
Publish six essays
My performance here was weak. I published two essays:
I guess this was a quarter of equations.
I spent a lot less time reading, which meant I had fewer ideas. And then I spent a lot less time sitting behind the keyboard. Basically, I just didn't put in the work necessary to hit my goal. Q3 will be a different story. Now that life has settled down, I'll have a lot more time for creation.
Journal at least twice per week
I'm conflicted on this one.
I only wrote 18 entries, so I didn't journal twice per week. But the entries I wrote were massive. Those 18 entries consisted of 12,050 words—more than last quarter by almost 3,000.
The reason my goal is to journal twice per week is so I'm consistently chronicling my life. This way, I'll capture most of the important things and won't have week or month long gaps. So did I miss my goal for the month? Yes I did.
But I'm not totally unhappy with my performance. My longest journal entries were about my wedding and honeymoon, both of which I documented in great detail. This time spent writing will be a wonderful gift to my future self, and possibly even my kids and grandkids.
In Q3, I plan to get back on the regular schedule.
ROMWOD every day
ROMWOD is a daily stretching routine with video instruction. I highly recommend it.
I'm very disappointed in my stretching performance in Q2. This is a simple 20 minute routine every day, and I don't have much excuse for why I missed so many.
I can't even tell you have many I missed because I stopped keeping track. If I had to guess, I'd say I stretched on half the days during the quarter. For reference, that's more days than I had missed in the entire preceding year. I only missed two days in Q1 2021.
I keep repeating myself throughout this review, but Q3 will see an uptick in stretching from Q2—back to my normal routine.
Failures:
These are the goals I didn't accomplish. They serve as good lessons and points of reflection.
Add 200 newsletter subscribers
Holy cow I whiffed on this one!
I ended Q1 with 607 total subscribers—a whopping 17 more than I had at the beginning of the quarter. This represented a 3% quarterly growth rate, down from 29% each of the last two quarters.
Although this was a failure, it's a super valuable lesson. In the last two quarters, I published consistently every week. Like clockwork, every Friday, I published either a podcast or an article. Some weeks I published more than once. I was also more active on Twitter the previous two quarters than I was during Q2.
You only get to enjoy the rewards when you put in the work. I don't think there are any secrets to growth. You can employ different strategies, but they all have a major prerequisite: you have to publish consistent, high quality content. You need to put in the reps.
I plan on getting back to work in Q3. We'll see if my numbers reflect it.
One afternoon volunteering
With my move to North Carolina came the end of my Big Brother volunteering match. I haven't picked up anything new, and I honestly don't have any plans to start.
Spending my time halfheartedly doing something I don't enjoy isn't beneficial to anyone. My time is better spent fully focused in the areas where I want to grow. As I wrote in my original ten year plan, if I focus my efforts on building my wealth, I can more effectively help others through monetary gifts in the not so distant future.
Conclusions:
As I've said before, writing these reviews is one of my favorite things to do during the quarter. This one was no exception, but it was different in one regard—it was humbling.
I didn't make the strides I would've liked. I didn't keep pace with my prior progress. But I didn't slide backwards. I kept chipping away at everything I wanted to do, and I didn't move in the wrong direction.
Everyone experiences plateaus in their performance. We all have busy seasons when accomplishment takes a back seat to living. This is normal and expected. But if during those times we can prevent regression, we'll be better positioned to resume our progress when life calms down.
When life is busy and we fall short of expectations, reflection can be uncomfortable. But I suggest leaning in to the discomfort because reflecting on your shortcomings is an immeasurably valuable exercise. Until I put it in writing in this review, I didn't realize the perfect correlation between consistent weekly publishing and consistent subscriber growth. I understood what was happening at a high level, but getting down in the weeds and writing everything out helped me understand exactly how closely the two are connected.
I published at least one piece of content every week in Q4 2020 and Q1 2021. My subscriber growth rate was 29% in each of those quarters. Consistent input, consistent output. In Q2, I published less than every other week, and my subscriber growth rate was 3%. Inconsistent input, disappointing output.
This brings to mind my recent interest in input metrics. Input metrics are actions within your control. They contribute to larger outcomes that are not entirely within your control called output metrics. For example, number of email list subscribers is an output metric. I can generally control whether that number goes up or down, but I can't control the specific amount of the fluctuation. Number of articles and podcasts published is an input metric. It's directly within my control, and, as I learned here, is largely responsible for the output metric of subscribers.
It's valuable to have goals that are both input and output metrics, but the majority of your focus should be on the input metrics. Identify the output metric you want to change. Then identify the input metric you think will change it. Focus your energy on hitting your input metric, and watch to see if your output metric changes. If it does, you've got the right input metric and can push harder. If it doesn't, readjust your input metric and try again.
The important thing is to work on something you can directly control in service of affecting something slightly outside your control. This exercise is a combination of fun, frustration, challenge, and reward.
I hope this was as helpful to you as it was to me. I'll see you back here next quarter. Thanks for reading.
Q3 2021 Goals:
One workout program analysis.
Complete 36 abdominal workouts. I always neglect my abs at the gym even though I know how important core strength is for preventing injuries and being an effective athlete. In Q3, I want to build a habit of doing three ab workouts per week, which I’m defining as at least three sets of at least four movements.
One investment program analysis.
Send 13 newsletters.
Publish six articles.
Publish six podcasts.
ROMWOD and/or The Ready State every day.
Journal at least twice per week.
Add one interesting person to my contacts who I speak with at least 1-2 times per month.
Add 200 newsletter subscribers.
