2021 Year End Review For PTM
2021 Highlights
This has been a pretty epic year for me and for Path To Manliness.
I ran a marathon last month. This was my first marathon and it is one amazing sense of accomplishment. A year prior I ran my first ultra marathon and had to quit at mile 25. This was on a mountain, in the freezing cold and rain, and I was coming off a sickness that made me lose 11 pounds in 10 days.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but this failure had been haunting me. I wanted to run a marathon and that one extra mile was nagging at me all year.
So when I drove my Jeep down to Chattanooga that November morning and saw 29 degrees, I wasn’t deterred. I saw it as a challenge. Running down the hilly streets with all the other highly motivated (and slightly insane) marathoners, I was in my element.
By mile 25 I was nearly delirious, my knee ached, my legs could barely hold me up and every step was met with pain and struggle. But failure was not an option. The pain of not finishing a marathon was much worse than the physical pain of pounding the pavement 52,400 times.
I heard the announcer say my name as I approached the finish line. A police officer applauded and high fived me, and every other runner. The crowd cheered and clapped in support. It’s a moment that I’ll never forget.
Every time I look at that Chattanooga Marathon medal, I’m reminded of what’s possible.
Every time I see that 26.2 sticker on my Jeep, I’m motivated to keep training.
Every time I think about quitting, I remember that less than 1% of people ever finish a marathon.
Most people never get to see the full potential. Most people quit too soon. You can do so much more than you realize…. if you don’t quit.
"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self."
- Ernest Hemingway
This article is three parts. The first section is a reflection on my goals for 2021. The second section is a look at my goals for 2022. And finally we have a collection of interesting thoughts and ideas that I’ve read throughout the year.
Reflecting on Goals
This year I set some wildly aggressive goals. The thought process behind this was to push myself to extreme levels. And to knowingly set some goals up to fail. Which I did. Ultimately, it was a successful approach for me because I went into it understanding how this would end.
The most important one for me was running the Marathon. This led me to double the amount of running days compared to the year prior. I also ran 378 miles in 2021 compared to 198 in 2020. This was a massive success that led to a more active lifestyle and contributed to me being in the best shape of my life.
I set a PR of bench pressing 250 pounds this year. Not many people run a marathon while hitting a PR in the weight room. And this isn’t my true PR as I don’t have much interest in chasing down 1 rep max’s. But it’s good to see I’m not sacrificing strength to run farther.
Gain 75,000 Twitter Followers. Right now, I’m sitting at over 90,000 so this was a massive success. Shows how growth can be exponential when done right. If you’re ready to make money off your tweets, then grab my Tweet For Cash guide here.
Gain 25,000 Instagram Followers. I’ve definitely unlocked the key to a successful formula on Instagram. I’m up over 55,000 right now and my engagement is through the roof. Surprisingly, Instagram has been more profitable than Twitter despite having a smaller audience. Instagram shoutouts alone have made it worth my time. (DM me for current rates) As a content creator, I’ve gained a lot of appreciation for Instagram this year.
Failed goals. I didn’t get 2,500 YouTube subscribers as I didn’t spend enough time with it. Instagram was working so well, I focused more on that and on my personal training.
I set a goal to run 676 miles or 13 miles per week. This was wildly ambitious and I didn’t expect to reach it, but I still ran for more miles in a year than I ever have before. This doesn’t feel like a failure at all.
I had a few other goals that I didn’t quite reach, but overall I had a great year. It’s important to push yourself, but it’s healthy to leave room for adjustments and pivots to more fruitful endeavors.
Goals for 2022
150,000 Twitter Followers. This is a lot but it’s within reach. I love Twitter as it allows me to connect with interesting people. So I’ll continue to focus on what works and likely experiment with new ideas.
Bench Press 300 pounds. This is to inspire me to keep pushing it at the gym and to keep showing up. Its also important that I balance my weight training with my running. Which leads to my next goal…
Run 500 miles and a 50K. Last year I ran a marathon so now it’s time for an ultra marathon. It’s not an obsession if it’s healthy right? Running the 500 miles will help me focus on a lifestyle that makes me into an ultra-marathon runner. I also have smaller running goals like run a 6 minute mile and run a Spartan Sprint in under 1 hour.
YouTube…. I want to focus on creating more content on YouTube. I have some great ideas, but no specific goal. I’ll consider it a win if I see consistent growth and consistent content publishing. I also want to make it enjoyable, so I will stick with it.
Interesting Pieces I Read in 2021
This year, I’ve kept a running list of the most interesting insights and ideas I read. And I did this specifically for this article. Below are my favorite reads from 2021. Click the titles for the source article.
Beer Mode and Coffee Mode by David Perell
" Our best ideas rarely come alive in busyness. They spring to life in calm and aimless contemplation. In beer mode, you find inspiration. And in coffee mode, you harvest that inspiration. If you only spend time in coffee mode, you’ll shut yourself off to transformative ideas because the fruits of genius are sown with the seeds of beer mode wanderings."
The Ultimate Guide to Writing Online by David Perell
Write Evergreen Content
Publish Quality Ideas
Be Specific
Listen to Feedback
Re-Package Your Existing Work
“You’ve already spent 10,000 hours working on the craft you know about. And you’ve already probably spent 100 concentrated hours consuming, reading, and listening to podcasts that you can recall in your short-term memory about the topic to even consider writing. The truth is the 10 hours it takes to write something is already dwarfed by this sunk cost. If you don’t write, you are effectively stopping at the easier ask. It’s important you emphasize to yourself that you don’t need to relive the experiences it took for you to become a subject expert in order to share them.”
-Steve Cheney
A Transparent Look at a Writing Schedule That Produced 30M Views, as Inspiration for Your Own by Tim Denning
"Social media posts seem to flow in both directions. Some social media posts inspire blog posts, and other times a blog post inspires a social media post. Either way, the art of social media posts is highly beneficial for the writing process."
Creating Impact When You're Overwhelmed by Zen Habits
Why You Should Stop Drinking Beer: A Potent Estrogenic Substance by Herculean Strength
Snowbanks North of the House
Those great sweeps of snow that stop suddenly sixfeet from the house ...Thoughts that go so far. The boy gets out of high school and reads no more books; the son stops calling home. The mother puts down her rolling pin and makes no more bread. And the wife looks at her husband one night at a party, and loves him no more. The energy leaves the wine, and the minister falls leaving the church. It will not come closer the one inside moves back, and the hands touch nothing, and are safe.
The father grieves for his son, and will not leave the room where the coffin stands. He turns away from his wife, and she sleeps alone.
And the sea lifts and falls all night, the moon goes on through the unattached heavens alone.
The toe of the shoe pivots in the dust ...And the man in the black coat turns, and goes back down the hill. No one knows why he came, or why he turned away,and did not climb the hill.
Robert Bly. 1981. The Man in the Black Coat Turns.
Seven Unconventional Ways to Write a Newsletter that Makes Money
Newsletters have become boring.
Social media and writers eventually ruin everything. I’m on a mission to go deep into the dark caves of newsletters and see if there is another way. I want to help writers rethink everything we thought about traditional writing so we can find a different way to stand out from the crowd and reach a tiny audience we’re proud of.
Before we get started — a newsletter is simply a blog post you get via email, so let’s not get fancy or overthink it. Here is what my newsletter research has led me to. Steal a few ideas for yourself.
So You Want to Be a Writer? Don't Try. Exploring Bukowski's Immortal Philosophy
Do we have too many people in the game for the wrong reasons? I think it's easy to get it stuck in our minds that we create in order to gain something, to try to get somewhere, to get to some "next level."
50 Things I've Learned Publishing on Medium for 5 Years
My best posts were written in a matter of hours, not days. When you write fast, it’s a clue you’re onto something.
Are You Writing for an Audience or Authenticity?
“The audience is irrelevant. The work itself is the gift, not the praise for it. Understand that, and you’ll understand true mastery.”
Indulgence Goals by Deeper Thrill
What am I doing this current hour?
What does my life ideally look like 10 years from now?
What's next, in a year from today, to have that life?
How does my activity for the next hour get closer to one piece of that one-year-out life?
Write Down 10 Ideas Per Day and It Can Rewire Your Brain
When you don’t use your idea muscle it gets weaker
This Simple Blog Post Structure Lets You Draft a Blog Post in 15 Minutes
You’ll have a much better idea of what your blog post is really about once you’ve given it a structure and filled out the details. Leave the title workshopping till the last moment. This is just to get the ball rolling.
At its core, what is your idea about? The draft title can be something as simple as “My thoughts on X, Y, and Z.” If you saw an inspiring quote, that can be your draft title. The only purpose of the draft title in your blog post structure is to remind yourself why you’re writing. What inspired you, and what is your article generally about?
I Learned an Entirely Different Way of Reading Books (That Doubled the Number I Read)
Read for a minuscule amount of time per day to start, like five minutes.
Repeat the reading habit for a week.
Up your reading time to ten minutes.
Repeat for another week.
Keep increasing your reading time slightly each week.
You’ll soon be reading multiple hours per day like it’s nothing.
10 Health and Performance Benefits of Creatine
Dear Men, Please Stop Drinking Beer. It’s Making You Effeminate and Infertile
Read this one ironically. I’m Pro Broetry:
Why You Should Avoid the Broetry Writing Trend
“Writing experts like Gary Provost disagree. Broetry typically uses paragraphs of the same length – one sentence”
When done in moderation, “Broetry” is awesome, easier to read and gets better engagement.
America, Where is Atlantis - Yeetum (Yeetus?)
"Now wearing a mask is a manipulated symbol of community health by a globally incentived system exfiltrating capital, instead of discussing the poisonous materials within our system such as high fructose corn syrup, sodium chloride, fentanyl, and fluoride."
Brutal Honesty on The Porch by Little Apostate
This might be the most real piece of writing that I’ve read all year. It’s extremely relatable and prescient.
“I like to sit on my pod balcony and pretend it’s a porch surrounded by land. Sometimes I’ll bring a cold beer or a chilled glass of sauvignon blanc, but I always bring a cigarette. My lips close around it and I light it and inhale chemicals I know are bad, before closing my eyes tight enough to start creating those little stars that shine when there’s pressure on your eyeballs. Everything is black except for those dancing stars, and I’m transported far from the place I’ve spent my entire life working to be.”
Closing Thoughts on the Year 2021
I’m not going to be all cliche about how horrible this year was and make tired jokes about how the govt screwed us over. I’m not going to lean in to the masses’ whinings about how hard this year was because it simply wasn’t. And if you think 2021 was that hard, you’re probably just using it as an excuse to validate your inaction and your fears of living like a normie.
2022 is a new year and it’s not likely to be much easier. So you’ve got a choice. Either you complain about how scary the world is right now and keep repeating whatever Greek Variant we are currently on like all the other lemmings and office drones or you can say no more. Instead of living a life of fear and inaction, you make things happen. You set yourself some goals, focus on creating systems that build towards those goals and make damn sure that 2022 is going to be the best year of your life.
The simple truth is that most people are happy to be locked in their homes. They want to watch Netflix, scroll on their iPhones and play video games. It’s easier. It’s fun. But it’s not a fulfilling life.
There’s always an excuse if you look hard enough. But if you want to be successful, you have to work through adversity. These lockdowns are not stopping everyone. In fact, people are thriving through all of this. But you have to have the right mindset. You have to be self-motivated. And you have to find new ways to be productive, happy and successful.
The world is changing. It’s always changing, but right now it’s changing much faster than normal. And if you’re not willing to change yourself, you’re going to be left behind.
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When I think of the most interesting people I know, it’s not the hyper-specialized experts in one field. It’s the people who find a unique juxtaposition of different walks of life. I’m drawn to those who can be both physically fit and intelligent enough to write. Two skills that are not that common alone but uniquely rare when found in the same person.