Well, 2022 is here.
I’m not sure if it’s just me, but the last working day of 2021 feels like an awfully long time ago.
Something seems to happen to my brain over the Christmas and New Year period.
Returning to work feels a little like starting back at school in September, after a two month long summer holiday.
You’ve kind of forgotten how to write. It takes a couple of days to get back into it.
Of course in the residential property market, it can take a couple of months to get back into it. January and February are not historically months with high transaction numbers.
Rather, it’s normally the advent of Spring which marks the start of the buying and selling season.
But if the last two years have taught us anything, it’s that change is here to stay. So I’m busy preparing myself for a busy and productive first quarter, regardless of what the market might think.
Looking back, few predicted that the onset of a global pandemic would be the catalyst for the most active housing market in over a decade. Or how ready we actually were for remote work. From a technological point of view at least.
And yet, here we are, through the looking glass.
Amongst all this uncertainty, there is one thing which has seemingly remained constant. People’s resolve to do things differently at the start of a new year.
It somewhat rekindles my faith in the human spirit. Because irrespective of how long they last, the intention behind all resolutions is the same, improvement.
So with that in mind, I thought I’d share some resources which have been helpful to me.
Starting a business is without doubt the most challenging thing I’ve ever done. I sometimes have to remind myself that I willingly traded certainty for autonomy, and that’s not meant to be an easy choice. But it has been a worthwhile one.
In sharing these recommendations, I appreciate that we’re all individuals with different aspirations and interests.
Nevertheless, I hope you find some of it useful.
In the meantime, wishing you happiness, health and wealth for 2022.
One of my goals for 2021 was to read twelve books. I managed eleven and a half. The half was Atomic Habits by James Clear, which I’ve now nearly finished.
I also subscribe to his short weekly newsletter, which you can find here.
“It is so easy to overestimate the importance of one defining moment and underestimate the value of making small improvements on a daily basis. Too often, we convince ourselves that massive success requires massive action.
Whether it is losing weight, building a business, writing a book, winning a championship, or achieving any other goal, we put pressure on ourselves to make some earth shattering improvement that everyone will talk about.
Success is the product of daily habits - not once in a lifetime transformations”
Improve your content diet in the New Year by Polina Pompliano.
January is a time where some people (me) are focusing on the food they consume, wondering how they managed to wipe out all the progress that they’d made in 2021 in ten short, cheese-filled, days.
But few of us stop to think about the number of hours of celebrity news, social media feeds and junk TV we’re consuming.
“One of the biggest discoveries I've made in the last few years is simple but overlooked: What you eat is who you are, and what you read is who you become.
While most of us are willing to invest in our health, we often neglect our "content diet," which refers to the type of information we choose to feed our brains on a daily basis”
In late November I deleted the Instagram app from my phone.
Apple News and LinkedIn both took a Christmas holiday. The former has extended its stay, the latter is back.
Instead of Apple News, I’ve downloaded Pocket, where I can curate and save the news articles that I want to read. They also have an audio playback feature, if you prefer to listen.
Cosmic Insignificance Therapy is the penultimate chapter in Oliver Burkeman’s new book.
It was introduced to me by a friend, who suggested that I start with this audio excerpt, via the Tim Ferriss Podcast.
It’s only 20 minutes long, and one of the most interesting things I’ve listened to in ages. I cannot recommend it enough.
“From this new perspective, it becomes possible to see that preparing nutritious meals for your children might matter as much as anything could ever matter, even if you won’t be winning any cooking awards.
Or that your novel is worth writing if it moves or entertains a handful of your contemporaries, even though you know you’re no Tolstoy.
Or that virtually any career might be a worthwhile way to spend a working life if it makes things slightly better for those it serves”
Warren Buffett is 91 years old. His business partner, Charlie Munger is 98. The former is the Chairman and CEO, and the latter the Vice Chairman of a publicly listed company worth nearly $700 billion.
Bearing in mind that the average age of an S&P 500 CEO is 58, these two have fared pretty well.
Here’s a couple of quotes from Charlie.
“Like Warren, I had a considerable passion to get rich, not because I wanted Ferraris – I wanted independence. I desperately wanted it.”
"Three rules for a career:
1. Don't sell anything you wouldn't buy yourself
2. Don't work for anyone you don't respect and admire
3. Work only with people you enjoy."
Peace, love and property
Simon
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