Personal Goals For 2020

New Year, Same You

I set my goals every year at the end of November and do a year end review at new year. I usually keep them private, but this year I decided to share on my blog. All goals fall under one of the top 3 focus areas of life: money, health, and interests. I use a following structure to lay out the steps to accomplish my goals.

1. Goal

All goals are written in the form of self-talk. Interrogative self-talk focuses on questions instead of statements. Asking ourselves a question “Will I” as opposed to saying to ourselves “I will” increases intrinsic motivation for action, resulting in goal-directed behavior.

2. Action Plan

Goals and dreams are different. When the goal-setting is done correctly, we should be able to break down our goals into an action plan. This helps us reach our goals efficiently and successfully.

3. Failure Scenarios

Failure is inevitable. We all have failed to achieve our goals at some point in our lives. We get lazy, have setbacks, or simply fail. I try to come up with 3 failure scenarios and mitigation strategies for each goal to anticipate and prepare for failure in advance.

4. Progress Tracking

The top motivating factor that drives our productivity is a sense of progress. It is important to set measurable goals and track our progress, which improves our self-discipline and self-control.

5. Plan B (Optional)

Goals should be flexible and adjustable to adapt new challenges. Consider what our worst-case scenario could be and forget about perfection. Perfectionism interferes with success. We need to overcome the habit of perfectionism and increase self-compassion. There is absolutely nothing great about being perfect.

Money

Will I utilize my morning time more productively?
  • Action Plan: My new morning routine consists of doing 3 things in 150 minutes.
    • Check news headlines using an RSS reader. (30 minutes)
    • Learn new things with online resources while exercising. (90 minutes)
    • Take a shower and finish the morning chores before work. (30 minutes)
  • Failure Scenarios:
    • Insufficient Sleep: Work stress may affect sleep quality and duration, resulting in delays in my morning routine.
      • Risk Mitigation: I use a 24/7 activity tracker to monitor steps, distance walked, calories burned, and sleep along with stress and recovery. Sleep tracking data helps me understand my sleep patterns and achieve healthy sleep hours.
    • Too Difficult: Certain articles are more difficult and time consuming to read.
      • Risk Mitigation: I will estimate the reading time on each article. If I do not have time to finish in the morning, I will save them to read later.
    • Schedule Change: A change in work hours may reduce my morning hours.
      • Risk Mitigation: I will go to bed by 10pm on weeknights. If my morning routine is too packed, I will limit the number of RSS feeds to follow, shift my workouts to the evening, or drop my morning chores.
  • Progress Tracking: My performance is measured by the time spent to catch up on my reading backlog every weekend. Ideally, I find time to clear my backlog on the same day.
Will I stick to my investing strategy regardless of how it performs?
  • Action Plan: All future cash flows will be reinvested to the same asset class to stay with my current asset allocation strategy that is more concentrated in litigation funding. I will shift the portfolio toward single-case funding and maintain my 7-figure portfolio.
  • Failure Scenarios:
    • Binary Risk: I may have consecutive losses in my case portfolio with litigation funding that lead to a loss of confidence in my strategy.
      • Risk Mitigation: Investing in litigation funding has been very profitable in recent years. Litigation funders generally estimates the win rate of each case to be at least 70%, which translates into the 37% annualized return. It is not easy to lose money.
    • Liquidity Risk: If my remaining cases do not settle within the expected time frame, the cash flow from investing activities may not be sufficient to fund new deals.
      • Risk Mitigation: I always prepare realistic forecasts for salaries, expenses, and investment returns to ensure that I will have enough cash to cover any obligations. A balance transfer and a personal loan may be used for unpredictable short-term expenses.
    • Market Risk: A stock market crash may lead investors to rush into alternative assets. I may not be able to invest in litigation finance because of the increased competition.
      • Risk Mitigation: My software tracks and monitors litigation funding platforms for changes. I will get notified as soon as a new investment opportunity is posted. I may make a direct investment in a hedge fund if there is a great opportunity.
  • Progress Tracking: It will be measured by the amount of new investments in the asset class.
Will I stay active in investing communities?
  • Action Plan: I actively contribute to personal finance and investing forums, regularly publish blog posts, and manage my private investment group. I continue tracking new deals and updating investment results.
  • Failure Scenarios:
    • Poor Performance: Poor investment performance may cause a loss of interest and motivation to engage with my communities.
      • Risk Mitigation: Writing is a craft that requires creativity and focus. I will draft blog posts in advance when I have dedicated writing time, or wait until my motivation returns. No pressure.
    • Time Constraints: Changes in work-life balance may increase time constraints and limit my engagement with investing communities.
      • Risk Mitigation: I don’t need to check everything daily to stay current with trends. I will catch up over the weekend.
    • Legal Issues: I may be asked to remove blog content that’s protected under NDA agreements.
      • Risk Mitigation: I’m being extremely careful not to reveal fund details or expose confidential information. I will have a third party proofread my writing before publishing.
  • Progress Tracking: My overall activity level can be measured by the number of forum replies, blog posts and updates, and group chat messages.

Health

Will I maintain a healthy lifestyle throughout the year?
  • Action Plan: I follow a healthy diet and exercise routine including portion control, intermittent fasting (time-restricted feeding), and daily workouts.
  • Failure Scenarios:
    • Injury: It may be difficult to maintain fitness during recovery periods due to injury.
      • Risk Mitigation: I constantly rotate exercises to prevent overuse injuries. I also use a fitness tracker to monitor activity, training, and recovery, ensuring my muscles have adequate time to fully recover from workouts.
    • Burnout: I tend to lose motivation after achieving major goals.
      • Risk Mitigation: I leverage connected wellness devices like Withings smart scales and Polar sport watches to record my weight and workout journal, which helps maintain motivation. My commitment is to lifestyle change rather than chasing specific goals.
    • Missing Equipment: If I move to a new location, I may not find my preferred cardio machines in the fitness center.
      • Risk Mitigation: A mini stepper can provide effective home cardio workouts. I will also consider purchasing my own equipment.
  • Progress Tracking: I record my weight and body fat percentage daily with a smart scale, and track my steps and activity levels with a sport watch. I also assess progress through measurements and how my clothes fit.

Interests

Will I keep learning new things this year?
  • Action Plan: I leverage my intrinsic motivation to learn something new daily through videos and podcasts. Areas of interest include communication, psychology, philosophy, economics, art, literature, history, science, and finance.
  • Failure Scenarios:
    • Negative Events: We cannot avoid negative life events. It may be difficult to stay motivated when caught in a negative thinking spiral.
      • Risk Mitigation: I watch educational videos during daily cardio sessions, which forces me to learn something new every day.
    • Low Productivity: I may be watching or listening without truly understanding because my mind isn’t focused on learning.
      • Risk Mitigation: I will actively take notes while watching. I will share my learning with family and friends, and post brief summaries on Twitter.
    • Content Exhaustion: I may run out of learning materials if I watch videos daily. YouTube channels may transition free users to paid services and stop uploading free content.
      • Risk Mitigation: It’s impossible to exhaust learning materials in just one year. My favorite YouTube channels upload new videos daily, and I have a massive video backlog. Other platforms like edX, TED, or MentorBox provide additional learning resources. I have no problem paying for monthly subscriptions when necessary.
  • Progress Tracking: My progress is measured by the number of videos marked as watched and messages I post on Twitter.
Will I acquire a new skill this year?
  • Action Plan: I will learn Golang to advance my career as a software engineer. I continuously migrate my CLI tools and web applications to Golang.
  • Failure Scenarios:
    • Previous Failure: I have failed to achieve this goal once before. History has a way of repeating itself.
      • Risk Mitigation: I will start coding as soon as I learn basic concepts. I’ve set up a checkpoint at the end of January to review my progress.
    • Priority Conflict: Mastery may require a time commitment of 10-20 hours per week (including work time). Multitasking is a myth.
      • Risk Mitigation: I will pause other activities and focus on learning when the opportunity is right.
    • Skill Decay: If I stop coding, I will likely forget almost everything. It’s pointless to learn a programming language I won’t use.
      • Risk Mitigation: If I’m not involved in a programming project, I will rewrite my previous programs in Golang.
  • Progress Tracking: The number of lines of code written can be used to measure progress.

Appendix