Weekend Reflections and Happy New Year!

Weekend Reflections and Happy New Year!

The holidays have come and gone and now it’s a new year (and a new decade!). This time of year is a great time to enjoy quality time with family, catch up with friends, reflect on the highlights from the last year, and set some ambitious goals for the next 365 days.

 

Catching up with old friends

Nowadays, real life is about “adulting”. To sum it up, my life is pretty much a nice little routine of waking up, going to work, working, going to the gym, coming home, hanging out with my daughter (an almost two year old tiny tot) and wife, fixing some kind of dinner, more hanging out, then going to bed. Sounds really mundane, but don’t get me wrong, I actually like these activities. Work is rewarding and for the most part enjoyable and hanging out with my family is a lot of fun. It can be a goat rodeo (even with just one kid!) at times, but it’s still fun.

Anyways, all of this “adulting” stuff leaves little time to chat with friends, especially old friends that I’ve known since high school. And that’s okay. They’re busy with their own lives and they have families to take care of too. But the holidays presents a good opportunity to catch up with each other’s lives. We would text each other a pleasant “Merry Christmas” which leads to follow up texts discussing how each of us is doing and what’s going on with our lives.

It always makes me feel good knowing that my friends are doing well. One of my best friends is moving to Texas in a few months He’s starting a business there and it’s a lot cheaper to live there compared to Southern California. I’m really happy and excited for him.

 

Highlighting The Hard Work of Others

It’s also amazing that a lot of my physician blogger colleagues have accomplished so much in the past year. And they all have ambitious goals for 2020, too. Physicians are really a high achieving bunch!

For example, Dr. Cory Fawcett has written yet another book, “The Doctor’s Guide To Real Estate Investing For Busy Professionals”. It’s the fourth book in his popular “Doctor’s Guide” series. He had sent it to me as a gift a few months ago. It was a pleasant surprise. And it was perfect timing because I have been thinking about taking a deeper dive into real estate investing lately. The book is terrific and it was definitely was written for folks like me, a busy professional who may not think real estate is for them. It contains great advice and actionable tips for people interested in real estate investing. My own detailed review of his book will be forthcoming (hopefully some time soon), but for now, you can read great reviews from my colleagues Crispy Doc, Wealthy Doc, and Frugal Physician.

BC Krygowski has also written a book, “Spending Habits For Professionals Who Want to FIRE.” I have read Dr. Krygowski’s book and I think it’s fantastic. It totally speaks to me. From topics that range from  travel hacking, buying good food on a budget, parenting, minimizing waste to better the environment, minimalism, and living a fruitfully frugal lifestyle… so much of what she writes is in alignment with our lifestyle. Again, I’m going to write a detailed review of her book (it definitely deserves the attention!). But for now, you can read a great review of the book by Tired Superheroine.

 

New Books And Podcasts I’m Excited About

I am really impressed by all of my physician colleagues and their ambitious goals, especially those who are writing books. It takes an admirable amount of hard work and dedication to write a book. So kudos to them!

Physician Zen is in the process of writing a book as well. It’s still in the works, but I think it will focus on productivity in life and finances for physicians and other busy professionals. When it’s published, I think it has the potential to help so many people and I can’t wait to read it when it’s finished!

The Physician Philosopher is also no stranger to writing books. His book “The Physician Philosopher’s Guide To Personal Finance. was a great read too. Recently, he has announced some awesome news– him and Ryan Inman of Financial Residency are starting a new podcast. It’s called the Money Meets Medicine podcast. Or you can call it MMM for short. By the way, I love the acronym… sounds oddly familiar to some other small time blogger in the personal finance space. All joking aside, it launches in a few days on January 8, 2020 and I can’t wait to listen.

TPP isn’t the only one who announced a new podcast. My friend Michael Quan of Financially Alert has also launched a new podcast with his friend Marlon called Breakthrough Millionaire. Their podcast focuses on personal development, building wealth, and cultivating the right mindset for taking your life to the next level. It just launched January 1st. Go check it out!

 

SMART Goals

I’m really happy for all of my friends attaining such a high level of achievement. It’s amazing how they are all able to do it. Perhaps it’s because they set SMART goals and know how to accomplish them.

Basically, SMART goals are goals that are Specific (with a clear purpose), Measurable (for tracking progress), Attainable (and actionable), Relevant (consistent with our purpose and values), and Time bound (deadlines give procrastinators like me a sense of urgency). Over the past few years I’ve been applying these principles to my goals and have written about them in the past.

Recently, “SMART goals” seem to be a buzz word and all the rage. Everybody and their mom is writing about them. Probably because it’s a tried and true method for getting results.

Check out Physician Philosopher’s recent post on 11 SMART Financial Goals For Your New Year’s Resolutions and Physician Zen’s post on 10 New Year’s Resolution And How To Achieve Them. Both posts provide great actionable tips.

Passive Income MD also wrote an excellent post, How To Set SMART Goals And Make Them Stick. In his post, he really emphasizes that in addition to knowing what you want to achieve, you also have to know why you want to achieve it. Setting goals that are measurable and timely can quickly become a numbers game with no purpose and with a strict deadline that causes undue stress. Knowing your why is so important because it gives you a clear purpose for what you are doing and what you are trying to achieve. Don’t lose sight of your goals. But more importantly, don’t lose sight of your why and purpose.

 

Final Thoughts

In general, I’m always happy and excited about so many things in life. That’s just my natural disposition and the person that I am.

I feel very grateful for 2019 and I’m excitedly looking forward to see what 2020 brings. I am hoping for continued happiness, success, contentment, and fulfillment for myself, my family, and all of my friends in the new year and beyond.

Have a wonderful 2020!