Twenty Nineteen

The most surprising thing about 2019 was that I found out that I'm highly allergic to buckwheat. Buckwheat!? Yep, buckwheat. Got an Epi-Pen and all. The doctor was so surprised he wanted to use me as a case study. Apparently no one is as allergic to buckwheat as I am.

My 2019 word was Finish. So I finished 54 books. Normally I eat books buffet-style. I read for action. Get actionable insight and move on.

However, finishing more books was gratifying. Getting in the habit of finishing books cultivated the muscles of completion; the skill of seeing things through.

NOTE: The goal isn't to finish all the books you start. Just the ones worth finishing. Don't be guilted by sunk cost bias.

In addition to improving my habit of reading, there were a few more habits that helped me in 2019:

1. Daily Gratitude. I started doing this more seriously in 2018 and it became an important anchor.
2. Daily Affirmation. It might seem cliché or cheesy but starting the day with strong reminders of who you aspire to be and who you are is both empowering and humbling. The exact place you want to be.
3. Daily Excercise. It took me most of the year to settle into this, but getting into a daily lifting routine is perfect. I like to lift weights and tend to go hard and heavy. Doing that and everything else I do in my day made it difficult to maintain. Once I realized that lifting isn't an end, but a means to an end I figured out the right level of effort.

The habits are not breakthrough ideas. At the end of 2019, I'm more convinced than ever that success in life is just closing the gap between what you know you should do and your ability (and commitment) to do it.

I love learning and in 2019, I decided to go more formal with it again. I joined the Harvard Business Analytics Program. It had exactly the right blend of coursework that I was looking for in a program. It has business, leadership, data, technology, programming, marketing, and everything you need to become a leader in the modern digital world. You can learn more here. Plan to complete it in 2020.

Twenty Nineteen established a strong foundation. Habits are the key (Atomic Habits is the perfect 2019 book about habits). They are the engine and the wheels, but you still need a map and a destination.

Here is the list of books I finished (in order of when I finished). Some were released in 2019, others have been on my list for a while, and others I like to reread often (like Linchpin and Essentialism). I'll probably come back and add links later.

1. Your Best Year Ever
2. Leadership and Self-Deception
3. Principles
4. On Writing (by Stephen King )
5. Awaken the Giant Within
6. Power Moves
7. Zone to Win
8. Innovators Dilemma
9. Daring Greatly
10. Measure What Matters
11. How to Win Friends and Influence People
12. Platform
13. Book Yourself Solid
14. Deep Work
15. Linchpin
16. Essentialism
17. The Snowball
18. Extreme Productivity
19. Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time
20. Never Split the Difference
21. One Page Marketing Plan
22. The Coaching Habit
23. Own the Room
24. Made to Stick
25. What got you here won’t get you there
26. How will you measure your life?
27. The Great Mental Models
28. Extreme Ownership
29. Trillion Dollar Coach
30. Loonshots
31. Making of a Manager
32. Quiet
33. Prosperity Paradox
34. Range
35. Atomic Habits
36. Lead and Disrupt
37. Company of One
38. The Magic Of Thinking Big
39. Secrets of Sand Hill Road
40. Good Jobs Strategy
41. The Dip
42. The Culture Code
43. Blink
44. The Alchemist
45. Get Together
46. How to be yourself
47. What you do is who you are
48. Creative Calling
49. The Compound Effect
50. Playing to Win
51. New Testament
52. The Art of Strategy: A Game Theorist’s Guide to Success in Business and Life 
53. The Man Who Solved the Markets
54. Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance