My 2024 Annual Planning Guide includes: (1) a simple goal-setting framework, (2) four system-building mental models, and (3) a strategy for tracking and adjusting throughout the year.

This annual planning process has been an immensely helpful exercise to which I would credit many of my greatest achievements. I hope that it will spark you to conduct your own annual planning process for 2024, as I'm highly confident you will get incredible value from the exercise.

You can download a beautiful (and free!) printable PDF of the template ​here​.

Question: How will this struggle fuel my inevitable growth?

Framework: Monkeys & Pedestals

My wife and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary on December 17th. To create something unique and memorable, I decided I would explore a bit of the relationship wisdom that time provides.

I asked couples who have been married 40, 50, and 60+ years a simple question: What relationship advice would you give to your younger selves?

The advice captured 500+ years of earned relationship wisdom.

Question: What is the artist hidden inside of you?

Framework: Shoshin - the beginner's mind.

The end of the calendar year presents us with a valuable opportunity to reflect on the year that was and plan for the year that will be. It's easy to glaze over the former and focus on the latter, but failure to reflect will eventually manifest as a failure to grow.

The Personal Annual Review is 7 questions: (1) What did I change my mind on this year? (2) What created energy this year? (3) What drained energy this year? (4) Who were the boat anchors in my life? (5) What did I not do because of fear? (6) What were my greatest hits and worst misses? (7) What did I learn this year?

You can download a beautiful (and free!) printable PDF of the template ​here​.

Question: What is the burden that you're still carrying?

Framework: The Capability Gap.

Charlie Munger, an American investor most well-known as vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and Warren Buffett's partner, passed away last week at 99, just one month shy of his 100th birthday.

He was a treasure trove of wisdom—which he shared lavishly with the world over the course of his life, and which will create lasting ripples long after he is gone.

10 of his insights that created a lasting impact on my life: (1) The most valuable riches take time, (2) Avoid the second arrow, (3) Develop real knowledge, (4) Success follows interest, (5) Invert, always invert, (6) Avoid the Ostrich Effect, (7) Never mimic the herd, (8) Create a "too hard" pile, (9) Live what you want to receive, and (10) Wisdom compounds.

Question: Where am I allowing the uncontrollable to impact my life?

Framework: Energy Creators vs. Energy Absorbers.

In a famous story, Cicero wrote of Diagoras, an atheist who, when confronted with paintings of people who prayed and then were saved from a shipwreck, replied, "I see those who were saved, but where are those painted who prayed and drowned?"

Survivorship Bias is the error resulting from systematically focusing on survivors (successes) and ignoring casualties (failures) that causes us to miss the true base rates of survival (the actual probability of success) and arrive at flawed conclusions.

To avoid the trap, we must consider the unseen evidence just as much as the seen. To develop a better perspective on base rates of success, consult a Possibility Grid, which lays out completed and not completed actions of both winners and losers.

3 short passages from Teddy Roosevelt's 1899 Strenuous Life speech.