Book Edits, Ending WDS, and the 2022 Annual Review
Vote on book covers! My next book, GONZO CAPITALISM, will be published in August 2023. I’d love to get your input on some cover art options.
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This past week I had seven days for my 2022 Annual Review, but it felt like only two.
What happened? Well, a book needed editing … my next book, specifically. Because of a combination of circumstances, I ended up spending 4+ hours a day on edits last week, and that pace will continue for the rest of the year.
Though surely there will be a much better rollout at some point in 2023, I’m now happy to say that I will have a new book out next year for the first time since THE MONEY TREE was published in March 2020.
Otherwise, of course, I did manage to do some reflection on the year that’s ending and planning for the year ahead. Here are a few notes on the experience.
2022, Looking Back
Looking back this year was a little unusual, and not just because of the book edits taking so much time. It’s also because—at least on the one hand—I had a lot of failures.
Simply put, several of the things I hoped to accomplish this year simply didn’t happen. 😞 In fact, it wasn’t until day three of the review that I realized something important: I’d either failed or significantly revised all three of my major goals for the year. Yikes.
Was I trying to do too much? Maybe that was some of it. Other years, however, I’ve accomplished most (or even all) of my major goals and still ended up feeling deeply unsettled. This time I felt, well, mostly good! It was strange.
So that was … interesting. Normally the realization that I’d failed to achieve much of what I’d set my mind on would be pretty discouraging, but for whatever reason, I mostly shrugged it off this time.
The one-sentence summary: 2022 wasn’t quite what I planned, but it went fairly well anyway.
A few highlights from the year…
1. WDS X was strong!
This was the tenth and FINAL World Domination Summit, the culmination of a cultural experience I founded back in 2011. (We did nine years in a row, then postponed the 2020 and 2021 events for obvious reasons.)
The weeklong event was worth the long wait. Among other things, we set a world record—smashed it back into the stone age, to be precise.
WDS is one of the greatest things I’ve ever been part of, and I feel proud of it in a way I don’t feel about almost anything else.
Accordingly, It’s been hard to leave it behind. I didn’t want it to end! I really didn’t. (And I still don’t, to be precise.)
Even so, it was also right to close that chapter. Endings are hard, but so is refusing to end. There’s probably a lesson there for all sorts of things.
2. Side Hustle School continued through the year (every day)
I completed another year of Side Hustle School, my daily podcast on making money without a job. (Or at least, I’ll soon have completed it—just a couple more weeks to go.)
We’re now well past 2,000 consecutive, daily episodes. Five years!
Back when I started in 2017, I had no idea I’d still be doing it all this time later, but it’s proven to be remarkably resilient. The team and I have gotten into a groove with working ahead and keeping it fresh.
3. Almost finished writing a new book (finally!)
I’ve almost finished writing my first book in two years, Gonzo Capitalism. I’ll say more about it soon, but for now: it feels good to be nearing the end.
I got a little stuck on writing it (the original due date was several months earlier), and I’m very glad to have gotten back on track.
The book will come out in August 2023, and I can’t wait to share it with you. 📕 🎉
4. Health, wellness, and relationships are strong
Starting four or five years ago, I began prioritizing my mental and physical health much more than I’d done in the past. I also began paying closer attention to important relationships with friends and family.
This year, all of those things continued to go well. Aside from some minor injuries and illness, I was healthy the whole year. I’ve continued my Apple Watch streak, which is now at 1,300+ days. (It’s the equivalent of running about six miles a day, so on the days I don’t run, I make sure to plan other workouts).
This was never really a goal aside from “do it every day for a year.” But when the year ended, I just kept going … and now it’s been close to four years.
That’s the funny thing about habits! They’re harder to stop than it is to keep going.
5. I stopped taking Adderall and Wellbutrin
This deserves its own mention in the category of wellness. A few months ago, I wrote a post about Getting off Adderall. I’d taken the medication almost every day for five years (!), but now I’ve gone something like four months without it.
Somewhat unintentionally, I also stopped taking Wellbutrin (bupropion), another medication—so I’m not on that anymore either.
As to how that happened with the second one … uh, I just kind of forgot about it? I used to take Wellbutrin the same time of day I took Adderall, not quite first thing in the morning but usually when I sat down to work after exercising. Once I stopped Adderall, I didn’t automatically remember to take the Wellbutrin.
For the first week or two, I’d remember every other day on average. After that, I just, well, stopped. The only other time I’d tried to go off Wellbutrin (I’ve also taken it for around four or five years), I felt really sad a week or two later and resumed my prescription. This time, I just kept going and all was well.
The combination of stopping both meds feels somewhat momentous. It wasn’t really a goal, either at the beginning of the year or ever. I thought I needed them and I’d accepted that it might always be that way.
But apparently I don’t, at least for now! So that’s cool.
Obvious disclaimer: be careful about going on *or off* medication. Talk to your doctor, don’t just read random articles online, etc.
2023, Looking Forward
I have a few goals that I’m not ready to share just yet, so this section will be a bit abbreviated. But here are the obvious things I can say for now:
- Book publication + 30-city tour (it’s been too long!)
Having to cancel the Money Tree tour right at the start of the pandemic was necessary but disappointing. I was supposed to go to 40 cities (!) and in the end I went pretty much nowhere.
I can’t wait to get back out there next summer! Watch this space for more details.
- Side Hustle School continues (365 more episodes!)
Yep, we’re going into Season 7! Once again I’ll be doing the show again next year, every single day. And of course, it will continue to be completely free. Subscribe or stream wherever you listen to podcasts, as they say.
If you’d like to be part of it, here are a couple of opportunities:
We paused the story episodes a month or two ago, but will be bringing them back for 2023. If you’re a side hustler or a non-traditional entrepreneur (our listeners like the bootstrapping approach, not the VC money method), let me know and include as many details as possible.
We’ll feature as many stories as we can! You can also download the complete show archive here (warning: it’s a big file!):
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- Two other big projects!
Isn’t that exciting? I know, I know, it’s super vague. But I promise to share more when I can. 📝
Conclusion: An Emotional Week!
I’ve had a lot of emotions this week, some from the manic sessions of book editing, some as I processed the Annual Review, and some from just feeling more present than usual.
I shipped a printer ahead of my trip so that I could work on the book edits. (Yes, I am the kind of person who brings a printer on “vacation”—desperate times, desperate measures.)
At the end of the week I left the printer behind and said “Thank you, printer!” while I was walking out the door.
Even more than a disposable printer, I’m thankful for everyone who reads The Art of Non-Conformity. I’ve now been writing this blog for close to fifteen years, and I love knowing that there are people out there who look forward to new posts.
If you’re one of those people—thank you! The best is yet to come.
And no matter how we’re connected, I hope you enjoy the rest of the year. ❤️
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Images: 1, 2, 3