Here it is, 2022 is in the bag. Another year, another write-up. Overall, it was similar to 2021 in a lot of aspects, but also different.

There were deep moments of poopiness similar to 2021, but also some really nice highs.

Overall, 2022 was an improvement over the dumpster fire that was 2021, and I fully expect 2023 will be an improvement over 2022 for reasons I’ll mention in this post.

Let’s start with the stuff that went well.

I got to travel a little bit this year, which was a welcome gift. It kickstarted with my return back to Toronto for one of my dear friend’s wedding. It was nice seeing some of my old college buddies and catching up.

A few days later, I was gifted with a free trip to a luxury resort in Anguilla thanks to a stroke of luck from one of my besties. Timing just worked out and my buddy needed a plus one for his company retreat. This was great. The food and resort were outstanding, but there was a tragedy on this trip unfortunately as my friend lost a coworker in a freak accident. This truly was a freak accident and a reminder that life is precious, chaotic, and can be taken away at any time. Make every moment count.

After Anguilla, I spent some time in Ottawa and Montreal before heading back to Niagara. I really appreciate all 3 cities and their unique charms, and have an appreciation for each every time I return.

After that, I went on an unforgettable trip to Banff, Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver before heading back to Thailand. The highlight of the trip was definitely the Bobbie Burns lodge near Banff, which was a truly unforgettable experience featuring daily helicopter rides, incredible hiking and via ferratas through beautiful mountains and glaciers. The company was great, too. Hanging out and laughing with old friends is never a bad idea.

On my return to Thailand, I had the pleasure of going to the beach town of Hua Hin, and stayed at some really beautiful resorts. Thailand is so beautiful and continues to impress me more and more.

mailfloss was also a highlight this year. While in the weeds it felt like a grind, with tons of scaling issues popping up left and right, these all felt like high-quality problems. And because of that, I mostly felt grateful that there are an increasing number of customers that trust mailfloss to help them.

Near the end of 2022, I also hired a junior developer to help with some mailfloss features that I have been putting off for too long. She’s been fantastic and I look forward to all the great things she’s going to do in 2023.

I suppose my mental health could go either in the negative or positive bucket, but I’ll put it in the positive bucket because it’s been getting better.

Still suffering from the beating I took in 2021, I felt mentally crushed at the beginning of 2022. This lasted for at least the first half of the year. It wasn’t until I started to travel that I was able to snap myself out of it.

There’s still work that needs to be done here. I still feel I get too easily angered and irritable. I get anxious at seemingly random moments for no reason. I’d like to get this under control because this year I could really see how my mood swings affected my relationship. The meditation app Breethe and the therapy app Bloom have helped me a lot, and I feel that they’ll continue to do so in 2023.

In terms of things that didn’t go well this year, I’ll start with my health. Actually, it wasn’t so bad leading up until my trip to Bobbie Burns. However, I had a nagging knee injury that kept bothering me as I continued to train. All the hiking during Bobbie Burns finally put it over the edge, and during the trip the pain was so intense that I was taking aspirin just so I could continue hiking.

My knee still hasn’t fully healed and I’ve taken it easy on exercise ever since. I really thought I’d be healed by now, but I haven’t. I found a great physiotherapist that has taken the pain from an 8 down to a 2, but ideally, I’d like to take the pain down to 0 before I start training again. I may try shockwave therapy as there’s a clinic nearby, as well as start doing knees over toes type exercises if the pain persists, which seems likely at this point.

Disappointingly, I’ve also noticed a decline in my eyesight. I got Lasik surgery maybe 5 years ago, and sadly my vision has been declining, first slowly, but increasingly quicker as time has passed. I think I may need to do a round 2 sooner rather than later. I’ve been doing the Vision Gym, which has helped, but I fear I’ll never get back to my prior glory of perfect vision without surgical assistance.

I only read about 4 or 5 books this year, which is terrible. The book that I recommend from this years reading is “The Almanack of Naval Ravikant”, which contains nuggets of great wisdom. My excuse for not reading much is I’ve been putting in a lot of late hours staring at a screen, but honestly I don’t see that changing anytime soon. I think reading will also take a backseat in 2023 as I continue to focus on mailfloss, but I plan to learn through various other means.

For 2023, I feel it’ll be much of the same. I hope mailfloss will grow quicker next year, and I plan to make that happen with some good hired help and some coaching. I plan to up my education through paid courses and online coaching as well. I’m also thinking of doing online therapy sessions to further improve and strengthen my mental well-being. If I can grow mailfloss quicker in 2023 despite turbulent macro-economic conditions, I feel like it will be really well-positioned to be a market leader in the years that follow. I am prepared to make the sacrifices needed to make that happen, and with a little luck and elbow grease I think 2023 is going to be a good one.

Happy New Year and I wish you the best in 2023. It seems like it will be a chaotic one with unfavorable economic conditions, but you’ll be ok. Hug and kiss your loved ones and all the very best to you and yours.