Annual reviews are a great way to see how the year has gone and gives you a platform to work from for the following year. 

My goals are flexible, so I don't care about hitting X goals yearly. What I care about is showing up daily but being "still" day to day. Having a cool head for a large % of the year is a far better indicator of success than some big wins but turbulent times in between. However, I will put down some goals to look at each year and see how it went. 

You can view and copy the template document if you want to do your review. 

P.S I'm re-launching my "weekly wisdom" newsletter in 2023. Sign up for it at the bottom of this page. 

Add/remove as you see fit. Keeping it private is your best bet, as it means you'll be honest about it. I'm pushing mine public as an example, as I don't mind sharing what I have to say. 

So before you start, go through pictures on your phone and not down notable times, events, people etc. This can help you re-remember the year and shape your review. 

2022 Highlights

Visited Krishnamurti Centre

Octagon 2.0 end of challenge event 

Turtle app V2 launch

9 week European trip

Athens

Delphi

Nicopolis

Kefalonia

Positano

Capri

Sorrento

Florence

The Statue of David if NUTS. Michelangelo made this from ONE PIECE OF MARBLE BY HAND HOLY FUCK. 

I had goosebumps as soon as I saw this in real. Much bigger than I thought (apart from the cock).

Mantua

Nice

Route Napoleon

Which consists of the below places

Cannes

Grasse

Gorges du Verdon

Moustiers Sainte Marie (the most beautiful village I’ve ever seen)

Sisteron 

Gap

Laffrey

Grenoble

Clermont

Bordeaux

Montaigne Castle + Vineyard 

The room below is where he wrote his famous "essais" from. He has his favourite greek quotes chiselled into the beams above. He would walk around the room in circles looking up for inspiration speaking out his work. Someone would write it down. 

And the wine there is lush!

Oradour-sur-glane (a surreal place, it's a village untouched since the Nazi's destroyed it and murdered the entire population)

Paris

I wrote a shit load of post cards!

My sisters wedding

30th Birthday Celebrations in South of France

Turtle Fforest

Leo’s Christening

2022 was a year of adventure for me; I loved it (including the downs!)

😃 What were my major milestones or moments? What accomplishments am I most proud of?

There’s been a load of moments and milestones but I’ll break it down to the top 4

🔵 Octagon 2.0 + event

Our best challenge for Turtle that changes lives. Octagon 2 was a huge success, and we hosted an end-of-challenge event at Crossfit Putney in London. 

Just cool to see about 120+ members who had participated in our challenge at the end. Many friendship groups have been formed, results achieved and all-around good vibes. 

The best part about Turtle is the community and the development of human beings.

I would not bother doing Turtle if it was just ab workouts and losing fat. No thanks. 

🔵 9 Week European Trip

As soon as Octagon 2 was done, I went on my 9-week European tour inspired by what I've read and what I'm interested in. Most of my trip was inspired by my curiosity about philosophy, history and events. I don't see the point in just going somewhere warm to drink to oblivion and staying in a hotel. I'd rather explore, take in the local culture, enjoy the food and learn something new. 

Curiosity about people and the past is a gateway to this. For example, if I had never read up about Napoleon, I would never have visited Mantua and then completed Route Napoleon, which was insane. Imagine how many other gems of places there are to discover based on being curious about historical figures or places. 

So 2023 is shaping to look like I'll want to visit India so I can explore the birthplace of Buddhism and maybe South America to Argentina and Patagonia (where there's been a Welsh settlement since 1850, and to this day, they still speak Welsh). May also visit an old Viking-style village in Scandinavia. 

🔵 Sister’s Wedding

It was a stunning venue, and the wedding went smoothly. It was lush to see everyone and of course, seeing your sister getting married is a special day. I had to do a speech as my dad was too unwell, and I may have overcooked it with brother-sister abuse. If I could re-do it, I would have added some more love in 

🔵 30th birthday & Turtle Fforest

I celebrated my 30th in the South of France with 2 best mates, which was one hell of a laugh. Not sure if this is universal, but it's true for friends from Wales; once we get together, it's just silly fun. I always feel better and best after spending time like this. A lot of life is too serious, so it's important to bring out the inner child in whatever way it expresses itself. This birthday I also decided to get out of the UK and be with just a few friends, I usually host a big gathering in London for 15 or so people, but it always ends up being more stressful than fun. 

Turtle Fforest was insane, such a beautiful place, and we had the best time. I also had a surprise birthday party set up by some of our members, which was awesome. I was also gifted amazing presents, from a Steve Jobs Griffynor pillow to custom artwork of a dragon turtle with messages from the Turtle around it. Incredible. Picture below

⚡ What are the people, events, habits, or tasks that I look back fondly on, energised me the most in 2022?

Trips to new places with good friends or meeting new ones. This is when I felt most alive, happy and appreciative of life. 

I get a lot of energy from good conversation. When I was in Nice for a business meeting, I had a night to myself on the Saturday and remembered joining a bar crawl for a laugh.

I was one of the first there but saw an oldish hairy man and a younger bloke sitting down, so I joined them and introduced myself. It was a father-and-son combo from Germany; the dad had promised the young lad a trip around Europe. It was a really fun chat learning about them and talking all sorts of nonsense!

Habits - definitely waking up and reading > walking is a super combo for me. It has to start this way if I want the best start to my day. Gets the brain going and new ideas flowing. Working out in the morning is also far better than any other time. 

Events: Festivals are always class. Lost Village festival is the best one I've ever been to; mega quirky, and it's an older crowd, like 25 years +, which makes it a far better environment than 18-year-olds ruining the place. 

Tasks - I do a lot of tasks, but I've started splitting them into low-value and high-value tasks. A good way to think about it is could you give this task to someone for £10 per hour? If yes, don't work on it. 

Is this task a £50 per hour task? If so, I still don't spend much time on these. 

I tried to spend most of my time on those £500+ per hour tasks, which means high-level things. New offers, products, app development, funnels, ads, etc. This work is hard to off-load as it's integral to the company. I've delegated other tasks to other people now, so my mental energy is focused in a better place. 

😓 What are the people, events, habits, or tasks that I dreaded, drained me the most in 2022?

This type of drama is only for TV or books. They do say when money is involved; you see people's true colours. 

I have 3 half-siblings on my father's side; they are 56, 54 and 52 years old. I have never really known them; all I know is they've never really liked me and Sophie (they call us "the twins"). 

I was back home helping my father with his steps, stepper machine, diet and setting him up with a PT (I had spoken to Lucy, a Turtle member who's a COPD nurse, and she was wonderful helping). He has COPD, diabetes, heart failure etc and is on supplemental oxygen 24/7. 

My father has a minibus business, and with his health going downhill, the 3 half siblings his side decided to convince my dad he should change from a sole trader (which means the business and him are one) to a limited company (he and the business are now different entities and the business is owned by shareholders and run by a board of directors)

Long story short, they set up a new business for him and used a dodgy accountant to make them 99% share owners and my dad a 1% shareholder. It's weird because my dad is the only director and never signed any of this. 

Luckily one of the siblings on my dad's side told Sophie about this plot, and she told me. I looked into it, and it's true, you can see it all on companies house. 

So I've been home trying to fix this; my dad is ill and doesn't know anything about limited companies, shares and so forth so he's confused and annoyed at it all. 

I also hated talking to him about post-death and what should happen to the buses. I felt we took 10 steps back when we had to talk about this stuff vs doing workouts and getting his breathing better. 

But just dealing with the other 2 siblings (the 3rd didn't like what they were doing hence telling us) who tried to get away with this plan was horrendous, and a corrupt accountant on top. They were shouting, being aggressive, trying to gaslight, acting innocent, telling us "this is how it should be", and "there is no other way", and at one point my half brother squared up to me in rage for me merely asking why my dad is a 1% shareholder of his own company.

I'm lucky I've sold shares with Rugby Warfare, dealt with many legal battles, and have a friend who's a solicitor. So when I could look into this, I knew straight away it was off. 

Anyways, this is very messy, and it's energy-draining. Nobody needs this sort of drama, but when you get individuals (who are even in their 50s) to be trying to drain money for themselves and turn into greedy, evil scumbags, you feel you got to fight this injustice. 

Imagine being in your 50s, hoping to get as much money from your dying dad as possible and trying to take it away from others who he wants to share his money with. Fuck me, that's when you know you've done shit at life. 

I'm not fighting for money; I'm doing what's right and not letting con artists get away with robbery. I've never had money from my father, I lived with my mother and she had/has no money. So I realised very early on it's up to me to change this and that's why I think I had a drive to build something and get out of that situation.

The problem I faced was I took out many loans during University, credit card debt and so forth to take risks and buy stock and that. I got into some big holes but believed I'd get out of it some day (which I did). Very risky stuff, but if you had parents who backed you financially and emotionally you'd likely not need to go into such risky scenarios. This is why rich kids who have safety nets tend to start more businesses and become successful, because if they fail they end up with support and money anyways. For me, If I failed I'd be back in a council estate in Wales in a tiny room I hate surrounded by negativity. 

The 2 half siblings trying a quick one are rats; they are no family to me. I couldn't give a fuck if they share half my father's DNA like I do; I also share 50% of my DNA with bananas like every other human. You pick who your family is; some people are lucky to bond with their blood relations, some not. 

At the same time as this, trying to run two companies is a lot. No complaints; there is just no room to waste/drain energy in such a scenario. This is why I'm very fond of the Xmas time off; it's the ONLY time off everyone is off, and there are no expectations or worries. 

So yeah, I know I have a finite amount of mental energy a day and to make businesses work you need it all going there. I've had times this year when I'd been pulled in too many directions at once and things do suffer. 

📈 How did I grow as a person?

Suppose taking on my responsibility helped me grow. 

I dealt with a few personal emergencies in a cool-headed manner which I was proud of, keeping my cool and stuff. Realising that when things can go really to shit and fast, I cannot get slammed down by that. But maybe I was always like that. 

This is a tough one to answer; not sure I've "grown" that much. I've let go of many things. 

I've turned 30, but I feel no extra pressure. 

I work hard every day but have no extreme desire or need to make X, Y, or Z by X time. 

It's like realising money isn't everything but also having it gives you the power to do more of the good you want to do. So acquiring money aka power to do more good is something that is aimed. I love Aneurin Bevan's quote about power, the goal of power is to get it but give it away. Damn right boi. 

I also think growing is when you don’t fall into hero worship for people like Andrew Tate (or any celebrity for that matter). I see and hear friends get obsessed with him and jump all over it; it’s just strange to me to be fanatical about anyone. I admire Steve Jobs and Bruce Lee but I’d never just droll over everything they say and believe it all 100%. I feel I’ve grown enough to objectively look at what they say without falling for groupthink.  

As I finish writing this Tate has been arrested for suspected trafficking of women. He's been very clever in how he's positioned this with the world. He's converted to Islam, he's now a "man of god" and has put out a mix of content with some being motivating for young men and some being strange comments about women. 

So he's also spoken about how "the matrix" is after him and will try and arrest him soon for something he didn't do. 

But is this true? If we take a step back, we can see he's been under investigation for years and he admits he moved to Romania for slacker laws. So he's know for maybe years that they will eventually get him for something illegal he's done and there's no doubt in my mind he's done illegal stuff.

He claimed on his website most of his "cam girls" were ex girlfriends and he would take 80% of the earnings. He also claims none of them were sex workers before him. Sounds a bit weird to me. 

So if we zoom out we can see a man who's done dodgy stuff, who has tried to turn his image around by being a "man of god" and managed to get the internet to believe he will go down for something he didn't do. 

However, he knew he was going to get done at one point and this smokescreen has worked. People have taken his bait and believe the "matrix" are trying to shut him up. 

When are we going to learn that people only put put there what they want people to see and believe and it's not the facts or truth?

📚 What were my favourite books and how did they influence my thinking?

My top books from 2022 with some of my notes, commentary and favourite quotes. 

Behave by Robert Sapolsky

You'll learn about why we do what we do and everything that goes into our decisions from a nanosecond ago to our entire evolution. The most important thing I learned was that our genes could turn on/off like a dial, not a switch depending on our environment. So you could have dormant genes that aren't on due to your environment. Imagine you changed the environment, and you developed differently. Maybe you feel more "you", and things work better. You'll never know until you try to change your environment, as it can impact your genes!

The ending of time by Krishnamurti & David Bohm (audiobook)

Truth actuality and the limits of thought by Krishnamurti & David Bohm (audiobook)

But they are chats between Krishnamurti and a world-class physicist about reality, actuality, thought, the ego and suffering. Psychological time is different from physical time. It takes time to go from one place to another, but is there psychological time? Is there a future and a past?

Does it take time for "me" to change psychologically? I'll do it tomorrow, we say. I'll think about it another time. But psychological time is a mistake; it does not exist, only now. So if we are to become free from suffering, anxiety, and fear, we must be in the now, which means no tomorrow. If there is only now, then there is also no "me" thinking about what I should "become". Becoming is strange; we must become important, famous, wealthy, and "good". We imply this it takes time to become someone, but this becoming is a desire and desire never ends. You desire abs now but a kebab in 30 mins; we replace one desire with another. So are we just a chain reaction of desire looking into the future to become more and more? Or can we realise the futility of such living and realise only the now exists psychologically, and I can be free from anxiety only now, not tomorrow?

So psychological time IS desire. Desire is "the me" or "the ego" in action. The ego only lives in this time-desire, always wanting to be more and more. This is the root of suffering. To stay with what is, which is only the now, is what sets us free from this endless chain reaction of desire and the ego. I feel anxiety, but "I" don't want to be anxious, so I try and escape it, and in that escape, there is suffering. But if I stick with it, if the anxiety is "me" or whatever the "me" is, I can't do anything about it. Sticking with "what is", which is that I am anxious and that there is nothing I can do about the fact I am anxious helps dissolve the anxiety. Our escape from the "what is" always causes issues. Or do you feel sad and don't want to feel sad, so you want to escape by eating chocolate as it makes you happy? Why not sit with the sadness? The sadness is you. Learn from the sadness, observe it without judging it and see what it says. Only that helps, not escaping. 

The skeptics guide to the universe by Steven Novella 

If you wondered if Crystals are actually healing, if conspiracy theorists are right, or if this crazy fact on Tiktok is right, then this is the book for you. It goes through all cognitive fallacies, issues with our brains and memory, and so forth. It explains things with science. Reading this in school should be a must. Your mind is deceptive. 

80/20 sales and marketing by Perry Marshall

Fave quotes that make sense to me:

"Such people—starting of course with Vilfredo Pareto, the Italian economist whose research into wealth creation sparked the original discovery, but also extending to quality guru Joseph Juran and a host of people in the computer industry, notably Steve Jobs—can make a dent in the universe by thinking about applications of the Principle and then making these available to anyone who will listen to them.

Let me say that again slowly. If 20% of roads carry 80% of traffic, roughly 20% of the 20%—that is 4%—of the roads will carry 80% of the 80 % of traffic on those roads. In other words, 4% of the roads will carry 64% of the traffic. And so on. To be honest, I hadn't grasped that implication until Perry's book hammered it home to me. That is, we benefit most from the Principle when we apply it at its upper reaches. Suppose 20 % of our time gives us 80% of our useful output. In that case, it's still true that a fifth of that 20% will contribute 80% of the results within that "useful" category—in other words, some things that take almost zero time are incredibly valuable.

But the fractal point Perry makes is that 20% of the 20% of customers are ultra-valuable, at least potentially. 4% of the customers may account, or could account, for 64% of profits. If you know who these customers are and provide them with what they really want, you have to double sales to them and you have another 64% of revenues."

I ran the numbers with Turtle, and 20% of our top spending customers generate 72% of our revenue. 

It won't be EXACTLY 80/20 but it's always around that. 

I then run the numbers, and 4% of our top spenders are 40% of our revenue. 

So yeah, everything works this way. Whatever you do, a tiny % of that brings back the most results. 

How can you figure this out in all areas of your life? 

20% of employees deliver 80% of the productivity. Are you part of that 20% at work? If not, don't work more hours. Just figure out what you can do that has a big impact. 

20% of your day is likely responsible for 80% of your energy/productivity; find that 20%. For me, it's the morning hours. 

We also see this in strength training; if 10 sets per body part per week = 100% of maximum gains, the research shows you only need 1-4 sets per week to generate 64% of the gains. 

So that's a clear 80/20 there with strength training. 

Take time to ruthlessly cut out what isn't worth pushing for. Go for the 80/20 approach in everything; you'll save time and become 10x more efficient. 

How many runs per week does it take to get better? 5 runs = 100%, but 2 runs could = 75%. I'm not here to try and optimise everything, so I'll take the 2 runs for 75% and use the time saved to apply it to another 80/20 task. 

The Unfolding of Language by Guy Deutscher

This book was recommended to me by Lalya Lloyd when I met her for a drink in Athens. She's a classics expert and used to teach at Eton. She did a few seminars with Donald Robertson for our Turtle Method community before.

This book is dense but has so much cool information. I think this was my favourite read of the year because it's completely different to what I usually read and I learned so much from it. It also cross references with some philosophical concepts which I found interesting.  

My fave quotes:

"Take Augustus (first roman emperor, and the month August is named after him), which by late Latin had already been shortened to Agustus; then drop the last syllable to get Agust. By the twelfth century, the g had also eroded to leave {aoost}. The s was next in line for the chop, so the word came to be pronounced {aoot} and spelt août. Later, {aoot} was shortened to {oot}; and finally, the t was ditched … et voilà, le mois d’août.”

Note: Language is always in a state of destruction. 

"The devastation that erosion metes out is perhaps most conspicuous with case systems, which of all monumental structures seem most vulnerable. The fate of the case system in the Indo-European languages is a good example. The prehistoric ancestor, Proto-Indo-European, had eight distinct cases. Still, only Sanskrit retained the full system, whereas, in all the other daughter languages, erosion had started taking its toll even before the earliest records began."

Note: We should go to the Sanskrit version to find the true root of a word or meaning. We are losing accuracy in language, which means we are losing accuracy in describing our inner world too. 

"The further we can follow a language, the more perfect we find it. Latin, for example, is richer in forms than the living Romance languages. The living languages of India that stem from Sanskrit have sunk even deeper from their ancestor's high level of linguistic perfection. In historical times, as we know from experience, languages as such go backwards."

"an indispensable element in the thought processes of every one of us. As will soon become apparent, we use metaphors not because of literary leanings or artistic ambitions, but simply because metaphor is the chief mechanism through which we can describe and even grasp abstraction."

"As one example from the list above, consider the verb 'decide', which in English derives from a Latin verb meaning 'cut off'. At first, this image may seem unusual. Still, the physical activities of cutting or separating seem to be the source of the concept of 'deciding' in many languages, even those which did not borrow from Latin so heavily, if indeed at all." 

The body keeps the score - by Bessel A. van der Kolk

A book about trauma and how to recover from it, but it's very useful to understand the mind-body connection. Few of my favourite quotes

"Whether the trauma had occurred ten years in the past or more than forty, my patients could not bridge the gap between their wartime experiences and their current lives. Somehow the very event that caused them so much pain had also become their sole source of meaning. They felt fully alive only when they were revisiting their traumatic past."

"When our emotional and rational brains are in conflict (as when we're enraged with someone we love, frightened by someone we depend on, or lust after someone who is off limits), a tug-of-war ensues. This war is largely played out in the theatre of visceral experience—your gut, your heart, your lungs—and will lead to both physical discomfort and psychological misery." 

Note: We are conflicted because we separate into "two" inside. Even though we have the reptilian brain, limbic system (mammal) and frontal lobe (the human), we are still unified. In unification, there's no conflict; there is just "what is". But we start to separate and conflict between systems without understanding what the limbic system is trying to say is disliked by the human part, and then we fight "ourselves". But what if we were to take an observer-type view of the entire system and realise we are the system? We are not separate from this system. We are not separate from our thoughts; the thoughts are part of the whole, and thoughts are the "me". The observer is the observed. The watcher is the watched. The thinker is the thought. When the realisation of the observer is fully understood, then all systems are unified, and in unification, there's no conflict, just understanding, and if we understand, we don't suffer. We understand, we see; we act from a place of understanding, not fear. 

"Our culture teaches us to focus on personal uniqueness, but at a deeper level, we barely exist as individual organisms. Our brains are built to help us function as members of a tribe. We are part of that tribe even when we are by ourselves, whether listening to music (that other people created), watching a basketball game on television (our muscles tensing as the players run and jump), or preparing a spreadsheet for a sales meeting (anticipating the boss's reactions). Most of our energy is devoted to connecting with others."

Note: At the root, humans are the same. We think we are different. We think we have different fear, sadness, pain, suffering, and misery, but it's a universal human condition. Different levels of it may be felt, but if you understand yourself, you understand mankind. We've been the same for 4000+ years; check the notes from the book "unfolding of language", which proves that ,we had the same issues, thoughts, chats and dilemmas back then. 

"Social support is not the same as merely being in the presence of others. The critical issue is reciprocity: being truly heard and seen by the people around us, feeling that we are held in someone else's mind and heart. For our physiology to calm down, heal, and grow, we need a visceral feeling of safety. No doctor can prescribe friendship and love: These are complex and hard-earned capacities. You don't need a history of trauma to feel self-conscious and even panicked at a party with strangers—but trauma can turn the whole world into a gathering of aliens."

Note: I had a deep sense this was the truth. After watching Zara's documentary on eating disorders, it was clear to me the main problem was isolation, loneliness, comparison and the lack of being in a tribe that was there for them. Calories aren't the problem, working out isn't the problem, they are neutral, and they can be used a lot or little, depending on the person. People need to be heard, to have a community around them and a calming and strong presence to guide them. 

"Agency starts with what scientists call interoception, our awareness of our subtle sensory, body-based feelings: the greater that awareness, the greater our potential to control our lives. Knowing what we feel is the first step to knowing why we feel that way. If we are aware of the constant changes in our inner and outer environment, we can mobilise to manage them. But we can't do this unless our watchtower, the MPFC, learns to observe what is happening inside us. This is why mindfulness practice strengthens the MPFC and is a cornerstone of recovery from trauma."

Note: No surprise, the solution has been with us for 1000s of years. Awareness, mindfulness and the understanding of oneself inwardly and outwardly are what Buddhism, Stoicism and other ancient philosophical schools have been going on about for ages.  

"The more people try to push away and ignore internal warning signs, the more likely they are to take over and leave them bewildered, confused, and ashamed. People who cannot comfortably notice what is going on inside become vulnerable to respond to any sensory shift either by shutting down or by going into a panic—they develop a fear of fear itself."

Note: Again, pushing away a warning sign because "we" don't like it causes a division of the "me" and the "warning," and that causes conflict and the conflict causes way more issues. Developing fear of fear is another division; you ARE the fear, not separate from it. Unify yourself and realise it is you; there is no escape and nothing you can do about it, and the division stops and, therefore, conflict stops. 

A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix 

I loved this book. Usually, I wouldn't say I like books on leadership, but this one is very different and interesting. 

"After all, the denial of the emotional process is evident in society. If, for example, we succeed in reducing the number of cigarettes smoked by our nation's youth but do nothing to reduce the level of chronic anxiety throughout the nation, then the addiction will just take another form, and the same children who were vulnerable to one kind of addiction will become easy prey for the as-yet unimagined new temptation."

Note: This book was written in the 90s, and this is so bang on. Smoking is down but vaping is up, and there are probably more vapers now than there ever were smokers. The chronic anxiety of the nation is stronger than ever; vaping is a response to that. 

"I want to stress that by well-differentiated leader I do not mean an autocrat who tells others what to do or orders them around, although any leader who defines himself or herself clearly may be perceived that way by those who are not taking responsibility for their own emotional being and destiny. Rather, I mean someone who has clarity about his or her life goals and, therefore, is less likely to become lost in the anxious emotional processes swirling about. I mean someone who can be separate while remaining connected and, therefore, can maintain a modifying, non-anxious and sometimes challenging presence."

"What counts is the leader's presence and being, not technique and know-how. In other words, the head is present in the body! So, too, the connection between a "head" and its body in any family or institution is not necessarily a function of proximity. The functioning of a "head" can systemically influence all parts of a body simultaneously and bypass linear, "head-bone-connected-to the-neck-bone" thinking. What counts is the leader's presence and being, not technique and know-how. These systemic aspects of an institution's emotional processes explain why a leader does not have to know personally those who are being sabotaged or those who are the saboteurs for the leader's functioning to contribute to that nefarious process. Leaders function as the immune systems of their institutions."

Note: I love how this is explained, and hits home as the truth to me. It also sparks a memory of reading Dale Carnegie's "How to win friends and influence people", written in the 30s. In that book, Dale Carnegie interviews the boss of America's largest steel company, and the boss tells him he hasn't got a clue about steel or the technique of making it, but he understands people. His influence as a leader, non-anxious presence, and functioning immune system for that company helped it grow. He didn't need to know the techniques!

This is why companies must stop promoting good employees to managers; being good at a certain task doesn't mean you're good at managing people. It's such a huge mistake. 

❓ How could I have been better as a person? Personally, professionally etc. 

Better person? Just always be more present and give your attention to the moment. What more can I do than that? 

Isn't the worst type of person the one you speak to, but you know they aren't even listening? On their phones all the time. Or they fake listen and keep nodding and saying "ye ye" to everything, even if it doesn't make sense.

So it's better to look at what makes a shit person and not do that. Get to the positive via the negative. 

1. Don't try and talk over people all the time.
2. Don't try and translate what you think they are saying with your viewpoint whilst they are talking, as you're not listening.
3. Don't try and put people down for an easy laugh.
4. Don't be on your phone all the time.
5. Don't act like you care with hollow replies and questions.
6. Don't act like a snob.
7. Don't talk about yourself all the time.
8. Don't talk about others all the time.
9. Don't jump to conclusions. 
10. Don't lose your head. 

I remember asking my dad a question when I was a kid, and he would shout to reply. 

I remember when the ice cream van came around, and the tunes would be blasting, so I'd ask my dad for £1 for ice cream. Here's how it would go

Me: "Can I have a pound for ice cream." 

Him: "Fucking hell mun…. What do you want ice cream for?"

Me: "Just want one." 

Him: Hand in pocket, pulls out about £25 in coins….gives me £1

Him: "Co! Cer!" Welsh for "Here, go!"

Just don't be like that. We all snap sometimes, but you don't want people to remember you as a snappy miserable moody git. 

So yeah, to be a better person,, I suppose to limit the above, become self-aware of my behaviour, and open and joyful with everyone. Easier said than done. 

Better Professionally: 

Work-wise I'm direct and honest and want to move at 100mph and do action stuff. I'm also involved in too many parts of the business. I've let go of some, but I'm not a manager. I'm a "here's what we got to do, let's go" type of person. I will offer support, advice, guides and stuff like that, but I'm not going to micro-manage anyone to ask for reports. I lead via work ethic, vision and energy.

I've come to realise if someone joins my companies, they will need to be ok with being a lone wolf and working on their work without management. They can get the right support, but you must move on your initiative; otherwise, what's the point? Why would you want to work somewhere where you have to wait for your manager to tell you exactly what to do and then get their feedback all the time? Sounds shit to me. 

So yeah, I said in my last review that I understood I'm not a manager, and I've made some leaps this year in improving systems that remove me from menial tasks and more focused on leading on what I'm good at. 

🤗 What am I most grateful for in 2022?

• I live on my own in Fulham, in a nice place, which gives me a lot of peace and space to do my work, read and be my best self. 
  
  
• Having the freedom to go travelling and work on business I'm passionate about 
  
  
• Having my destiny in my hands - I have lots of power in that regard with business direction, time to work, where to work etc. Grateful for agility
  
  
• The Turtle community 
  
  
• Being fit and healthy and not having any injuries 
  
  
• Having access to top-level experts to learn from all the time

⛰️ What were the lessons adversity and life taught me?

I'm proud of how calm and cool I was during times of crisis in 2022. I realised that I need to retain a calm mind and "inner citadel", or things can get out of control once I lose my cool; it's game over for being rational. This is universal for most humans. 

But staying cool helped me see clearly, and my next steps were obvious,, so I swiftly moved ahead with solutions and didn't complain much about it. 

You can get through anything with a calm inner citadel. The next move is obvious when you're calm! 

In specific about adversity in 2022, I'd say:

1. Sleeping on decisions is always a good thing. 
   
   
2. Being very present when things go wrong, your mind can take you to future disasters and replay that all day. It just keeps the stress response on
   
   
3. My body gets ready to "fight" when I'm in a situation that could kick off, and there's not much my mind can do about it at all; it seems logic can't bypass the entire body knowing that danger is near and be ready with that response on 
   
   
4. There's always a way out of shit if you take things one day at a time. So many times this year, I've felt worried/anxiety wash away when I focus on what's in my power which is to do something right now. Now is always the answer. 

😡 What is currently stressing you out the most?

Family issues stress me out when it's such an injustice, likely one of the worst things. You can get easily worked up about it. 

The macroeconomy and the impact on business. We didn't see war coming in 2022, did we? What 2023 holds, I have no idea, but if we're in for even worse economic times, it means a lot of work has to be done on surviving this wave and staying in the game. 

Executing on Turtle 2023 roadmap - I've set out a big year, and a lot of uncertain things now need to move in the right direction for things to fall into place. All good, this is what you sign up for when you're an entrepreneur, but it can still stress you. 

My father's health: He doesn't talk at all, so it's hard to understand his feelings. He's been very down, and his steps and activity are way down. Walking just ten steps is hard, but he panics when he walks and tries to go too fast. So I've been teaching him some breathwork, how to walk slowly and calmly, and to understand his heart rate and not fear it going up. 

Once he feels the heart rate fly up and a tighter chest, he gets intense anxiety, which can cause fits or freezing. 

So it's quite stressful to see him up and down but as I write this I had a great session with him today on walking, breathing and getting his oxygen levels up. 

For example, a walk from the chair to the toilet takes his oxygen down to 82/100 (most people should be on 98/100), but after 15-20 deep breaths and longer exhales, his levels are back up to 91/100. This is still low; he's on oxygen 24/7 now. But it can rise, and his heart rate does fall when he's calm. 

I feel sorry for him, he doesn't show emotion or love, but maybe he never got any from his dad. No idea. His mother was very loving, though, so it's a mystery. But I feel I help calm him down when I'm close to him and get my arms on his shoulders and give him words of support. Even though he doesn't say anything back or give any impression off, any little bit of help like that can go a long way.

I just hope he gets through this winter period and tries to improve his steps, breathing and calmness day to day. Stressful as it's out of my hands. 

🔧 What are the skills that I acquired in 2022? 

I learned more AI/Machine learning stuff 

Tiktok ads

App development (knowledge on this has 10x as you learn more in the trenches than reading) 

My main skills gained are skills in app development, marketing and onboarding. In early 2022 the Turtle app was ugly, had no on-boarding and no way to track ads > installs > conversions 

So in 2022 I've learned all about it. I now have a fully tracked funnel which is set up like this:

1. Ad on FB/Insta/Tiktok for a free guide/blueprint/report
2. Enter email for free nutrition guide (example)
3. Thank you page > get their free macros plan by downloading the app and getting a free 2 weeks trial (we call this the 2 week masterclass)
4. Install app
5. Track each step (onboarding page 1/2/3 > complete questionnaire > start 2 week trial > daily tasks complete etc)
6. trial complete > silver purchases 

So with this flow I can figure out how much money I spend to collect emails from the ads and then how many emails collected convert into installing the app and how many install into starting the trial and how many convert into buying a subscription monthly or annually. 

So with all that figures out I've managed to get free trials to start for £2.50 per trial (down from about £12 per trial to start with). 

So if it costs us £2.50 per trial and someone buys the annual app sub for £59 we have 23 trials to try and get 1 sale to cover our costs. If we do that, we breakeven and we're self-liquidating. 

However, we convert way better than that because the trial is built via a daily task, daily podcast and massive support. 

So it only takes us about 5 trials to convert to an annual. So for every 23 trials we get about 4-5 sales making the entire funnel profitable. 

The next step is how to scale this funnel with more ads, creative, collaborations, new markets (USA) and work on this growth engine. 

Most businesses never figure all of this out, and that's why they die. I'm glad I've put in the work over the years to understand all this myself and not rely on expensive marketing agencies. 

My next steps are to continue to improve each step of the funnel and create A/B tests. 

🛣️ Where You Are Now

Write out a typical daily routine in blocks from when I wake up until when I go to bed

Wake up between 5-6 am (I don't set the alarm most of the time) 

Get a coffee and read for an hour or up until 7 am

Shower + get dressed

Go for a walk 

Turtle radio (7.30 am) if this didn't happen, I'd get straight to work.

Work from 9 am to 2 pm - usually admin, emails, email marketing, speaking to the app development team, speaking to other employees and checking analytics and ads performance. 

Gym 2-3 pm usually 

3-7 pm work - if I have meetings, I usually have them here. Still, often I'd spend time in the community FB groups, answering emails, getting content ready for Instagram, planning our next challenge/event/app launch and things like that. 

7 pm - evening seminar or, if not, more work - usually funnels here.  

8 pm + = read, watch educational videos, documentaries, or some shit about ancient Rome or Greece LOOL

🤔 What is my purpose? What was I put on this planet to do?

I feel I can build businesses that help people and bring groups of people together. 

Rugby Warfare and Turtle Method are community-based companies, and that seems to be the heart of most things I do. 

So my purpose is to keep helping communities of people with their lives, bring them together and keep going down that path wherever it takes me. 

I feel eventually, for me, I'll end up in politics and run to be an MP or push for a better future for Wales. That would be the ultimate purpose of making a dent on that scale. 

 👁️ What is my vision? 

To build Turtle into a mega company that keeps the personal touch. Turtle will become the new Slimming World because it will be the norm and go-to service for people in communities to choose from. 

If you think about Slimming World, you join a local group, learn terrible stuff about health and go back all the time without achieving your original goal of fat loss.

With Turtle, we have a centralised philosophy everyone learns online and through our app. We create community hubs across the nation to unite, connect as humans and make new friends. 

We aren't meeting for a weekly weigh-in or some pseudoscience nonsense. We're meeting because we want to connect with like-minded people and develop ourselves. 

So yeah, in 10 years, people will look back at the services offered by SW and stuff like that and be shocked as to why they didn't find a service like Turtle sooner. 

Turtle will be the place people go to for better health but remain part of a community with a culture coming from the top. Our turtle culture is brilliant. It's a judgement-free zone; we're all learning (even things we never thought we were interested in), debate, laugh, things together, and we have playful/cheerful attitude at events and zooms. 

It's hard to explain, but if we could get this type of community culture across the country, people would be in far better places with their physical and mental health. 

Rate the below and what you want 2023 to look like for each bucket

💪 Physical health 

Rejoin the 5-a-side footy league with the boys and get more running to become fitter. Also, join a Ju-Jitsu club near me. I was looking for more boxing/karate, but there are only a few good options. 

Re-discovering the fun of my youth is a key feature for 2023 - playing football, martial arts and running. 

The most important thing for me is to keep feeling light, sharp and fit. Getting leaner will help with this as I'm a little heavy for my height, but I'm more after athleticism which means playing football, running, stretching and lots of mobility. 

I've always admired athleticism in the form of running, power, martial arts etc. 

So this year, it's time to turn up the intensity, rejoin footy/martial arts and put a lot of fun back into movement and development. 

🧠 Mental health

• Running 

• More walking

• Continue to read

• Physical development in multiple areas

• Spending more time active, stretching and moving in 2023 than sitting down working.

🕉️ Spirituality

Re-listen to Krishnamurti chats, visit India/South America, be present in the journey and meet new people. All there is to do. 

I don't buy into the woo-woo nonsense and everyone talking about frequencies and crystals. Yes, everything vibrates and you learn about resonance frequencies in physics but most people who spout this stuff today have yet to get a clue and say it as a way to feel superior spiritually to others. 

No guru, religion, or book will teach you about yourself. Just be very present, aware and curious about the inner workings of your mind, and you'll learn a shit load. 

On my trip around Europe, I learned a lot about myself and how things work in my brain; it was awesome. 

🖊️ Creativity

I feel most creative when 1) there is no pressure on doing something, and I'm doing something for fun or 2) when I'm with like-minded people brainstorming. 

I need to do more of these in 2023 and go out of my way to meet people. 

🧝 Relationships

I've cut my relationships in 2022, if anything, and it's been for the better. You only need a core 2 or 3 best mates in your life to make the most of things. 2 or 3 real best mates are worth over 1000 fake friends. 

Spending more time doing stuff with them in 2023 than I did in 2022. Whilst I travelled I still spent a lot of time doing cool stuff and in 2023 I have Glastonbury, other festivals, Netherlands, India, South America and a wedding in France for one of my close friends from Belgium. 

Why would I want to waste hours and hours in bars and clubs with people I dislike, spending loads of cash and time? We have around 600,000 hours of life; that's it. 

Spending hours in a bar/club with people just to be social and get drunk and waste Sunday ruined is a waste of 30 hours +. That would be 1500+ hours a year if you did that every weekend because you need to do something.

I'm going to double down on doing epic stuff through the year (not every weekend) with my best mates and people and spend the time between being calm and still and working on my projects. Ideal!

👪 Family

I will spend as much time at home visiting my father, mother, sister, and so forth.

My family dynamics have never been amazing, but I do show up and support them however I can. 

Nothing more to say on this; your family is who you chose it to be. 

✈️ Travel

• India
  
  
• Argentina - Patagonia
  
  
• Netherlands 
  
  
• Athens again

I think going here in 2023 will enrich my life for sure. Also planning a boys weekend in Berlin. 

👻 Fun

• Playing sport 
  
  
• Just visiting places with my mates, having silly fun
  
  
• Festivals
  
  
• Fun/Cool nights out in London 
  
  
• Turtle Events
  
  
• Reading
  
  
• Good conversation with people (new and old)

I’ll be annoyed at myself if I’m not fully fit, playing regular 5-a-side and not doing martial arts full flow by the end of 2023. 

💰 Finances

Definitely need to start saving more. I spend too much. 

My priority is always to grow businesses to help others and make it financially feasible to keep it going. 

🤯 Stretch Goals

3 stretch goals for the next 12 months

• Turtle HQ in USA by end of 2023
  
  
• Book draft 1 done and maybe ready for publishing 2024
  
  
• Launch the male version of Turtle and it becomes just as successful as Turtle

👨‍💻 WORK

What would I do if I could only work 2 hours per day?

• Develop the app
• Record a daily podcast
• Write a daily email
• Work on future turtle plans/events/things

What would I do if I could only work 2 hours per week?

• Develop the app
• Daily podcast
• Hire marketing agency and have a brainstorm once per week for 30min

What would I do if I had to take six months off with no communication from the team starting one week from today?

• Map out all features that the turtle app needs to launch by 2023
• Get all our trainers together to sign agreements to film HD on-demand workouts fo the app
• Hire a marketing agency and appoint an employee to work with them and give them the key KPIs to focus on
• Have 9 months of workouts, challenges and events planned with a way to execute 
• Write a vision report on what Turtle should look like in 6 months with ideas on how to get there and hand it over to the team

How would I know the health of my business if I could only use one number?

Monthly/Annual subscriber revenue

✅ 2023 ACTION AND PLAN

Like the one day at a time philosophy and the "one big thing" way of achieving daily progress, I'll break this down into 3 main things that I think if they fall in place in 2023, everything else will follow.

Business Plan: To pick an investor, work on the company and get the 2nd round of big investment at the end of 2023 with a solid plan for the US market launch. Likely need to raise a few million towards the end of the year to penetrate the market with the proposed plan. 

Personally: I want to rejoin a 5-a-side football league with the boys and play in a few leagues throughout the year. Most fun I get, and it's great for fitness. If this can be a solid feature of 2023, it will help a lot. League starts in January. Also, join a martial arts club. 

Travel/Development: Go out of my comfort zone and visit India and/or South America. May-July time.  

Book: I've been slowly accumulating content, ideas and written essays for a year or two. A book is forming in my mind, and I'd love to have the base structure done and a 1st draft completed by the end of 2023. I write a load of articles I never publish as they are just done to clear my thinking, but I should package them up!