It’s time for a (belated) review of how my year went in 2024 and what my plans for 2025 are.
I am currently travelling overland in West Africa; it’s some pretty hardcore travel that requires a lot of mental bandwidth.
So, instead of rushing this review and doing a shoddy job, I have written in smaller segments whenever I have spare time.
It’s not a good idea to rush this annual post, but when done correctly, it helps me to find focus when I am feeling chaotic about life.
I Sold My Apartment
A significant milestone last year was selling my apartment.
It wasn’t a decision that I took lightly. After years of being mortgage-free, this is clearly a financial risk – going back into the rental market again.
Still, with good intentions about improving essential parts of my personal life, I sold up and moved into a 3-storey townhouse in a fantastic location.
It was utterly unfurnished (including no air conditioning units), and the deposit that the landlady asked for was a little cheeky, but I love the place now it’s kitted out, and I genuinely believe that the headspace that I have now has put me in a position to focus on making more money.
I have my own office now, and the focused work I get done there is poles apart from me working in my former apartment or at a workspace.
I guess time will tell with that theory.
Physical Achievements 9/10
I completely switched gears, instead of going hard on the weights and calisthenics as intended – I decided to go hard on my distance running goals.
The decision was taken out of my hands as a ghost of annoying shoulder injuries past started to flare up.
With me unable to perform any pushing exercise without pain in my torn labrum, I hit my local track and decided to get speedy over a chosen amount of distances.
I’ll list them in more detail later on. I trained hard and also smart for the most part, nerding out on running terminology and methods while fiercely chasing down my running goals one by one.
Finances 6/10
This part is always the most challenging part for me to talk about.
I have a myriad of phenomenal life experiences since travelling for the last 14 years, I have lived a thousand lives in that respect and I spent a hell of a lot of money on those experiences.
I’m happy about that, but I mismanaged my money over the years, and I’m currently playing catchup.
Once I got settled into my new house and no longer had to spend, I could start saving each month.
Travelling Africa overland at the end of the year was awful for business; 6/10 is a fair score here.
Not awful, but there’s nothing to move the needle in a good way.
Mental Health 5/10
Womp-womp.
The most important section of the review, of course, was not a great year for me with respect to having an overall sense of well-being.
I had to make an incredibly painful and difficult decision in 2024. Considering I was already not feeling that great, this was the final fallen domino that kicked me to my knees.
Stoicism has been a great deal of help to me, and I’m happy that I chose to do another 100 days without alcohol because booze is not fun when you’re feeling down.
It’s just life; you have to roll with the punches and not lean too much into a disempowered mindset.
9 Countries visited in 2024:
As always, I’ll list them in order of countries travelled, with an asterisk next to any new countries for me as I aim to visit every country in the world:
Thailand
Taiwan
Malaysia
Mauritania
Senegal *
The Gambia *
Cape Verde *
Guinea-Bissau *
Ghana *
I returned to my beloved Malaysia, the country that started this whole party 14 years ago, with a perfect itinerary in Kuala Lumpur.
God, I love that place.
Taiwan was a lovely break, too, the calm before the storm before jetting off to Mauritania for the 3-day ultra marathon.
My plan was to visit Senegal and Cape Verde and then go home, but when an American fella who I met in Mauritania said he was continuing throughout Western Africa, I got serious FOMO.
This part of the world is one of the most challenging regions to travel, and this fact has been haunting me for years.
So I decided to cancel my flight and join him in the wild Wild West (Africa) and eat into my every country goal with some serious scalps.
Favourite Country in 2024: Ghana
I read online that Ghana offered a temporary on-entry visa to selected countries for a 2-month period only.
Unfortunately, the UK was not on the list. It bothered me because I really wanted to go, but I told myself when I got on the flight from The Gambia en route to Sierra Leone that my pity party would end as soon as the plane touched Sierra Leone’s ground.
The flight was diverted due to bad weather to… Ghana. I took it as a sign, and instead of going to transit for the returning plane to Sierra Leone, I tried to get a Ghana visa at immigration.
I figured I had nothing to lose, I already assumed I couldn’t get one without applying in London and the worst that they could say is no, then I’d get back on the plane to Sierra Leone.
It looked promising from the first conversation as I was met with one of the friendliest immigration counters I’ve ever experienced.
They found it hilarious that I changed my mind and wanted to come to their country at the last minute, and within 30 minutes, I had the fresh Ghana visa stamped in my passport.
Always take a leap of faith in these circumstances, folks.
The immigration agents were a fair representation of Ghanaian people: kind, amiable, and warm. For those reasons, Ghana is my favourite new country for 2025.
Goals Achieved in 2024:
Let’s take a look at the goals that I managed to succeed in:
Weekly Yoga
I’d love to report that I am now a bendy contortionist with stellar hip flexor mobility and that my new course has surpassed the record sales of Jillian Michaels, but that would be very far from the truth.
Still, I managed to do at least show up to one yoga session every week for a year, and I believe this mitigated any tightness from the hardcore ultra training. I have yet to enjoy the practice of yoga, but I always feel better after a session.
I have made peace with the fact that I may never enjoy it because the result is more important to me, and even 30 minutes can loosen up irritating knots.
I Ran a 160 km Ultra in The Mauritanian Desert
You can read about it here. I believe it was the 13th and last ultramarathon that I’d ever run. I’m proud of the achievement, but I’m also 3 toenails down!
Personal Best 5k
I beat my personal best 5k time on 3 occasions on this goal attempt, cementing myself in the sub-19 5k club for the first time in my life and knocking Mark Zuckerberg off his perch.
Personal Best 10k
It took me 10 cracks of the whip to achieve my next vs clock running challenge – running a 10k in under 40 minutes. It was exhausting, but the effort made it even sweeter when I got there.
Personal Best 15k
I personally think that me running 15k in an hour was my most impressive physical feat of 2024, including the ultramarathon and a sub-1-hour-30-minute half marathon.
It was a proper lung-busting effort, one for the Hall Of Fame. My heart rate was at 184 beats per minute for an uncomfortable amount of time. I quite literally could not have tried any harder than I did here. My first 10k was faster than my 10k personal best by a minute, and my final 5k was my 3rd fasted 5k at the time!
90-Minute Half Marathon
The next logical step for me was to try and run a half marathon in under 90 minutes. That deal was sealed after 3 efforts.
I was on a high, and once I nailed this, I ran a disappointing 3:45 marathon a week later. My body was exhausted, so I took a week off. When I returned to training, I switched gears from speedwork to mileage in preparation for the Mauritania ultra.
100 days of No Alcohol
For the last 4 years, I have done a 100-day no-alcohol challenge. I feel fantastic every time I do it.
There are negatives to it such as me missing out on fun social events, still, the 100 days no booze is a net positive for me so that I will continue this tradition every year.
Walk 10,000 Steps a day.
Easy-peasy, lemon squeezy, considering how much I was running.
Sold My Apartment
As previously mentioned, it wasn’t an easy decision. The apartment had decreased in value due to the building’s caregivers letting the building go.
On top of that, I had burned bridges with the staff for being honest about that in weekly meetings (not the done thing in Thailand), so the atmosphere felt a far cry from what “home” should feel like.
I sold and rented a house. I am happy with my decision, but it’s indeed a gamble.
I Built a Home Gym
I have been obsessed with the idea of having a home gym, and my god, mine is beautiful. Close to perfect (for what I like).
My crappy photos won’t do it justice, I will dedicate a post especially for that.
I hate public gyms with a burning passion. I no longer have to wait around while some narcissist records themselves for social media or scroll on their phones in between sets.
Public gyms are very seldom used with the collective agreement that they are communal, and social media culture is making it worse.
That rant aside, I also have cut down on commute time and have banked more time in doing so. My gym has everything I need, and I can’t wait to get busy in it when I am not travelling in the second half of 2025.
It wasn’t as expensive as I thought it would be and it cost around $3000 USD for everything. Worth every penny.
Goals Failed in 2024:
I hate this part, but it has to be done. Here is where I fell short in 2024.
Increasing My Net Worth
The most disappointing failure of 2024 was not adding to my net worth.
With the spending on the new rental that was completely unfurnished and some hefty travel spending at the end of the year – I failed this vital goal, and I am hell-bent on not failing it in 2025 or ever again.
Body Recomposition
A body recomposition refers to the process of simultaneously losing fat and gaining muscle. Unlike traditional weight loss, which focuses on reducing overall body weight, body recomposition emphasises improving body composition by decreasing fat percentage and increasing lean muscle mass via weight lifting and smart cardio.
I am less bothered about this failure because it wasn’t for the want of trying but for matters entirely out of my control.
My old shoulder injury meant I could not lift weights to any intensity, but instead of feeling sorry for myself, I immediately redirected my fitness goals to running, and I took that intensity with me to the track on most days.
The result was me smashing my running goals. All good. Also, my body looked better anyway with the result of my being fit, however the ultra and West African overland travel has me currently skeletal.
Being Better at Sleep
My Oura ring tells me I averaged 4 and a half hours of sleep per night last year, and I was shy or good REM and deep sleep (the good stuff).
If I were a single mother, that would make sense, but I am not.
I failed miserably at sleeping well in 2024, one of my biggest gripes of inadequacies of last year.
Attend Regular Toastmasters
There are no excuses here; I bottled it.
Daily Journalling
Journaling does help me, but what I found is that what time of day I do it is more efficient for my personality and natural energy levels. I force myself to wake early but am not firing on all cylinders when I do.
It’s the nighttime when my thoughts come to life, and journaling helps shush the chaos. I found this out later on in the year.
Publish a Book
Writing and publishing a book of high quality for the first time is hard! Who’d have thought otherwise?
Apparently, me.
Close but no cigar, but the base is there and will slay this dragon in 2025.
Financial Goals For 2025
Ughhhhhh. I need to be better at this until it becomes second nature.
I will be travelling for the first half of the year, but only 2 of those trips I would put down as intense and difficult to work on the road.
£25,000 savings should be doable.
Publish My First Book
With blogging being a shaky industry, thanks to Google’s massive changes, I have three options.
- Be really whiny and do nothing about it.
- Go back to old-school blogging and have products and high-quality free content.
- Start something new.
Number three appeals to me more at this stage. While I do want to go back to old-school blogging, I put a lot of mental energy into looking into self-publishing. The beauty in this is if I write about topics closely related to my blog (fitness, running, travel and personal growth) I will be able to have a serious go and number two and three.
There is still so much for me to learn. I am enjoying the process, and 2025 WILL see my first self-published book.
$15,000 a Month By The Final Third of The Year
I was too ambitious last year trying to double my monthly generated income with all the stress I had on. This year, I aim to get to $15,000 by the final third of the calendar year by working full-time, plus some more on the business that I already have.
Physical Goals For 2025
I have thoughts about this ad nauseam, and I constantly juggle with three physical goals:
- Train Muay Thai kickboxing full-time for a year
- Run a Sub-3-hour marathon
- Do a body recomposition
The one that I would like to do the most is train Muay Thai for a year. After all, I live in Thailand – the home of this beautiful, striking art. However, I have committed to travelling for the first half of the year, so that one is out.
I failed my body recomposition last year due to my old shoulder injury returning. A shoulder injury with Muay Thai is not a happy union.
Running a sub-3-hour marathon takes serious commitment, and I think travel will not be conducive to this goal. A body recomposition makes sense to me, as I travel with gymnastic rings for backup when I don’t have access to a gym.
IF my shoulder plays up again, my physical goal will then change to a sub-3-hour marathon. Let’s see how my shoulder handles intense gym work in 2025.
Mental Health Goals For 2024
Health is wealth in body and mind, and these goals will be my main focus when looking after the circus in my head.
Drink Less Alcohol Than Last Year
For the last couple of years, I and a few mates have had a Google Sheet where we input our alcohol intake. It is built on trust, and we have a “token” system.
I have successfully never gone over my tokens, although some years have been close. I am happier with my relationship with alcohol, but I am far from content.
I still believe I drink too much, and this year, I will have a strict rule of not drinking in my house alone in 2025. This will cut down on a decent percentage of alcohol intake, and I know that once I declare a rule, I tend to stick to it because I am mentally strong when I do that, as my competitive nature activates.
On the topic of drinking “less”, I also want to drink less volume of alcohol when I do drink. This is my biggest issue that I have – it doesn’t matter if it’s a positive experience with banter flowing with loved ones or me anxious sipping when bored off my tits talking to some crypto bro at the bar… I drink a lot when I drink.
I am 41 years old.
This is not cute or funny, and quite frankly, it’s embarrassing. I also get the “Beer Fear” really bad, or my preferred description “Hangxiety,” an awful phenomenon when you hate yourself after a night of drinking and make up stories of things that you may or may not have done or said so that you can hate yourself even more.
This is not a vibe that I would like to take into 2025, and I plan to be fun and tipsy on chosen nights with friends, as opposed to a slobbering, ugly mess who wakes up feeling like the world has ended.
High-Quality Sleep Gains
I wear an Oura ring, which lets me know how good or bad I sleep and constantly tells me how lousy I am at the practice of sleep.
It is closely tied to stress. Stress eradication is a myth; stress management is what I want to focus on, and this year, I am gunning for the unfathomable trifecta of an average of 8 hours of slumber per night with constant REM and deep sleep.
Travelling for the first half of the year will make this tricky, but I am taking personal accountability in getting as close to perfect sleep as possible.
2 Hours of Screen Time on Mobile
I’m sure I’m not alone when I say I have concerns about that rectangle of chaos that is my phone and the addiction that it comes with.
I don’t kid myself like many do that I am AcSHuallY LEarNinG!
Social media is largely trash consumption and we are not designed to take in that much information at once, I genuinely believe it’s rotting our brains and doing so much damage to our mental health.
I can’t be too smug about this knowledge, though – my screen time is terrible.
I know I can’t convince everyone this, but I can focus on myself. 2 hours for social media, including WhatsApp; I don’t count audiobooks that I occasionally listen to – it’s X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and YouTube plus WhatsApp chat which is the biggest problem for me and I am looking to cut down on those to get to where I want to be.
Practice Stoicism Like a Religion
Finding Stoicism has been way better for my life than any amount of therapy has (and I have done more than any man I know).
But you can’t just read about something good, you have to actively pursue it and live my its values to reap the benefits of it. It’s like lost people who get all fired up at a Tony Robbins conference before going home and doing sweet F all to change their lives.
Last year, there were many times when I felt like I was not being stoic and giving in to my more chaotic side. Travelling in West Africa demands stoicism – you have people constantly fu**ing with you, extorting money, potential danger, logistics not working or making sense, and you can not lose your head, or you will be eaten alive.
Rudyard Kipling’s “If’ is an ideal stoic war cry for moments like this.
The way I see it, devout Muslims pray 5 times a day, observant Jews go without electricity from sunset on Friday and end at nightfall on Saturday, hardcore Christians go to church every Sunday… I’m sure I can give an extra few hours a week to the ideology of Stoicism.
I know it’s not an official religion, and I never really got seduced into any organised religion. Still, this philosophy is the closest doctrine that I have looked into in great depth, and it betters my life when taken seriously.
Like anything, this can be bastardised by bad faith actors, but the core fundamental practices of Stoicism attract me to it (virtue, courage, justice, reflection, gratitude, mindfulness and the search for beauty and meaning in life).
When I first encountered Stoicism, I misjudged it as being aligned with Nihilism.
I couldn’t have been more wrong. Stoicism is far closer to existentialism—the original antidote to nihilism—but with less chaos, more order, and a profound sense of purpose in life.
That’s it for my 2025 review; it’s time to get busy creating my fate—best of luck and inner strength to anyone reading with goals in the new year.
