At the end of last year, I wrote out everything I wanted to achieve in 2013.

Here’s how I finished up as well as some breakthrough realizations I had this year.

Goals Completed

Pay off student loans

Steady side income of over 2k a month that takes less than 4 hours of work to maintain

Reach 1,000 blog subscribers

Guest blog for 6 reputable blogs

Create and market a digital product

Travel to 2 new countries (China, Peru, Chile, Netherlands, Brazil)

Start an interview series

Drinking 1 less day per month

Create an LLC to write off expenses

Create an event that people love (New York Personal Development Meetup)

Redesign my blog

Go to China to visit one of my best friends while he’s there

Take 2 weekend trips with friends (Jackson Hole, Montauk Summer House, Stowe)

Create a monthly business development newsletter

Get the twitter handle Britton

Get better at using virtual assistants (employ 2 dedicated assistants)

Crystallize exactly what I want to write a book on and start writing it

Red Zone

If you aren’t familiar with my football lingo, this section is for stuff I almost achieved.

Grow hackingNYC to 500 members (342)

Meditate everyday for an entire month (Currently do this about every other day)

Read some biographies of people that inspire me (Started reading Churchill and Teddy Roosevelt’s)

Go to 3 “real” concerts (crappy bar shows don’t count)

Grow BDNewsletter to 1k subscribers (866)

Volunteer once a month

Wiffs

If you are familiar with my wiffleball lingo, this is for stuff I didn’t accomplish or make much progress on.

Become a contributing writer at a major publication

Get a mentor in the publishing/writing space

Record a fear journal of doing one thing that scares me every day

Spend 2 days every 3 months completely unplugged

Read a book on the psychology on confidence

Gain 1-2 professional mentors in an area that’s in alignment with my goals

Start an annual party that benefits charity with friends

Host a dinner party every 2 months

Create something to sell on Appsumo

Give one talk to 200 people

Speak at a local TedXEvent

Graceful Bow Outs

Join a team with friends (joined a dodgeball team, but went to 1 game)

Create a Skillshare class on blog growth hacks

Cool Stuff I Didn’t Set Out To Do and/or Expect:

Moved to Rio De Janeiro Brazil with 5 awesome friends

Went full time on my digital products business

Learn(ing) Portugese

Learning to surf

Created a 82 pg ebook (to be released soon)

Hiked the Inca Trail and saw Macchu Picchu

I became much more honest and confident

Did a paid week long workshop in Chile on How to Make Money Online

Have pretty much gave up drinking except for taste a.k.a I don’t drink when I’m trying to meet girls or be fun

Going to be on a TV Show (filming this week!)

Did intermittent fasting for 3 months

Started playing Football again (Flamengo)

Overall this has been a pretty great year. I feel really blessed and I could have never predicted that my life would look like it does now when I first wrote these goals down at the end of last year.

Breakthrough Realizations in 2013

I had some amazing realizations about myself and worldview this past year. Here are the ones that stick out to me:

1. The most important thing to me in the world is people and my number one emotional need is love.

You can build all the castles in the world, but ambition is worthless if you have no one to share its spoils with. (tweet this)

Once I realized this, I started spending more time on my relationships with people that I care about and romantic life.

Guess what? I’m way happier.

*This is simply what makes sense for my personal emotional needs. There is definitely people out there who are happier slaving away at achievement for achievement’s sake than enjoying the love of family, friends, and romance. That’s just not me.

If you’re interested in understanding what your emotional needs are, check out Tony Robbins 6 Human Needs.

2. Speaking of the S word Success, I’ve gotten better about internalizing that Success is actually something that you define for yourself…

There’s lots of people out there who’ve sold big companies, have bigger audiences, and wield more ripped abs than me. But despite achieving all these things that society tells them equates to success, they’re regularly unhappy, stressed, and empty.

If that’s what being “successful” looks like I don’t want it.

Where I screwed up and where most successful, yet unhappy people do is that they fail to properly “define and align.”

They typically fall into one of these camps:

1. They fail to define their own personal version of what a successful life looks like.

2. They define it, but it’s actually not in alignment with what creates true happiness for them. Sup pile of gold!

3. They actually define personal success properly, but fail to align their actions so that they’re living out a successful life regularly.

An example of this would be someone who defines a successful life as one that’s balanced and contains the company of great people. Yet despite this definition, they prioritize majority of their energy towards career advancement or making more money (often for no finite purpose.)

Their actions are not in alignment with the pursuit of their success definition RIGHT NOW.

Success for me is about being the person I want to be and having an abundance of freedom and people I love in my life.

Yeah, I still work a lot and do things I don’t like sometimes. But I try to enjoy the process and maintain balance because success is now! It’s not some destination I’ll eventually get to once I accomplish a certain number of things.

The sooner you realize “you’ve already made it,” and grow to savor the journey, the quicker you’ll become a happy clam.

3. Most people’s sustainable dream lives can be achieved without the egregious amount of wealth we tell ourselves we need.

I come from the lens of someone who doesn’t have a family to support and I’ve paid off my student loans. I get that peanut gallery! But I still maintain there’s an astounding unbalance of people who have the capacity to live out their perceived dreams and those who actually are.

For more on this idea read this article on The Fallacy of Money As A Means. There’s no need to save life’s deserts for when your fat and 50! Live some of your dreams in your prime.

4. The most important quality for cultivating charisma and attraction is energy. If you learn to master energy and charge conversations with it, people will want to follow and be around you. The words that come out of your mouth are far less important than the force you carry yourself with, at least in a social setting.

The interesting thing about energy is one of the best ways to build and maintain it is by being happy : )

5. Credentials are a trap. Yes, they help. But you’re a sucker if you don’t at least try to pursue your most grandiose ambitions because you don’t think you have credentials.

Many things I’m doing like writing a book and getting paid to speak I thought were only reserved for people who’d built rocketships. I realized this was really just a B.S. excuse I created to protect myself from trying.

When you start taking on grand pursuits you’re going to catch a lot of flack because most people possess the limiting beliefs I mentioned. Many people prefer to put others down than look in the mirror and ask themselves why they’re on the sidelines which is why getting heat is INEVITABLE. Just stay the path and smile big when you climb the podium.

In a few days, I’m going to share my goals for 2014 as well as the methodology I used to create them.

If you want to see the 7 step process I use for crafting holistically ambitious goals, you can download it here:

The 7 Step Blueprint for Crafting Holistically Ambitious Goals in 2014

What were you’r biggest breakthrough realizations when you reflect on 2013?

Do you want to achieve any of the completed goals above in 2014 and want help with it? Save yourself some time by asking for help or tips in the comments.

Also if you want some more context on a specific goal, let me know in the comments as well