Reflecting on the year that I built a van, a consistent writing habit, and a better understanding of my place in the world.

Outline

I. Introduction
II. Interactive VanLife Map

III. Quick Hits
IV. 2022 Goals Assessment
V. Well-being Scorecard
VI. 2023 Goal Setting
VII. 2022 Photos of The Year
Appendix: How I Prepared The Review

I. Introduction

Your habits become who you are.

So, who am I today? And, who am I trying to become tomorrow?

I laid it out earlier this year in a piece called "Starting with The End in Mind."

I'm striving to become a man who is caring, empathetic, and bold.

This essay is the roadmap to my continued journey in becoming that man.

That is to say, no plan that I make, no static moment in time, and nothing that I do will ever be perfect.

I will stumble repeatedly. This review is not some sort of mirage to pretend otherwise (see "what didn't go well" portion of the well-being scorecard for reference.)

Rather, this is the documentation of someone who errs often but routinely tries to choose love, service, and exploration over malice, self-centeredness, and closed mindedness.

In other words, this is my public pursuit of a life well-lived.

II. Interactive VanLife Map

Zoom in using the + and - sign in the bottom left corner.

Click the button top left to see a full list of all of my stops broken down by month.

Click the button top right to open the map in a separate tab for a larger map.

III. Quick Hits

Newsletters published: 51

# of podcasts published: 2

Twitter growth: 555 -> 1,100

Miles driven in the van: 20,217

Live Show of the Year: Odesza

# of states traveled to: 28 + D.C

Newsletter growth: 0 -> 241 subs

Essays published: 1 (just this one)

Top habit formed: weekly writing

Top habit removed: drinking alcohol

Coolest piece of tech I used: Starlink

Content I consumed the most of: Mav

Proudest achievement: building the van

Most profound concept I learned: Moore’s Law

My top podcasts: The All-in Pod, My First Million

Most fun piece of writing I produced: Outlaw Logic

Biggest challenge: 5 van breakdowns - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Top 3 Artists: Odesza, Tyler Childers, Judah & The Lion

Most grateful for: 5 van breakdowns - increased resiliency

Top Reading Materials: WSJ, TechCrunch, Hacker News, PH

Favorite interaction with a stranger: McCoy the Shoeshiner

Most heartbreaking moment: Uvalde, TX shooting that took 21 lives

Most joyous moment: Game 3 of the World Series in Philly with my dad

Most meaningful piece of writing I produced: Starting with The End in Mind

Most serendipitous moment: meeting a van builder in the woods (right when I needed one)

Top 3 questions I kept asking myself this year:

1. Is what I’m doing the highest leverage use of my time?
   
   
2. What things should I be intentionally doing that aren’t high leverage?
   
   
3. What’s the difference between the man I am today/the man I need to become tomorrow, and how do I best close that gap?

My 2022 headline: “Man in a van who has trouble asking for help and depending on others is forced to ask for help and depend on others.”

Well-being Scorecard

2022 Goals Assessment

Key
✅ - accomplished

➖ - descoped

❌ - failed

1. 🚐 Build the Van (✅)

• From the design to the build to the documentation, I could not be more pleased with how the van turned out.
  
  My woodworking skills were limited when I took this project on. The van was certainly a stretch goal, but I made it happen.
  
  Additionally, I was intentional about recording the entire build process.
  
  I published a case study which includes 5 videos that detail what it took to make this idea a reality.
  
  More than 6k+ folks on YouTube have now seen the design of my van, and I’m paying it forward by helping them avoid mistakes I made through these videos.
  
  Bottom line: I’m pleased with the woodworking skills that I learned, the stories that I gained, and the relationships that I strengthened through the build process.
  
  
  

2. ✍️ Build a Writing Habit (✅)

• I went from a sporadic writer online to a consistent, steady writer. Come hell or high water, I publish at 8am on Thursday.
  
  To some folks, adding a deadline like this into their life sounds daunting. It's not.
  
  This weekly deadline is simply to hold me accountable to doing what I love - clarify my thoughts.
  
  I let myself publish sporadically online for roughly 2 years before locking in, but I brought an end to this hot and cold behavior this year.
  
  Bottom line: I have become more comfortable putting my ideas into the world, I've improved my clarity of thought, and I've built a growing community along the way.
  
  
  

3. 🧭 Travel the Country/Live in the Van (✅)

• This goal wasn’t achieved because of my success but because of my repeated failures - 5 freaking breakdowns, but I stuck with it.
  
  I also knew that this type of goal had an expiration date on it. I won’t be ripping across the country in a van in future seasons of life. Now was the time to strike (and strike I did.)
  
  In all, I did 9 months living in the van for a total of 20k+ miles and 28 states (+ D.C.)
  
  The road is not easy. It’s volatile. The highs are high. The lows are low.
  
  One day you’re managing a mechanical breakdown which is taking a toll on your mind, body, and spirit. The next day, you meet a group of people while watching a beautiful sunset and your energy reserves are filled right back up.
  
  That's just the way it goes.
  
  Bottom line: I challenged myself and became more resilient, saw/experienced incredible places, and reignited existing friendships while making new, lifelong friends along the way.
  
  
  

4. 💪 Build a Lifting Habit (✅)

• One of the reasons a lifting habit was important to me was so that I could manage stress while on the road.
  
  I've done a few different power lifting programs before, so the key here wasn't to get fancy. I just wanted to improve upon what I knew.
  
  I spent a number of nights sleeping in Planet Fitness parking lots, so I was able to take care of this goal.
  
  I hit PRs in power lifts such as bench press/squat as well as body weight exercises such as pull-ups and dips.
  
  Bottom line: A man whose days were all different in 2022 sought routine in the beacon of hope that is the 24/7 Planet Fitness business model.
  
  
  

5. 📖 Read on the Road (✅)

• This goal was accomplished in one word - Instapaper. Instapaper is an app where you can download online essays and articles to a single place for you to highlight, mark up, and take notes.
  
  As I'd go about my day, I'd download pieces of writing for me to sit down and consume later on in the Instapaper app.
  
  This helped me differentiate mindless scrolling as opposed to deep reading.
  
  Additionally, I added a "What I'm Paying Attention To" section of my newsletter. It's easy. I go into Instapaper, pick the top pieces I read that week, and link them in the newsletter.
  
  Bottom Line: the integration of Instapaper and my consistent writing habit helped me hone in on my reading habits.
  
  
  

6. 💻 Mentor a UIF Cohort (✅)

• The University Innovation Fellows (UIF) is a program that I participated in during college.
  
  UIF has been the best way for me to volunteer while moving around on the road the past three years.
  
  I've guided a number of different cohorts through design thinking training and gotten to know awesome undergraduate students along the way.
  
  Now that I've landed in one spot, I'd like to return to in-person service opportunities.
  
  Bottom Line: Volunteering for UIF has been fun/rewarding, but this will be my last year as a mentor. That way, I can free up time for Durham-based service opportunities.
  
  
  

7. 💼 Build a Business (❌)

• Two things caused me to fail on this front: 1. A lack of clarity on what success would've looked like for this goal. 2. Thinking I can both travel the country, leave my job, and start a business at the same time.
  
  As Jim, my academic advisor in college, used to say, "you're trying to fit 10lbs of flour into a 5lb bag."
  
  I knew life on the road was temporary and that my time to fully lean into VanLife was in 2022, so I intentionally relinquished my expectations on this goal.
  
  With that said, I did build an essential skill sets curriculum and drove 1,000 people to the landing page here.
  
  I also competed in a hackathon and built a pretty nifty tool that my teammate David and I will be working on in 2023.
  
  Bottom Line: I need to be more clear about what success looks like occupationally to prevent failure, but I'm proud that I sprinted through the end of 2022 with the hackathon.
  
  
  

8. 🎙️ Podcast from the Road (➖)

• I descoped this mid-way through the year. It was not practical to think that I could guarantee a strong enough wifi connection or quiet enough environments to facilitate interviews.
  
  I freakin’ miss podcasting too, but as I look to 2023 I know that something has to give. I have intentionally left this out of my goals in the new year because I feel as though it is not the highest leverage thing I can be doing right now.
  
  I'm also a bit burned out on the 1-on-1 interview format that I did with Building Out Loud.
  
  My secret hope is that I make a close friend (or group of friends) so that I can be a part of a podcast like All-In or My First Million years from now.
  
  Yet, those 2 podcasts are successful because you learn from industry veterans with deep expertise and awesome stories. For me to get to a point where I can co-host a great pod, I need to earn my stripes.
  
  Bottom Line: I descoped podcasting from '22 and am focused on building AI products/writing in hopes that this makes me a better co-host of a podcast one day.

9. 🍺 Take a 1-Year Break from Drinking - (✅)

• In previous years I’ve done 1-month, 3-month, and 8-month breaks in drinking. In 2022, I wanted to see if I could go the whole year. Why? I’m constantly trying to uncover who I am when I can’t depend on things. I apply this logic in multiple areas (i.e. I don’t do caffeine or nicotine.)
  
  But drinking is different. It’s so embedded in our culture that some folks thought I was crazy to do this (which, as a result, only wanted to make me do it more.)
  
  "Who am I without a social lubricant? Who am I without a few beers to take the edge off?" I thought.
  
  I also wanted to know what I could accomplish without alcohol. A lot of my goals are accomplished on nights and weekends. I found that my energy levels tanked the next morning after drinking, and I couldn't get stuff done.
  
  I didn’t have a “drinking problem.” I had a “not achieving what I’m setting out to do” problem.
  
  Aligning my actions with my words was paramount this year, so alcohol bit the dust.
  
  Also, from a safety standpoint, I was sleeping in parking lots and forest roads across the US in my van. Should something have happened, my first line of defense was always to drive away. So, going sober for the year helped me stay safe.
  
  Did this mean I stopped going out? Heck no. I particularly wanted to uncover who I was in social settings without alcohol - weddings, line dancing saloons, dive bars, and more. I had some of the funnest, wackiest nights out in my life without a sip of alcohol.
  
  This isn’t to say all drinking is bad. It's simply that I wanted to revaluate my relationship with it and see what I was made of without it.
  
  Important Note: I did have a beer with my dad at the World Series in November and a glass of champagne when my sister got engaged in December.
  
  Outside of that, I truly had no alcohol. I wanted to be disciplined, but I didn't want to let those two specific moments of raising a glass (or can) pass me by.
  
  Bottom line: I know who I am without a social lubricant, and I'll be reintroducing red wine this coming Jan. to find out what my relationship with alcohol should be moving forward.

10. 🏠 Use the Van to Choose a Spot to Settle - (✅)

• I knew that full-time VanLife would come to an end at some point, and I wanted to find a spot to settle in the southeast.
  
  I used the van to live in a number of different cities to see how I'd like them - Raleigh, NC, Durham, NC, Greenville, SC, Asheville, NC, and Richmond, VA.
  
  This is something I wrote a few times about last year in my pieces "Where's the best place to build?" and "Where can I best serve & build equity?"
  
  Bottom line: The van enabled me to get a feel for the pace of each city, and I decided on Durham for it's start-up scene, emerging tech sector, history, diversity, art, and food.

2023 Goal Setting

1. 💰 Build Self-Sustaining Income Independent of a Corporation

• This is my top goal for a reason. I want to work with awesome people, build cool things, serve others, and control my time. I'm not saying it will be easy to get there, but I think it will be worth it.
  
  Additionally, I think I find myself at the perfect window to execute this occupational goal.
  
  I am 25 with 3 years of product management experience. I know enough where I can find ways to produce value for others, but I'm young enough where I can fall flat on my face and be okay (because I don't have a family or kids to support.)
  
  Plan of attack: build 2 companies - 1. Feather AI: the premier speech-to-text summary service 2. DAO Town: the central place for DAO news. See what sticks.
  
  My prediction: I will make money building AI products/writing about DAOs and fail (a lot). This will accelerate my learning and deepen new/existing relationships - making it rewarding intellectually and socially no matter what happens financially.
  
  

2. 📫 Publish Newsletter Every Thursday & Grow Subscriber List to 1k

• Last year my goal was simply to write consistently. I got the job done. Now, I want to scale to grow the community of folks I interact with on a weekly basis.
  
  I'm currently at 241 subscribers, just short of my goal of 250 for 2022.
  
  I'm proud of the progress I've made thus far building an audience, and I look forward to continuing to grow it.
  
  Plan of attack: collaborate with other newsletter writers, cross-promote each other's work, and gain new subscribers by marketing long-form essays (more on this below.)
  
  My prediction: there are 1,000 wacky people out there who will be willing to sign-up for my newsletter ◡̈

3. 📱 Take a 1-Year Break from Facebook and Instagram

• Nick Gray is the author of a book called "The 2-Hour Cocktail Party." He's basically the go-to guy for how to make friends as an adult. He has a quote that I freakin' love:
  
  "Facebook is for friends that are now strangers. But Twitter is for strangers that should be your friends."
  
  For my age group, this is incredibly true. We largely do not produce content on Facebook, so I'm mostly looking at "suggested content" from people I've never met.
  
  Instagram's algorithm has shifted towards reels (which most of my friends don't produce), so I'm largely looking at people I've never met on there too.
  
  Twitter, for my goals, is where I want to be. I am able to develop authentic relationships with writers, podcasters, product builders, and investors around the world.
  
  Basically, 3% of my time on FB/IG is spent actually consuming content from people in my life. The other 97% is me mindlessly scrolling, casting judgment, strategizing how I can post a dope 24hr story rather than being present in the moment, and overall burning time/energy.
  
  I'm not denying the value in that 3% - hearing about engagements, seeing wedding photos, or sharing my own valuable moments from my life with others. It's on me to proactively reach out and ensure I retain as much of that 3% of meaningful information exchange.
  
  Plan of attack: store the log-in info far away (off my laptop), delete mobile apps, log out from browser, and don't access FB/IG for 2023. Keep in touch with folks via text, phone calls, and the newsletter. Build meaningful relationships on Twitter by helping other people with their businesses, writing, and other projects.
  
  My prediction: I'll sometimes miss news from folks in the periphery of my life, but I'll be able to remain in contact with the real folks that matter the most to me. If 2022's best habit removed was to stop drinking, I think taking a break from FB/IG will be 2023's best habit removed.
  
  
  

4. 🖊️ Publish 1 Essay Per Quarter

• Twitter is where I churn out half-baked ideas. Then, if folks engage with said ideas, I write a newsletter on the topic to expand my thinking. I'm going to take this a step further.
  
  I'm going to combine multiple newsletters that I've previously written and turn them into essays.
  
  Why? I'm taking the best ideas that have made it through 2 cycles of iteration (twitter, newsletter) and packaging them into evergreen content - stuff that is timeless, not timely.
  
  Plan of attack: write one essay per quarter in 2023, market these pieces through channels of distribution such as Product Hunt and Hacker News.
  
  My prediction: I'm going to have a freakin' blast remixing some seemingly unrelated writing of mine from 2022 and working them into wacky and fun pieces in 2023.
  
  
  

5. 🏃 Build Endurance, Balance, Flexibility, and Better Nutrition

• In 2022, I reached PRs in power lifts, but I want to center my health goals around longevity. I'm more focused on feeling good than looking good.
  
  Fellow writer Joe Wells has encouraged me to check out ROMWOD which is a daily routine to improve range of motion. I need something like this.
  
  I'd love to commit to a daily yoga practice, or stretching practice in theory, but I think daily would be too much given goals #1-4 I have above.
  
  Plan of attack: go on two backpacking trips, participate in 1 F3 workout per week, walk to co-working space each day, do stretching sessions 2 times per week, buy local produce, get 8hrs of sleep, sleep with your phone in the other room, and drink 16oz of water when you wake.
  
  My prediction: The key to success on this one lies in making the time in my calendar for each of these activities. I know me. I am a gosh darn pain in my own neck. I'll put work over this stuff if I don't schedule it out.
  
  

6. 📰 Improve Information Caption System

• If 2022 was about refining my information diet, then 2023 is about refining my information capture. Though, my information diet could still be improve by adding timeless works and subtracting the amount of timely pieces I read.
  
  My diet looks like: fiction before bed (please send me historical fiction recs), podcasts on my walking commute into town (All-In, My First Million, Founders), and weekly time for Instapaper review.
  
  I need to do a better job of routing all of this information into one single capture system in Notion.
  
  Plan of attack: review Tiago Forte's content on Building a Second Brain, link instapaper + Readwise to Notion, decommission your broken Evernote/Apple Notes systems, and make time to read what's timeless (not just timely)
  
  My prediction: This will be the highest leverage habit I build in 2023 with ripple effects across my ability to produce high quality work as a product builder and writer.
  
  

7. ☀️ Rest fully on Sundays

• My mind is constantly running. If I don't actively build in off-days, I'll burn myself to a crisp (speaking from experience.)
  
  This one may be the simplest but the hardest for me - don't do work one day each week.
  
  Plan of attack: Go to church, spend time with friends, get outside, get off your phone, meditate, read, and write. Just be still.
  
  My prediction: I'm going to be at war with myself on this one lol.
  
  

8. 🧘 Build a 2x Daily Meditation Practice

• It's insane how poor breathing contributes to bad habits and bad attitudes throughout our day.
  
  My goal is to ease into the day and ease out of it through mindful breathing.
  
  Plan of attack: 20min of transcendental meditation before the day starts, 20min of transcendental meditation in the late afternoon/early evening - mix in Wim Hof when in need of a more active meditation.
  
  My prediction: just as weekly writing was the top habit I formed in 2022, I think this daily meditation will be the top habit I form in 2023.
  
  

9. 🤟 Participate in a Local Service Opportunity 1x/week

• Online writing, building AI products, and pontificating upon the future of DAOs is fun and all, but staying so focussed on the future has the capacity to disassociate me from the reality that folks just down the road from me may be struggling in the present moment.
  
  I want to get to know my neighbor in Durham, become their friend, and serve them as best as I can.
  
  Plan of attack: meet with my local Pastor, identify a need I can help play a part in, and schedule a weekly cadence to participate in the service opportunity.
  
  My prediction: this habit will be the most life-giving of out of the 10 goals I'm setting forth for 2023.
  
  

10. ⛷️ Try Things That Are Completely New & Do Things That Bring You Joy

• Novel experiences wash over you like a wave when you live in a van. Despite now being in one place, I want to ensure I'm still making time to try new things.
  
  Here's a wacky one: I've never been skiing. All of my friends ski, but I don't. It's time to remedy that.
  
  Also, all this goal setting and review stuff is great, but don't forget to be a human, Josh. You freakin' love to throw on some boots and two-step, so go do some of that.
  
  Live intentionally and be present in joyful moments, but be prepared for stuff to go awry and to smile through it.
  
  Plan of attack: go skiing, do some two-stepping, go in with an open mind to whatever other adventures come your way this year, and just have some freakin' fun you nerd.
  
  My prediction: this goal's success will depend less on a plan of action and more on me setting this intention.
  

2022 Photos of the Year

Appendix: How I Prepared The Review

This was the most difficult piece that I have ever written.

While this took 50+ hours to read, write, and reflect, it wasn’t the amount of time that made this difficult. It was that I reviewed and analyzed myself - both the good and the bad - unlike I’ve ever done before.

There was no hiding from myself in this essay.

How did I do this? I read every piece of writing that I produced in 2022. This included all 51 newsletters that I published publicly and 90+ pages in a handwritten journal that I recorded privately.

While reading all of my writing, I followed Tim Ferris’ lead. I sorted out what things were positive and negative influences in my life into a simple t-chart. This helped inspire the "Quick Hits" section (which you can think of as the superlatives of the year.)

Then, I jumped into Steve Schlafman’s Ultimate Annual Review Guide and Dickie Bush/Nicholas Cole's Yearly Review Guide to help me reflect on what I did and didn't accomplish this year. This information became the materials for my "2022 Goals Assessment" section of the review.

Finally, I reviewed Sahil Bloom's annual review guide which influenced my plans of action under the "2023 Goal Setting" section of the review.

Tim, Steve, Dickie/Nick, and Sahil's exercises allowed me to narrow down my inputs for this review. Many thanks to each of them for passing their wisdom onto others.

After these exercises, I placed my "Interactive VanLife Map" and “Quick Hits” at the top of the review as a way to ease the reader into this lengthy piece.

I also included my “2022 Photos of The Year” at the end of the piece as a way to ease the reader out of the review.

This process was exhausting but essential.

My mental clarity is paramount to who I am seeking to become in 2023, and my intention in setting this annual review system up is to run it for the next decade.

So while this is my first annual review, it's not my last.

Thanks for reading this far. Drop me a note on who you are becoming in 2023 - hello@joshcadorette.com.