Here are my top of mind lessons, reflections from 2024.
Time is on my side #1
Ever since my heart related incidents in 2023, I have had trouble falling asleep. The fear of the incidents repeating has kept my monkey brain purring at night.
Here are some tools that I’ve found work for me:
- Daily meditation – even if only 10 minutes. I’m using the Calm app, specifically Daily Calm with Jeff Warren. It seems to help quiet the chatter in the brain, hence falling asleep is slightly easier.
- Hot baths before bed – this is the start of my sleep routine. Draw a hot bath, read a good fiction book and just let the worries of the day melt away… Ah.
- Recovery is key – before my incidents I was training 6 times a week (3x cardio, 3x weights), and in hindsight that was likely too much. I’ve now dropped training to 4 times a week (2x cardio, 2x weights) and I’ve found that I have less soreness, I’m excited to train and I’m just happy with slow progress.
Time is on my side #2
I’ve invested in crypto in some capacity since 2017. Many, many times I’ve thought about selling some positions, but didn’t. The end of 2023, start of 2024 was great with BTC & SOL rallying strongly because of the US ETF approvals.
All major crypto assets essentially moved sideways for 8 months from March 2024 to November 2024: (here BTC chart)
Reminder: be patient, let the market come to you. The vast majority of humanity has very little interest or understanding of esoteric topics such as “AI Agents on chain” and “Liquidity Pools”, yet I’m 99% certain these will be building blocks in a new financial system.
Time is on my side #3
On May 13th 2024 my Mom passed away after a four year long struggle with dementia & Alzheimer’s. I’ve wrestled with the grief of her passing, and guilt that I have left Finland, depriving her of the chance to see her grandchildren regularly. The shock of seeing her get worse and worse month after month, year after year and not being able to change a **** thing about it. Just sadness that she is no longer here, that I can’t call her and discuss her day, say how much I love her.
And yet, yet after several months – my memory of her is overwhelmingly positive. I remember all the times she would sing to lull me to sleep, our conversations in her little kitchen, the many many cakes she’d baked and the vacations she took to see our family.
Time is on my side #4
I’ve found that many adults have a need to keep up ‘Resume Appearances’ – basically not wanting to show any gaps in their work history, their resume etc. I believe this is a mistake, because I’ve found that a break – a few weeks, a few months, a year – can help you find an authentic path for yourself.
As an example when we moved to Singapore in 2011, I had a few months on traveling and settling in – and this gave me the time to ideate Move Correctly – a digital health start-up.
This year in Jan / Feb 2024 I had the time to ponder my next move – which became the book “Cryptocurrencies Decrypted: Hope and Economic Freedom for a Broken Financial System” – available on Amazon now 😀
Bottomline is…
It’s a new year now and I’m excited about the future, about the projects I’m working on.. More about those in the next post.. !