How Awesome was Your 2023? How will 2024 be Even More Amazing?

Have you ever taken a moment to marvel at your own achievements?

That's exactly what we're doing today, as I open up about the milestones that have defined my past year. Join me as I reveal how crafting an "awesomeness list" transformed my self-perception and unexpectedly propelled my career forward. From Toastmasters triumphs to leaps in technical marketing engineering, I share the ins and outs of documenting successes and the undeniable power it has in affirming one's professional journey.

Plus, I'm dishing out some straight-up practical advice to help you pinpoint your own victories and why each challenge conquered is a silent victory in its own right.

The journey to self-discovery is often paved with diverse accomplishments and personal growth. I'm baring all, from the thrill of picking up Pilates to the nerve-wracking yet rewarding experience of publishing a book.

Let's reminisce the sheer joy of hitting the slopes again, navigating the twists and turns of relationships, and spreading the zen as a yoga instructor in Central America. Through my stories, I aim to ignite a spark within you to embrace your unique path, let go of the excess, and step into the upcoming year ready to manifest your deepest desires and smash through those goals. 

Here's to crafting a 2024 filled with happiness, love, and a hearty dose of success!

Watch the full video episode at Justin Wenck, Ph.D. YouTube Channel!

Check out my best-selling book "Engineered to Love: Going Beyond Success to Fulfillment" also available on Audiobook on all streaming platforms! Go to https://www.engineeredtolove.com/ to learn more!

Got a question or comment about the show? E-mail me at podcast@justinwenck.com.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Welcome to the show Today. I want to ask you how awesome was your 2023? And also how is 2024 going to be even more amazing? Now, depending on how your 2023 was or what you focused on, you might be going like how awesome was it? Just, and it was fucking awful, like did you see all the things are going on with the economy and do you know what happened to so and so my family and personally, I went through tragedy X, y and Z. I know I know, yet I still would like you to go go back through that entire year and well, we'll get into it. And one thing that I've been doing for I don't know, probably well over a decade now.

Speaker 1: 0:48

Originally, what made me start asking you, you know, what was great about the past year was because working in a large tech company what's one of the things that big giant corporations are all about? Performance reviews, annual performance reviews, and usually the paperwork would usually need to be put in sometime, like in January or February. Yet the best time of year to actually go through and see what everything was was usually around this, the time of year right at the end of the year, like the last week, because usually it's very quiet. People are, like you know, taking off vacation for Christmas and the other holidays and things like that. Their kids are out of school and whatnot. So it's a very quiet time to start going back and pulling together, like, what did I actually accomplish? What did I do with this poll past year? And so this was required, you know to, as part of wanting to move up the ladder, get promotions, get raises, all these things.

Speaker 1: 1:43

Yet a few years ago, I started doing this just for my personal life. I was like, what did I do besides work? There's going to be some stuff that, like, I don't even want to put there, for you know the work performance valuation. But it might actually make me feel a bit better about myself if I actually look at, like well, what's the stuff that I accomplished outside of work? And then also it turned out that some of the things that I thought might not apply for work started to become useful for where I wanted to go and the types of work, the types of jobs that I did want to do, like, for one example, like you know, becoming a president of the Toastmasters chapter. Like well, it's like well for my when I was just doing pure circuit design. It's not super important yet, when it was like hey, I think I'd be really good at technical marketing engineering. Hey, do you know that I'm also the president of the Toastmasters group and we're all about leadership and public speaking and trying to influence and things like that. And then they go oh, okay, so you're not just an engineer who can just do stuff, you can actually communicate your ideas and influence and persuade. Okay, we're a little bit more interested.

Speaker 1: 2:44

So you never know when these basically amazing awesomeness lists about yourself are going to come in handy. Yet where it's going to absolutely come in handy is just you're going to just feel better about what you've done, and especially if you went through some tragedies, you went through some challenges, you went through some tough, awful shit, because it might be like, man, it doesn't seem like it did anything. But if you put your challenges or the things that maybe it seemed like it happened to you, and the fact that you are still here, that you have made it through to this point, then that is actually an accomplishment. It's like, oh, I went through losing a relationship, through losing a loved one, through losing a job, through a horrible illness or injury, and then when you add, doing anything else positive on top of that. It's like, holy shit, I'm incredible, and I'm going to share with you some of the stuff that I went through and some of the stuff that was awesome about my 20, 23,. Not because I'm here to brag, in fact. Well, maybe a little bit, because it's one of those things I think we're all should could be better at sort of bragging or talking about the good stuff that happens in our life. How awful is it that we're so comfortable talking about the shit that we've been through and stuff that we don't like and the awfulness. Yet when something good happens, like I don't want to look like I'm bragging. It's like we should be like, yes, tell me all the wonderful stuff happening and let's get inspired. So I am going to share the amazing stuff that's happened in this past year, along with some of the challenges, not because I'm so great and I want you to think that I'm great. You can. That's awesome, I guess, but it's really about to give you ideas to. Maybe you're listening to my list and you're like, oh fuck, I forgot, I did something similar and you remember it. Or you get inspired because remember what's?

Speaker 1: 4:39

The other question I want to ask you is how amazing is your 2024 going to be? You might go like, fuck, I want that to be something that I've done in 2024. So I'm going to have a little bit of you know. So this is really going to be an awesome episode that you're really going to want to probably save, bookmark, tell a friend about, because this is going to have some like really amazing useful stuff to get your 2024 kicked off right. So like, okay, so here's some things like to consider when making a list of how awesome your 2023 was, and like literally just pit in paper or create a page in some Word document, wherever, just go 2023, super awesome.

Speaker 1: 5:21

And then I'm going to ask a couple of things, and one thing that I like to do that helps me out and I was just doing this as halfway through, right before I started this to record this episode is I go through my calendar, because I put most stuff that I do in my calendar. I also have a journal. I'll be honest, I have a really hard time reading my fucking handwriting. Like when I was young, everyone was like, oh, you should be a doctor with that handwriting and I am just not the kind that I used to would say that I'm not the kind that helps people, but I'm not the kind that helps people. Now I feel like I am the kind that helps people, because at least the American medical system doesn't help people, does it Does? It keeps you from not dying most of the time. Anyway, move it on. So here are some things so you're going to want to.

Speaker 1: 6:11

So just this is the like questions of things to find out how awesome your year was, things that you want to consider. So these are like skills and talents that maybe you developed over this year. Are there any books or articles that you wrote or contributed to? What positions did you hold in this past year? How about schooling or certifications? Are there any degrees, schools you attended, anything you graduated from? How about awards? Any kind of award, doesn't matter the topic.

Speaker 1: 6:46

How about trainings? What have you studied? What have you immersed yourself in, like was it a workshop, a conference, a convention, something like that, where you went and you got a little bit more into the topic than you otherwise would have? How about life situations or experiences you've overcome, like maybe something health related or something challenging happened to somebody you love or care about, or something happened that was really, really challenging and work. How about your natural skills and talents that just got to be used? Maybe you've always been really good at certain athletic things.

Speaker 1: 7:25

How did that come about? What are the skills and talents that you take for granted just because they're super easy for you? I can't believe you can do that. It just happened naturally and you just did that this year. Maybe something somebody's like oh can you just help me organize this whole event? And you just did and you didn't even think about it. Put that down. What compliments and kudos have people given to you where they said, oh my gosh, that is so amazing Like. I recently had a client after we did this really incredible session where we set up the next seven years of his life. He's like I feel like I'm at one with the universe because of you. That was so cool. That was the feedback one of my clients had about me, about our session.

Speaker 1: 8:16

Then what do you value about yourself? You're just like it's really cool that I have this trait and what do you appreciate? What are some things that you can love just about yourself in general? And you can even you can be like you know what it could be. Something about your appearance you like that's okay, whatever it is, or it could be how you treat people, yeah, or your demeanor in certain situations. Is there anything else that you've created in the past year? It's like art, or maybe it's like an outdoor project around the house, or you've decorated something, or maybe you've done some music.

Speaker 1: 8:51

What have you proud of accomplishing? Yeah, like is there something you did in business? Is there something again like, maybe, that you helped cultivate a relationship or a community? Then, another thing that I think is also really good to look back at is what experiences have you had, such as like travel or ways to relax or self-care? So, have you gotten into some new working out or some new things to relax the body? Maybe some new spiritual practices, right? What spiritual accomplishments maybe have you had over the past year? So these are just some of the questions that you can now go back, play this later and go through that, and I'm going to give you some examples.

Speaker 1: 9:43

Why, as I said, it's not because I am so awesome, although I am, you're also awesome, though. That's the thing is. I want you to also recognize how awesome you are, and I want you to get ideas of like, oh yeah, I did something like that or jot it down because like, oh, I want to do something like that, or I want to do something even better than that, or that reminds me of this thing I've always wanted to do. I didn't think that was possible, so I'll just share like a few of the things. Like this past year I got into doing Pilates. Like I've done yoga for a long time, but it's like, oh, I finally tried Pilates, got super into it, and one of the classes I got used is like the demo, where the teacher's like look at Justin's, look how he's doing it, that's how you want to do it. And I was like, oh my gosh, I found a new podcast editor. That's been really, really easy to work with. I love the previous one and it was time to find someone new. And it worked out really well.

Speaker 1: 10:46

Let's see, I went skiing. I took a ski bus to go skiing. I hadn't skied in like three or four years. I was like a little nervous and I went skiing. I oh. One thing is you can maybe know the things that you let go of. Like there were several friendships and romances that I had to look of and people that were like my healers or coaches and things like that. But I was just like, oh, this is just time to let this go. So that's an accomplishment, too is letting go of people, places, situations that don't work for us. And then it's allowed me to have brand new people coming in. So it's like lately I started working with a new chiropractor. It's been phenomenal. And then you know, I have a new friend that I've had this year and he's been so helpful with so many things.

Speaker 1: 11:34

I wrote and published a book and it got nominated for two awards from my publisher it got nominated for Best USA Launch and it also got nominated for Best Podcast Launch. So how cool is that? I've also written a draft of a second book already. So that was huge. What's funny about the book launching is that literally the next week my grandmother died, and so that was a very tragic, challenging situation. That was like really, really difficult to kind of go through because, like, my mother just passed away about seven months before that. So it was just kind of a lot of loss. A lot of trips back to where my mother grew up in a short amount of time. I had a lot of travel. So I went to Central America in August, so Costa Rica, guatemala, tulum, I got to assist at a retreat, which was incredible, and I had the opportunity to teach yoga. I hadn't taught yoga in person for quite a few years and I kind of created like a new yoga modality that I just kind of thought about and I was like I'm going to fucking do it. And people came up to me and said like that was just incredible. I just had such a release in my body and it was just so gentle and it really, really touched me. Thank you so much.

Speaker 1: 13:02

I was a contestant on a dating show, a comedy dating show called Love Isn't Blind. Where it was, there's a woman who she gets to choose from four men who aren't allowed to speak, and so there's all these various ways that the bachelorette gets to know the gentleman, and one of those is they usually call the mom this case. My mom couldn't be called because my psychic wasn't available, so called my cousin and they asked her well, why would you recommend Justin as a good date, as a good partner? And her response was I wouldn't. So I got humiliated in front of a crowd of 150 live people, so that got that out of the way.

Speaker 1: 13:52

Yeah, I also had a chance to go to New Zealand and travel around solo in a place that I'd never been before, and also drive on the left side of the road, which I'd done before, but this is my first time doing it all by myself. It went really well and was totally fun. I tried a new adventure sport called riverboarding while I was there in New Zealand. That was really freaking cool. And this is just a little bit of stuff. Let's see Some other challenges. I've had numerous sort of like back issues that I've been working through throughout the year. There's still been challenges Some back and some neck pains and things like that so there's definitely been some challenges that have come up. Despite all of that, I still managed to have some really incredible, beautiful, amazing experiences that I'm still going through by 2023. So my question for you is what's on your list? And I'd love for you to share it with me. So go on social media, send me a direct message and let me know like, just and I had this and this and this awesome experience.

Speaker 1: 14:55

We're usually undervalued all the great things that we're doing and we over put way more emphasis on the things that we're missing out on, that we're not good at or that we missed. So it really is really, really important to switch that up, because we actually, where we place our focus, we get more of. When we put the focus on the things going well in our life, we get more things going well Since I've been doing this exercise for so long. That's why, even with really really heavy stuff happens, I still end up having really, really amazing, great experiences when I look back and while I'm also in the moment, enjoying it. And so now let's start looking towards 2024. How is 2024 going to be even better? So what's really cool, what's really even more amazing, is you'll have your list of 2023. And what I'm going to encourage you to do is going to sound really weird, it's going to sound really wild, but if you just do it and then save it and then come back to it next year Because again, this is a little, comes a little bit out of when I was doing performance review of myself and especially, just it just makes my manager's life easier.

Speaker 1: 16:09

That's how I was trained for my first manager. Like you're going to write it and then I'm going to check it over and I since had some managers that like to like well, I couldn't do everything, and it's like no, no, I'll just you know and you have a good starting point. So what are the areas for improvement that you want the next year? And this is really like well, what would you want to say is your accomplishments? You know, looking back, but it's just you're looking forward. So, but it's. I found it's better to actually write it as if it already happened. So, for 2024, if there's anything that I was listing off that I did, that she would like to do, simply create now another piece of paper or another Word document, wherever, and put 2024 awesomeness right and put in 2024,.

Speaker 1: 16:57

I did the following things I can put like that I traveled to New Zealand or, you know, I wrote a book, whatever it is that you would like to do, whatever it is that you would like to improve on, accomplish like oh, I mastered the art of speaking in front of a group of people. I can now do a three to five minute speech and people are enthralled by it. I can put it as if it happened and you know, put that in as if it happened, because your mind's going to look was I guess, I guess we did that. I mean, we wrote it down and I read it and I thought it, I heard it, I saw it, and it ends up being very eerie to go back a year later and look at this and see all the things that you said you were going to do.

Speaker 1: 17:40

Now you're not going to end up doing all of them in the exact same way. What I've found more often than not is I do many of them and then I also end up doing some things that are even more amazing than the things that I didn't do. So don't get too attached to everything being the exact way. It's more like oh whoa, that actually ended up being way more true than not. So be looking for that, because, effectively, like if you can predict a year out with 60% or even 30% and you start predicting really, really, really awesome things in your life, like if you only got 30% of the most incredible stuff you could dream of, how cool would that be? This is like really really amazing, awesome podcast episode, and I'm gonna encourage you to definitely share this with a friend, and also I want you to share with me what it is that you got out of this episode and, if you have any questions, so what in your 2023 was awesome and go to that list that was earlier on the show and use that to think of things, use your calendar, even of all the greatness, and then how is 2024 gonna be even more amazing? And write it as if it already happened. And then have the fun and come back to me a year later Let me know how it worked out and how 2024 was so incredible, so amazing. And it doesn't matter when you're listening to this, this could be a month or two into 2024, or this could even be 2025 or whenever it is. You can always do this.

Speaker 1: 19:18

Don't just wait for arbitrary external markings to do something different with your life. Now is the time. Now is always the time. This is the time to write your story and then watch it play out. Don't let your story happen to you. Be the writer, be the creator. This is the way the world works now.

Speaker 1: 19:40

It doesn't work like it did when you were growing up and it was like do these things and you will be happy. It is decide to be happy and then allow these things to show up in your world. That may make sense, that may not make sense. If you do these things, it's gonna be a way more amazing ride than ever before In your career, in your personal life in your finances, because I didn't even get to the, to the fun.

Speaker 1: 20:09

A lot of the fun personal life stuff Like that's for other places. That's, yeah, this is for everybody. But I put down anything and everything personal fantasies, all sorts of stuff and, yeah, whatever you want, whatever you want, you can have it. You can have it when it's coming from a place of love, fun, kindness, integrity, growth, learning. Yeah, it's all possible. So, with that, find me on social media JustinWink PhD. On TikTok, on Instagram, facebook, linkedin. Go to justinwinkcom slash podcast, subscribe to get newsletters and other info of cool stuff going on and you can email me podcast at justinwinkcom Justinwinkcom. Yeah. So I really hope you guys have been having a great holiday time and are looking forward to a phenomenal, phenomenal 2024. I know I am and I'm very grateful for all of you guys that listen and please do remember to subscribe follow rate review. It really does help out and if you're looking for something, reach out, ask. It's all good, all right with that, gonna let you go and say good day.