Goals for 2021

Robin Sharma’s framework for setting goals for the New Year really resonated with me, so those are what I’m using. The steps are bolded below.

Note your five central personal values. Happiness and elite productivity appear when you work and live under your own terms and standards.

1. High standards and execution over perfection
2. Curiosity
3. Unapologetic authenticity
4. Hard work — don’t give in to the instant gratification monkey
5. It’s ok to feel lost. Just keep moving and let inertia do its thing

Set your three most essential goals for the key dimensions of your life (personal growth, family, work, fitness, financial, spiritual, etc.).

Personal Growth:

1. Consistency!!! — during quarantine, I’ve had the opportunity to experiment with tons of different incremental improvements to my lifestyle. The main issue has been solidifying these habits over a longer course of months. In 2021, for each month, I’m going to solidify one habit and one habit only. I can try to work on other habits simultaneously, but one habit is non-negotiable. Here are the top 3 general categories of habits that I’m going to work towards.

• Solidify bedtime and cool down before bed (30 min — 1hr of reading, meditating, or reflecting on the day or specific thoughts). Solidify wakeup time and daily updates as well as morning routine (meditation, yoga, reading, and reflection)
• Food habits. (properly chewing, no distractions (e.g. TV))
• Experiment with different productivity systems and master a simple one

2. Get out of your comfort zone. With the COVID situation alleviated, I want to do things that’ll give me a completely new perspective. My goal is to gather at least 5 unique experiences by the end of the year (a combination of athletic goals with travel). Some ideas I have include

• Biking 100 miles
• Do 5–10 larger than 10-mile hikes
• Try skydiving
• Travel to another country by myself
• Attend some conferences in person 🤞 – really want to attend Exponential Medicine and NeuriPS

Family

The next few months are the last few months in my family before (fill-in-the-blank), and I want to make the most of them.

1. Communicate with my parents every other day
2. Spend time with my sister — crafts and puzzles look like the best way to go. At least a few hours a week.

Spiritual/Fitness

1. Yoga. Experiment with Upa-yoga (pre-yoga) as well as the different versions of sun salutation (Surya kriya vs. Surya shakti and normal Surya namaskar.) After getting yoga consistently every day, try ramping up the number of Surya namaskar sets by two every other day.
2. Look inwards. This is a vague one, but a really simple goal to act on. It just means being with myself for 5–10 minutes a day. No guiding meditation audio. No books or screen. Just myself.

Learning and curiosity

I’m also going to honor the Paul Graham essay that‘s guided me so far; I need to continue exploring.

1. Besides my one main internship/project, I’ll complete 1–2 side projects. Ideally, they’ll each cover a different subject domain or area of interest. Right now, I’m thinking that one’s in self-quantification and growth tracking through an app and the other project will be a continuation of a project in antibiotic resistance
2. Block out 1–2 hours at least to just learn every week. That might mean reading Nature articles, picking up a new book, or reading over some recommended blog posts.
3. Read 40 books in 2021. For at least 12 of the books, make a deliverable. That could be an article, podcast, video…

Network/Community

1. Host a brain pod every other month or so for Biodojo
2. Especially during Q1 and Q4, use Lunchlub/Linkedin to make 1 connection a week
3. For the 50 new people I meet this year

• 10 people should be from Lunchlub
• 5–10 should be investors
• 5–10 should be people my age
• 10 should be biologists/medicinal scientists
• 10 should be specialized in AI