6 insights from 2023 that I will implement in 2024
My year 2023 and the greatest lessons, insights, and teachings
We have already stepped well into 2024. As usual, for some, the transition from the old year to the new one also brings analysis, introspection, and setting goals and plans for the future.
In this newsletter, I share with you my 2023 year, my plans for 2024, and the biggest lessons, insights, and teachings from 2023 that I will implement and integrate into my everyday life and personality in 2024.
My Year 2023
At the end of every year, I try to analyze the past year: what went well, and what didn't, gather together lessons, and insights, and set up a plan for the next year: goals, intentions, and things to improve.
The year 2023 was for me was very busy, but at the same time very good! I am quite satisfied with the year and with the progress that I’ve made in various areas. However, there are also some things that I would like to improve in the coming year.
It is also true that some areas are better than others, and this should not be taken as a bad thing. If everything were great, you wouldn't have anything to improve. Also, if everything is fine, you probably aren't being honest and open with yourself enough and you don't want to admit that you struggle in some areas of life. And because of that, you don't do anything to improve these things.
In 2023, I am most proud of:
Podkast Benessere: my Slovenian podcast, the consistent work, growth, success, growth, and new opportunities that are opening up within it.
Achieving balance in my life between everything I do, which I have maintained more or less well throughout the year: work, fitness, work on projects, socializing and, on the other hand, relaxing, recharge, and recovery.
My personal progress: Progress in health and fitness, personal growth, confidence, insights, lessons, etc
New acquaintances, new friendships, and personal relationships.
Good and positive things in 2023 that I want to continue and maintain in the second half of the year:
Work on myself, insights, and life lessons on a weekly and monthly basis,
Health and fitness maintenance
Podkast Benessere
Hanging out with the people I love the most, I feel the connection with and fill me up
Finding and maintaining balance between everything I do and relaxing, recharge, and recovery.
Analyzing the year, in addition to my diary, where I write my thoughts and personal "confession" (sometimes daily, sometimes a few times a week), and the planner where I write daily highlights of the days and insights, lessons and teachings of the week, I also used the so-called the wheel of life and the online evaluatorMindvalley Life Assessment.
The wheel of life works by dividing the circle into 3 parts: health, relationships, and work, and then dividing each part into 3 parts: health into body, mind, and spirit, relationships into romantic relationships or love, family and friends, and work into growth (personal growth), money or finances, and job, career or mission.
For me personally, it was quickly evident that the categories that limp the most are romantic relationships or love and money or finances. This was also confirmed by the Mindvalley Life Assessment, which said that the category I need to focus on the most is the quality of life (Life Quality), which, among other things, consists of money (money enables life experiences and improves the quality of life) and romantic relationships and love, which improve the quality of life.
I would know that money and romantic relationships are the "worst" for me right now even without analyzing it, because it's obvious. I am aware on a daily or weekly basis that I am missing and lacking this. I've been trying to improve both areas for some time now, but I just couldn’t get them right.
At the same time, I know - this was one of the biggest lessons and lessons I learned this year - that things take time - especially love - and not everything always depends on you.
You have to open up and let it come to you, but you also have to regularly work on it and invest time and energy in giving it a chance to improve.
So in the coming year 2024, I will put more emphasis on these two categories: money and finances and romantic relationships.
In terms of finances, I have to overcome the blockage and the fear of charging for my services, start offering various services, monetize the podcast, and successfully execute some projects - including the online course.
In romantic relationships, I have to open up more and go out more, meet new people, and make new contacts. Only in this way will I be able to create opportunities for a romantic relationship and love to open.
6 insights from the previous year that I will implement in 2024
There were many insights, lessons, and teachings in 2023. I came up with them weekly through my research, real-time learning, listening to podcasts, reading books, watching YouTube, interacting with others, etc.
Below I share the biggest ones, the ones that reoccured throughout the year, and in my opinion are the most important of this year. I hope that they will come in handy and maybe spark some (new) knowledge for you too.
1. The mental aspect of healing and recovery
In the late 2023, I got sick and spent New Year's Eve in bed with a high fever. On the first day of the new year 2023, I visited the emergency room, where I was given antibiotics for a viral infection. Antibiotics did their job, but also wreaked havoc on my gut.
Since the gut plays a large and important role in overall well-being and mental health, I felt the effects of the antibiotics as lack of energy, malaise, and also mental health issues (anxiety, melancholy, and some depression as well).
Shortly after stopping the antibiotics, I began the protocol to heal the gut and repair the damage caused by the antibiotics, and restore the gut. At the same time, I realized that:
When healing and recovering, it is just as important to focus on our mental, emotional and spiritual health as it is to focus on lifestyle and physical health!
During various challenges and events in life, it can quickly happen that we fall into the trap of our mind. Our mind creates an illusion and reality that we live in without realizing it. It often happens to me that I fall into victim mode and self-pity, which can be difficult to get out of, and if you stay there, it prevents you from growing and progressing.
Healing and recovery are not only physical: mental, emotional and spiritual aspect also helps a lot. It is necessary to focus on all areas.
Focus on directing your mind in the right direction. Support and work on your emotions, harness the power of vision, joy, passion and purpose, and work on strengthening your mental health.
The Dangers of Antibiotics
2. All the things you are looking for and want, you can give yourself.
This realization came on one difficult day in a strange and difficult period of late May and early June. I was not an easy period for me. I didn't feel well. I had a lot of pressures inside me, and behind those pressures was the desire for approval and attention.
Towards the end of the year, I found out on Jordan Peterson's podcast that attention = love and if we didn't get enough attention - or enough 'real' attention, the attention that we need according to our personality type - in our childhood years, in adult life results as a feeling of lack of love and, as a result, craving and searching for attention.
Throughout the year, I realized that I put pressure on myself, push myself, and force myself into a workaholic because I want to prove myself, to be seen by others, to get people's approval and attention, because of the feeling that I am not enough and that I am not loved.
Based on this, I heard an inner intuition that told me:
"The things you want to get from others and the world around you - be it approval, validation, respect, love, etc. - are often found within you. All the things you seek and want, you can give yourself. This it is not easy, but it is much more powerful.”
This is not science fiction. These are known things, and many people talk about it, but we all fall into back this trap of seeking approval, attention, and love from others - although it is always inside us, we just don't know how to give it to ourselves.
So this realization serves as a great reminder for me to focus on working on myself - especially working on self-love.
3. Persistence and delayed gratification
Instant gratification is one of the biggest problems in today's world. We don't like doing things for which we are not immediately rewarded because we are used to the immediate dopamine from social media, video games, series, porn, etc.
However, the more you want something, long for it, and the longer you patiently wait and work towards it, the more you will appreciate it when you finally get it and achieve it.
The best and most illusory example of this that come to mind are Ferrari and Michael Schumacher in the Formula 1 World Championship.
Michael Schumacher joined Ferrari after the end of the 1995 season. At that time the racing world was convinced that Michael would lead Ferrari to their first championship title after almost 20 years.
But to everyone's surprise, in the 1996 season Schumacher lost the world champion title in the last race.
Things went similarly wrong in the 1997, '98 and '99 seasons where the title narrowly eluded Schumi and Ferrari. After the end of the 1999 season, many, both critics, Ferrars fans, Ferrari team and Michael themselves, began to doubt the Schumacher-Ferrari combo, but at the same time they persisted and did not give up.
What followed was something incredible and made history: Michael Schumacher and Ferrari won 5 consecutive titles, both in Drivers' Championship and in Constructors’ Championship (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004).
If you’re not a sport fan, then look at the example of chinese bamboo: You plant a seed of a bamboo tree and nothing happens for 5 years. Then after 5 years, something starts moving and suddendly the bamboo tree grows 30m (90ft) in just 6 weeks.
Read This If You Lack Motivation And Persistence To Achieve Your Goals
The lesson of the stories: you never know when things will turn around and work out for you, so you just have to work hard, persevere and wait patiently. The more you want and long for something and the longer you patiently wait for it, the more you will appreciate it when you get it and achieve it.
This lesson ties directly into the next one, which is:
4. Work without expectations
After a long time I came across an idea that is very familiar to me, I have already written about it, but I forgot about it (this is the "human condition").
This is the idea of the British philosopher Alan Watts called The Law of Reverse Effort" or the Eastern philosophy of Wu Wei or Effortless Effort.
The main point behind this idea and philosophy is that the more you want something and the more you chase it, the more it slips away - be it success, happiness, love, etc. When you struggle to stay afloat, you sink; but when you let go of control, you float.
I’m starting to realize that the most beautiful things in life happen in two ways: As a result of strong consistency and dedication to the process. Or completely spontaneous, unplanned, and unexpected.
Blessings and magical moments come when you least expect them. Life would not be interesting if you had a drawn and marked path.
Therefore, Wu Wei, Effortless Effort or Effortless Action: Do your best, no more than you can, and don't be attached to the outcome and result
PS: The best life philosophies are so very simple. :)
5. You can't change deeper things on a conscious level
The weeks of October were very turbulent for me: some emotional and subconscious things opened up for me and I really didn't know what to do about them.
Then, during and through the psychedelic experience on LSD (more on it maybe another time), I realized that what you can do with the conscious mind is limited.
The conscious mind represents only 5%, the rest is in the subconscious and unconscious mind - that's where the real power for change is hidden.
Rational and positive thinking will help to deal with current things, but it will not help solve deeper things, things that you carry in our subconscious or are not even aware of.
You can't change the deeper things on a conscious level: you can't consciously with your mind change the sub/unconscious things on an emotional, emotional, soul, and deep personality level.
The deeper roots things have, the more we have to choose tools that turn off the mind and take advantage of the "unlimited" power of the subconscious and unconscious mind (eg deep meditations, hypnosis, psychedelics...).
6. What will really count and matter in the end?
Throughout the year 2023, on 3 different occasions, I came to insights and realizations about what will really count and really matter in the end.
First, on vacation in June. I was on the beach, I went through the diary, analyzed the first half of the year and came to the realisation that:
In the end, you will be fine and nothing of the moment will matter anymore.
Most of the problems and challenges we face will not really matter in the long run. Maybe we feel as if the things, challenges and problems we face are terminal and fatal and will mark us. Maybe some things really chart our path forward in life, but in the end none of it will really matter.
When we really - but really - stop and when we come at the end of our life, we will not remember the challenges and problems - we will forget about them. We will only remember the good things and live in the moment. Then nothing is as important as it seems to us while we are in those difficult moments.
Death can also be a great teacher. In the last year, there were 3 deaths around me and in my life - 2 family members and 1 neighbour in our village. Thinking about death puts things into perspective.
One light turns on, the other turns off. One soul breathes in for the first time, another breathes out for the last time. What will really count and matter in the end?
It seems to me that in the end, it's only what you leave behind that really counts. Are you chasing personal successes and achievements that boost your Ego? Or for things that leave an impression on people and help change and improve the world?
Knowing that our time is limited is not a reason for regret, but an opportunity for a strong inner drive to leave something behind.
The desire to make an impact on the world and the people around you and to leave a legacy behind you that will live on even after you are no longer here - both in the family area with descendants, as well as in the interpersonal area and relationships, as well as with business, purpose and mission - gives a strong the inner drive and fuel that pulls and pushes us forward in life.
A final thought
I saw a very interesting post on Instagram around Christmas. It talked about the fact that from a numerological and astrological point of view, 2023 was a year of inner work, work on oneself and inner knowledge, and that 2024 will be a year of abundance, success, and an opportunity to step into your potential.
Although these things are a bit woo-woo, I think there is something to it, because I have this feeling and intuition that the year 2024 will be very good and successful year.
So I take this opportunity to wish you a happy and successful 2024! Be brave and enjoy it! 😊❤️