Hello Friends,

Happy 2025! Greetings from Okinawa 🇯🇵.

I hope you’d a tremendous past year 😀. I had a lot to learn in 2024, and today I want to share my biggest lessons.

The TL;DR - I’m more convinced than ever that you can “do it all” - that you can, as I do, juggle a legit career, a side hustle, parenthood and world travel and thrive in all. It’s hard but it’s possible. Today we go through how I approach it.

If you fancy video instead, I shot a video with the same content here:

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Also - If you fancy Denmark-only content, two things:

• I discovered the apps Storebox and Optius. If you sign up (it’s free) you can connect your cards and then each time you buy something in Netto, Rema and lots of other places you can immediately get digital receipts in the apps. Consolidating all data at an item level gives you interesting insights: for example, I spent 912 kr in 2024 in cantaloupe melons or 877 kr in Ostehaps 🤯.
• I’m still trying to buy a new and bigger apartment. I got very close to it - offer accepted and then rejected, oops. I’m consolidating my notes again and it will make up for a great resource or update to my guide.

Now, moving on…

Lessons of 2024 - Key Highlights

Career & Leadership 🌟

I got a fast-track leadership role going on in Maersk. I’d been an individual contributor all up to 2024, and then in February, I got a team of four. In bit less than a year we’ve expanded to 14 and we could be 19 in 1-2 months.

This has been wild ride. Here are some key take-aways:

- New Leader? Play to Your Strengths - I’m (personally) very structured and organized. I went overboard to make sure my team and our way of working was also very structured and organized. That got overwhelmingly positive feedback.
​- Use the Listening Repeat Strategy - Listen to your team and pay attention. Then, when people are done speaking, immediately summarize their point: “I think I heard you say …” / “Just to confirm, your point is …”. This works very well. It makes you stand out as someone who really listens.
​- Believe in Yourself - It’s cliche. When you’re in doubt, remember that most (all?) people are winging it 😀.

Ultimate Career Advancement Hack - If you’re career-oriented, the best thing you can do to move up is to a) work for a manager who himself/herself is on the fast-track moving up, in a b) growing company and in a c) growing industry. (You can do one of the three and still do great - but do all three and boom).

Gamification Setup 👾

I’ve tracked my habits (daily routines, workouts, etc.) for almost ten years. (For years in Excel, now using this app.) In 2024, I worked to make this more fun by gamifying the whole setup. 3 Highlights:

- Daily Quests - I re-framed my “Complete Daily Most Important Task” to “Complete Daily Quest”. It’s technically the same but calling it a Quest makes it more fun.
​- Workouts - I’ve always worked out but last year was the first one I kept score. I set a target and then checked in monthly. I ended up with 100+ workouts in the year which is very good for me.
​- Focused Work - I kept track of all my “Focused Work Hours” - i.e., the total hours I sat down and worked on key business development projects (courses building, scripting and filming videos, working on analysis, presentations, etc.). The Forest App (for example) makes this a game, I’m using Toggl though now.

Compound Interest 🎆

IMO Compound Interest is the best thing about getting older. The more you’ve been working on something, the faster the dividends start to pay off. It’s not just about money and investments. Always look for opportunities to compound:
​- 🧳 Career & Habits - Touched on these above.
​- 💻 Side Hustle - I couldn’t prioritize it as much in 2024, but still published 20+ videos, a handful newsletters and two new courses. It keeps adding up! - Learning - I’ve a 600+ days streak in Duolingo for Japanese. (I’ve studied Japanese on and off since I was a teenager, and now finally I’m getting useful - I even had some basic conversations in Okinawa lol).
​- 🍉 Network & Friends - I haven’t prioritized this at all in 2024, but if you keep meeting new people and nurturing your key relationships good things happen. (I want to do more of this in 2025.)

Easier Ones:
​- 📷 Photos and Journals - Take at least one photo every day, and - if you’ve kids - write down 1-2 bullets about new lessons, things you did, highlights, etc. every day. It’s beautiful to review it at the end of the year.
​- 👶Family Traditions - I made a calendar of “Family Traditions” with my wife and the kids are fully onboard. They look forward to a Love Festival, mushroom picking trip, etc. Make your own.

Prompt - Ask yourself, what thing can you do regularly - can be simple and easy! - that your future self will be super happy about?

On Appreciation 🎒

I’ve learned (and worked hard to) appreciate and enjoy the day-to-day. This can sound obvious, but a lot of people are regularly unhappy and complaining about their life.

It’s good to be ambitious. It’s good to want more. But, as my 90-year old therapist told me - “ambition is an attack to what you already have”.

In 2024, I’ve put special emphasis to appreciate the day-to-day and work to be a happier person. This included a mix of daily journaling, longer walks and solo moments, (lots of) time with family and switching off social media and news almost completely.

(Also - Being Present: I’ve noticed that the more present/in the moment I am, the happier I am overall. For this, having small kids is the ultimate hack: there’s nothing kids want more in the world than your undivided and fully focused attention 😉).

Speaking if Appreciation - I appreciate you reading! It was my dream for like 15 years to have a successful online career and by all objective measure I have one now. Thanks for being here, friend on the internet! 💕

Travel & Other

🌏 Travel - I’m starting the year off in East Asia and the Pacific. I’m writing this from Okinawa, and then heading off to Ishigaki, Taiwan and Palau (Country #141). It’s a lot of island-hopping but mixing in cruises and direct flights 😀.

(OK - Note on Palau 🇵🇼: It’s phenomenal. It can’t be more beautiful. It has top top beaches and diving, super friendly people, Japan-vibes and very few tourists. It’s nicer than Seychelles or Mauritius and much better value than Fiji and co. Can’t recommend enough!)

📕 Annual Review - I couldn’t prioritize doing the live workshop the past weeks. If you want to hear my framework and guided exercises, I’ve included the recordings and workbook of a past workshop in the Accelerator Vault.

🗺️ Online Store Update - I’m aiming to migrate all my courses and content into a new setup that is more community-centered. I’ll be updating, expanding and simplifying all courses along the way.

🕶️ Recommended Purchase - The Meta Ray Bans are incredible. Even in Europe, where the AI features haven’t yet rolled out. They look like normal Ray Bans but can take (good) photos and videos, be used for headphones and calls and the whole setup is very well done. I love them.

Prompt - Anything you want to hear from me in 2025? Let me know!

Hugs and have a great one,
Mario

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