For 2024, my word is Enrich.

This year I am focused on growth, both internal and financial.

After six years of learning about cryptocurrency, trading, and technical analysis, I feel like I have learned enough to build my fortune. For centuries, clever people with a bit of capital have engaged with financial markets to generate fantastic amounts of wealth. I’m ready for that to be my story; this year, I resolve to the habits that will help me become enriched.

New Years Resolutions 2024

Read a list of gratitudes upon waking.

I am very happy with my morning routine, except for the most impressionable time of day. In the moments when we first wake, we are the most in touch with the subconscious, and I have not been intentional with how I spend this time.

I’ve been in the habit of waking up for my 5:30am alarm, checking the markets, and scrolling my phone in bed for 10-30 minutes before going into the shower, starting the hour of power that sets me right for the day. I enjoy this lounging snooze, but I don’t think it helps me to have the day I want to have.

So I asked myself, what is the best way for me to spend my first few minutes upon waking?

During this twilight time, between waking and sleep, I should not be inviting the emotional roller-coaster of trading. I find I do my best trading when I am intentional about my emotional state. Since I am dedicating myself to building my fortune this year, I commit to using the first few minutes of my waking day intentionally.

I enjoy keeping a Victory Log, a short list of my little and big wins throughout the day. I will leave this list by my alarm, so I can read it first thing in the morning, and spend time in the emotional state of feeling gratitude for all my life’s victories.

Family Game Night

I enjoy board games and card games so much, and it’s one of the best ways my kids and I can relax together and interact. We’ve tried in the past to have a regular game night, selecting a specific night to gather and play, and it worked the best when we had a D&D campaign going. I’d love to play Dungeons and Dragons with the kids again, but if all we play is My Little Pony Monopoly or a few hands of Spades, I’ll be happy to spend more time with my favorite people this way.

Dance with Johanna 3x / week

When we were young, Johanna and I spent a lot of time dancing Nia routines. We have a library of these choreographed routines from when we were teachers of this movement discipline, and we often review these 45-60 minute class recordings when we want to sweat, and move, and explore what we need right now in our bodies.

We take 2-4 walks per day around the block with our two big dogs, and that light exercise has given us plenty of time to chat and connect. I’d like to deepen that connection, and improve our health, by taking a midday dance break for 20-40 minutes together.

Start a local Improv Games Night

There is a repertory theatre just a few blocks from my house. Throughout this town, there are multiple venues that cater to events and shows. We moved here during lockdown, so we didn’t meet many locals for a long time. The theatres still haven’t recovered, and its only now that shows are starting again. I don’t know anyone in the local acting community, and hosting a weekly Improv Games Night is a great way to introduce myself. My 17-year-old daughter is expressing a lot of interest in learning improv, and with just the two of us, there’s only so much we can do. The spontaneity and ingenuity of improv multiplies with more people, and I’m looking forward to using my stage experience in service to the local community.

Record health symptoms daily

Last year I posted my New year’s Resolutions a month late, because of a severe relapse of my autoimmune disorder, Ulcerative Colitis. I’ve spent most of this year in recovery, and I’m only just now back up to my former strength. I plan to reintroduce new foods this year into my restrictive diet – dairy, nuts, and alcohol – which will require careful monitoring. I can only see patterns if I have the data. So every morning, while sitting on the throne (ahem), I will open the Bowelle app and record the foods I ate and the symptoms I had from the day before. This is the easiest, most repeatable time of day for me to plow through the tedious chore of recording this data.

Journal yesterday’s trades

This is a similar habit, recording data to make better decisions. Examining the trades closed from the day before, and listing the things I did right and the things I did wrong, will force me to review what’s succeeding and what’s failing. My trading strategy will benefit from close examination, trade by trade, of what’s working. The times when I have ignored this type of retrospective have usually led to bad trading periods; I ignore the losers so I can focus on the winners, but this keeps me from changing a losing strategy early. I want to grow my fortune this year, and a good journaling habit will help me do that.

Many of these resolutions may not survive the year (related post: Why Breaking New Year’s Resolutions Is Good For You). Last year, I had 1 win, 3 fails, and 3 partials. You can check in with my progress when my Annual Review is published at the end of the year. Stay tuned!