Is it just me, or is 2021 already flying by? Either way, another month, another progress review.

This is my first progress review for 2021. Throughout January, I recognised that I was going very well towards most of my goals, but also knew that I probably wouldn’t hit some of them.

If you want to see my goals for 2021, with more explanation and background, check out my Goals for 2021 post.

As I did in 2020, I’ve organised my goals into a number of categories and highlighted some key areas that I’d like to pursue.

Finances/Wealth

Grow Net Worth to $200,000

• My net worth increased to $104,853 over January! So happy that I’ve finally crossed the $100k mark!
• Looking at my net worth growth over time below, there has been a really good increase since the start of 2020. Also interesting to note that this time two years ago, my net worth was actually -$11,884.
• I’ll be making a YouTube video going over how I’ve grown my net worth – so stay tuned for that.

Grow Self Wealth Portfolio to $100,000

• Over January, my portfolio grew to $69,291 (+$821). This was all due to capital gains as I did not contribute towards investing (saving for something special :P).
• In February, I’ll be able to set back into a regular investing routine.

Spend a Maximum of $30,000

• In January, I spent $3,693.30 (29% savings rate) which is an overspend of $1,193.30.
• For this goal, I need to spend an average of $2,500 per month, so at the start of February, I’m currently in a surplus of $1,193.30.
• I’ll need to work extra hard over the next few months to recuperate this extra spending (although, it’s about to get a whole lot worse if I end up buying a motorbike in February….). See how it goes. I needed to buy some bike gear, so apart from that, my other spending was quite good.

Grow House Deposit to $40,000

• My house deposit is currently sitting at $15,858.
• Happy with how much I grew it in 2020, but it’s time to step up my game if I’m going to reach all my financial goals this year.

Health/Fitness

Increase Strength Across the Major Powerlifting Movements, Reassessed Every 3 Months

• I will be reassessing my one rep max weights on 1 March. Current lifts and goals are below are below:
  • Squat (reach 120kg – currently at 95kg)
  • Bench Press (reach 95kg – currently at 82.5kg)
  • Deadlift (reach 160kg – currently at 140kg)
  • Overhead Press (reach 70kg – currently at 57.5kg)

Increase Lean Muscle Mass

• Current lean muscle mass is 64kg (+0.5kg from January).
• I don’t expect much change per month. Great to see that my scales showed an increase over the one month period – I’ve been sticking to a 4-day per week gym plan focusing on the above movements. I’m interested to see what it will be next month, but I may have to focus on ensuring my nutrition is adequate.

Nathan Challenges Life

Grow YouTube Channel to 1,000 Subscribers and Reach 4,000 Watch Hours (monetisation criteria)

• Current subscribers = 284 (+22 over January)
• Watch hours = 467 (+109 over January)
• Great to see this increase over January. I’ll need to have pretty consistent growth over the months to reach my goal (~60 subs per month at this point in time), but I’m hoping that with the more videos I publish, the growth begins to increase faster over time.
• Stats in January:

Publish 100 Videos on my YouTube Channel

• Videos = 61 (+11 over January).
• I’ll have to be a bit creative to make extra videos this year, but I have a number of ideas planned, with a few extras I still need to make. Given the introduction of YouTube Shorts – I may or may not include them in my 100 video goal, but I will see how it goes.

Write 50 Blog Posts on Nathan Challenges Life

• In January, I posted 3 blog posts which you can read here:
  • How to Set SMART Goals
  • How I Learnt to touch-type at 100 words per minute
  • The importance of stoicism in our daily lives
• The great thing about these blog posts, are that they give me ideas for potential YouTube video ideas for my channel.
• I’ve been posting these blog posts, and other posts to Medium – as it is somewhere you can get paid to write depending on how many people read your posts – so I thought why not.

Personal Development

Create my own Personal Training Business and Gain 5 Regular Clients

• I haven’t spent much time on this in January. I’ve begun to create my Facebook Page for the business, and working on some of the back end documents and planning for this.
• I think I’ll call it Nathan’s Mobile PT or maybe Nathan’s Mobile Fitness. I want something simple, direct and searchable.
• I’ve enquired about a small business introduction program through the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme, where they have an introductory session in early February which I will attend. I’ve heard great things about this program and keen to get any help I can.

Read 30 Books

• I’m off to a great start with reading books. I post all my book reviews on my Goodreads profile.
• In January I read:
  • It’s Never Too Late, and You’re Never Too Old – Vic Johnson
  • The Obstacle is the Way – Ryan Holiday
  • The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck – Mark Manson
  • How to Get Ahead in the World Today – Dale Carnegie
• Currently at 4/30.

Experiences

I have been thinking about the things I want to do and try. So for 2021, I’m going to keep a list of things to do throughout the year to make sure I get them done. See below for my current list of things – I may add to this list as time goes on:

• Test drive a Tesla
• Get my motorbike licence – DONE! (January)
• Attend a Jiu Jitsu class
• Organise a cycle-touring holiday/trip (probably planning for March/April when it’s not so hot).
• Attend a CrossFit class (I’ll need to book in for a fundamentals course before I can attend a proper course).
• Break a Guinness world record (unsure on which one just yet, but will start to research potentials).
• Complete an obstacle course race.