This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hello everybody, what's up? Welcome to "Sydusle School." I'm your host, Chris Guillebeau. This is the episode going out on New Year's Eve, 31 December, episode 1461. Oh my gosh, what a year it has been. I thought we'd do something special today and tomorrow as we prepare to begin year five of the program.
Year five of the program starting up tomorrow, which means today is the last day of year number four. I wanted to share some brief reflections with you both on the year that's drawing to a close and the new one that's rapidly approaching. At the beginning of the year, that would be the year known as 2020, I said we'd be doing something different. I called it the year of interaction and throughout the year, we featured more than 100 listener questions along with a new segment called "Throwback Thursday." That turned out to be very popular and another one called "Classroom." Now, all of those things went mostly well. In fact, I've heard from many listeners who have greatly enjoyed the remixed format.
It's been fun to hear from people who have been with the program from the beginning as well as lots of new folks who've joined in along the way. So sign up school wise, that was great. It was kind of everything else that went off the rails. My friend, John Acuff, another author, he got a chance to open for Dolly Parton at the beginning of the year. He's a very popular speaker, a very funny guy, and he got a chance to do this opening monologue for her in Nashville.
And he posted a photo of that night, I think it was at the end of January or sometime in February, and he said, "Man, I think 2020 is gonna be the best year ever." Well, famous last words, I thought of John as I was working on these notes. But in the spirit of 2020, I thought I'd share two quick messages with you from listeners. And these emails, we can call it listener mailbag, they serve as representative highlights from the year. I had to narrow it down because I wanted to share some others, but as always, I respect your time. So I will do that right after the break.
Couple of listener messages, talk a little bit more about the end of this year and what lies ahead starting tomorrow. All right, stay tuned. [Music]
All right, so two messages from listeners that I thought were representative of this year in general. And of course, there's a lot we could say about this year in general, and you've got your own perspective. I've heard from some people who had a good year.
So that perspective is valid too. But without further ado, let me jump in here. First one is from Amanda in Minneapolis. So this is Amanda's note. She says, "My year was hijacked due to COVID-19.
Like so many others, I was making progress, but then had to go remote at my job. And for a lot of people, working remotely is cool, but not for me. I kept getting distracted. I had to look after my daughter. She was going back to school, then she wasn't going to school, and then she was going back to school, and then wasn't again.
They kept changing all the rules, which I do understand because we all need to beat this thing called COVID. But for me personally, it's been difficult, and I haven't been able to regain that momentum I started with, especially in terms of my side hustle. I'm really hoping to make a fresh start this coming week. I've made some changes and tried to do whatever I can to adjust to what we call around here, the new normal." Awesome, thank you, Amanda. And yes, I'm so sorry your year was hijacked due to COVID-19.
It's true, so many others affected as well. And my life too, of course, but not nearly as much as most people because I have always worked on my own. I have never actually gone into an office and worked for somebody else. All right, now the second message is from Zach in Edmonton, Alberta. And Zach says, "I don't know if you're doing any kind of interview or roundup, but I have a tip for other listeners for me, I struggled quite a bit throughout the year, but then I got a lot better once I stopped checking the news every few minutes.
I found I was doing that a lot during the presidential election season, even though I'm not from the US, it was affecting my life too, or for the latest coronavirus news. In the beginning, there was a lot of real news, but as time went on, it was mostly just more statistics and more of the same precautionary language, which it's good to be precautionary, but we already knew that. And it seemed like we were just waiting for science to catch up and develop the vaccine, which is now on the way. So I got a lot better once I stopped checking the news every few minutes. That is Zach's advice for you, his listener tip.
And as I said, I could read so many others because I've got all kinds of email. I'm very behind on my email, but that's not your problem. Maybe I'll make it my resolution tomorrow to fix it. We'll see. I just wanted to share those notes from our listeners in case anybody out there relates.
And with that said, the year is almost over. One year ends, a new one begins. And now listen, I've been working on some stuff for next year, I'm really excited about it. We're gonna keep it real this coming year. Tomorrow begins another new journey that I hope you'll be part of.
This has been a four year journey so far. Tomorrow starts year number five. We're gonna have more listener interaction, more question and answers, more stories, and more practical advice. That's really what it's all about. Practical advice, some kind of pragmatic hopefulness, I like to call it.
Pragmatic optimism that you can use in your quest to achieve financial stability, to create a new source of income and do more of what's important to you. I mean, that's really what it's all about. That's what it comes down to here. I am so grateful to be able to serve as your guide, your companion in this journey. Tomorrow I'm gonna do an introduction for new listeners and also tell you more specifically how some of these formats are gonna work.
So for now, happy New Year's everyone. Somehow we made it. Happy New Year's Eve. Happy New Year's if you're listening later. I look forward to all that's to come.
All right everyone, this is Chris Guillebeau signing off for 2020, but I will be back soon, next year in fact, and I hope you'll join me. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
