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My 2022 Plans, Goals and Resolutions

I finished writing my 2021 year review, and what a year it was. Getting married, rowing across the Atlantic, running an ultra marathon, taking groups to Mauritania and the Serengeti Marathon and starting to build my villa in Thailand. But not without costs.

I was super stressed throughout the year with the financial pressures of the house build and the wedding. I got seriously out of shape in the middle of the year with an AWFUL diet and lack of exercise. And lots of business issues due to COVID. So plenty to celebrate, plenty to reflect upon, and plenty to work on.

So where does that leave me with plans for 2022? I want to quantify my goals. As always. Nothing ambiguous like “eat better”, “drink less alcohol”. Those kind of passive words allows us an escape clause. That’s non-commital nonsense. We should work out what we want to achieve, and stand by that. It’s take bravery to risk failure. So be brave.

My 10 Goals for 2022

Climb and Summit Denali in Alaska

May 13th to June 7th I’m off to Alaska, in the United States of America. As you guys may know, I want to be the first person to ever complete the adventurer’s grand slam of every country in the world (done), summit all of the 7 summits (4/7 done), and reach the North Pole (done) and South Pole.

Denali is North America’s highest mountain at 6,190m (20,310 feet) and it will be my 5th of the 7 summits (hopefully leaving Mount Everest for 2023 – JOIN ME!) and Mount Vinson in Antarctica.

I’ll be going to Alaska in mid-May, and the expedition should take about 4 weeks. It’s going to be pretty tough, and absolutely freezing. Also, in pure johnny-style preparation, I’ll be going straight from my honeymoon to Alaska. Great training that!

Finish and move into my dream home in Thailand

I bought the land in Thailand in 2020, started the building in February 2021, and now in 2022 my goal is to get it finished. I have one last payment to make to my project manager, and then that part is paid for (no mortgages available in Thailand for online people like me, killer).

From then, I need to furnish it. I hope I can do that for $50kUSD or so, but honestly never done anything like this before, so who knows. I really want to get it all done and dusted by March, but delays and finance issues could always delay things. But 2022 is the year I NEED to get my dream home done.

Go on honeymoon

This is one of my many failures from 2021. I promised myself, and more importantly Jaa, that we’d get married in 2021 and go on honeymoon. Thanks to COVID, the wedding was delayed way back to December 2021. So we ran out of time for our honeymoon. Now, we plan to go to Europe in March/April time. We were originally thinking a bit of luxury in Italy – Amalfi Coast, Positano, Venice and Rome.

And we’ll still do that, but now I’m also thinking perhaps we go back to my routes, extend the honeymoon by another couple of weeks and kinda flashpack around Europe by train too. That would be cool, and a fun way to show my girl more of the world. Working on it as we speak.

Run at least one ultra-marathon or an ironman

I’m not a runner. Honestly. My first ever marathon was the North Pole marathon. Then the next run I did was the 265km Marathon Des Sables! Since then, I’ve still yet to do any ‘real’ running. I ran 200km from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai in 2020, and then a few friends and I ran 100km overnight around my condo complex (2.5km loops!) last month. But there’s very little ‘normal running’ in between!

Still, I’m a big believer you have to push yourself to achieve anything, and to find out who you are. And nothing does that better than proper endurance challenges. So I’ll do another one this year. Either a 100km, or even better a 100 miles (160km) in 24 hours. Or, if I can learn to swim properly, an Ironman.

Run at least one group trip

Last year, my trips to Mauritania and Tanzania with friends were some of the best trips of my life. I just LOVE the people that travel with my on my blog trips. So I need to do at least 1 in 2022. I’m thinking Syria, Mauritania, Yemen, Central African Republic, South Sudan. I just need to work out which ones, and when!

Take my mum to a new country

My mum’s Parkinson’s isn’t getting any better. Although life is looking a bit brighter since she did the 10km at the Serengeti Marathon, and moved back to Chiang Mai for a little break, thankfully. Still, I really want to take her to at least 1 new country in 2022. Bhutan maybe? Mauritania? Let’s see.

Increase my networth by $100k+

Every year. Same goal. I first started making money blogging back in 2011, but started making REAL money around March/April 2012. So around Easter 2022, it’ll mark 10 years of self-employment in the blogging world, and each year my goal is to first love my life, and do what I want, but then also to increase my networth by $100k.

My net worth is a fair chunk more than $1m, so that means I’ve been exceeding this every year for a decade. It takes a lot of (boring) financial responsibility to stick to this, but I do it religiously, and I hope I can continue.

I’ve learned so much more about investment, property, index trackers and crypto over the last 3 years, I wish I knew this stuff years ago. But it’s part of the journey I guess. However, that’s how the rich stay rich. Their parents are in a position to teach their kids this stuff long before they work it out for themselves, like me, in their 30s!

On a passing note, social media has fooled us into thinking everyone is a millionaire. Sports cars, and business class flights aplenty. Youtubers and tiktokers with rolexs and rented mansions. Getting rich quick is rare, but everyone can get rich slowly. Work hard, be diligent and never fucking give up.

And for context? $100k net worth increase each year means you have to SAVE $8,000USD every month. Then to reach a million, you have to SAVE $8k a month, every single month, for a decade. It’s tough!

Stick to my alcohol and cheat day credits

Some of you have heard me mention my drinking (re: drinking problems) over the last 2/3 years. I finished my ‘every country in the world’ goal in 2017. And truth be told, even the last 2 or 3 years of that project involved me alone in random corners of the world, in shitty little guest houses, questioning what I was doing. And I started leaning on alcohol, both as a social crutch but also as a form of escapism from my stresses and anxiety.

Then, in 2017 I finished my big life goal of 197 countries. And in the direct aftermath, I was so lost. So the rest of 2017 I was in a slump, and it continued into 2018. And 2019 too. With my father, who I never met, being an alcoholic, something had to change. So I decided to quantify and track my drinking.

In 2020 alone, and now in 2021 with 2 friends, we have a google sheet where we track how many days we drink. We have a credit system. We choose together at the start of the year how many credits we will use for the year. For me, it’s 75. Each credit then is spent when alcohol touches your lips that day. 10 beers watching footy with the boys? 1 credit. 1 glass of wine with my mrs, or on a flight? Also 1 credit.

In 2020, I used 50 of my 75 credits, this year 58. I feel my drinking is much more under control now, so I delighted with it. If anyone feels like they need help, message me and you can join me.

This year too, to keep my diet clean, I’m introducing a food quota too. 101 credits for cheat meals. That means I have to eat 100% clean 5 days a week, and then 2 meals per week I can cheat. I’ll probably save them for the weekend but let’s see.

Get my course finished

God this is embarrassing. I’m obsessed with trying to show people that another type of life is possible. Single parent? No probs. Working class? No probs. No education? Sexuality? Gender? No probs. The internet doesn’t care. You can chase your dreams, and you can catch them. And the only thing holding you back is yourself and your belief system.

I have a 3 module course almost written from 3 years ago, but I never finalised it. Busy, mountains, relationship blah blah blah. I need to make 2022 the year I actually release it. It’ll change your life.

Workout at least 200 times/200 hours in the year

365 days in a year. To work out every other day would obviously be 183, so let’s aim for more than that. 200 sessions minimum (or 200 hours). Last year I smashed that, but it was skewed by rowing the Atlantic. Anyway, 200 hours, let’s do it.

Final thoughts on my 2022 plans and resolutions

I’ve never had 10 goals/plans before, or at least never admitted to them. It’s exciting but also really nervewracking. I’m pretty scared of sitting in Chiang Mai, Thailand 12 months from now and analysing how I got on with these goals. But if we don’t aim high, we end up with nothing. Be brave johnny boy. Dare to dream.