MY 2024 YEAR END REVIEW; NEW BABY! $300k+ online, South Pole, Sahara Ultramarathon etc
It’s the time of year when I look at back at the blog post I wrote in the last week of 2023, to see my plans for the year of 2024. Then I see what I messed up, and where I went right.
Each year, this helps me analyse if I was successful with my goals for the year, or not. My 2024 plans blog post is HERE if you want to read it. It was an insane year. One that started with a marathon at the South Pole, and ended with an Ultra marathon in the Sahara. With some other PRETTY BIG STUFF in between.
So first, let’s see what my goals were for 2024. And then if I managed to nail them, or not….
My 10 goals for 2024 were:
- Get pregnant
- Finish my 7 summits and ultimate explorers grand slam
- Increase my net worth my $100kUSD
- Run a trip to Timbuktu (and elsewhere)
- Increase my real estate portfolio (& buy a piece of land to develop)
- Get my first of my OneStep4Ward events off the ground with the Eye of the Sahara Ultra Marathon
- Create our prototype of our Denying Gravity hyperbaric chamber
- Take Jaa and my mum to at least 1 more new country each
- Be in the best physical shape of my life at 40
- Donate at least $10,000
Table of contents
- MY 2024 YEAR END REVIEW; NEW BABY! $300k+ online, South Pole, Sahara Ultramarathon etc
- My 10 goals for 2024 were:
- So how did I do?
- 2024 Goal 1 – GET PREGNANT! SUCCESSSSSSSS
- GOAL 2: Finish my 7 summits and ultimate explorers grand slam – SUCCESS
- GOAL 3: Increase my net worth my $100kUSD – SUCCESS
- GOAL 4: Run a trip to Timbuktu – SUCCESS
- GOAL 5: Increase my real estate portfolio (& buy a piece of land to develop) – FAIL
- GOAL 6: Get my first of my OneStep4Ward events off the ground with the Eye of the Sahara Ultra Marathon – SUCCESS
- GOAL 7: Create our prototype of our Denying Gravity hyperbaric chamber – BIG FAILURE
- GOAL 8: Take Jaa and my mum to at least 1 more new country each – FAIL
- GOAL 9: Be in the best physical shape of my life at 40 – TOUGH TO CALL
- GOAL 10: Donate at least $10,000 – SUCCESS
- 6+/10 – I’ll take it
- My 2024 Year in review, month by month:
- January: Antarctica, South Pole, Brazil, Chile and Thailand.
- February: Thailand.
- March: Dubai in the UAE, and our charity trip skiing in Afghanistan
- April: Thailand, UAE again, and Yemen
- May: Thailand, Mali, Madeira, Azores, Portugal, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands and the UK
- June; Thailand, Pakistan, Kashmir, China
- July; Thailand + Turkey TV show
- August: Thailand (and a Rolex, a car for Jaa)
- September: Ireland, Thailand, Turkmenistan
- October; Thailand (and a missed trip to Mongolia)
- November: OUR NEW BABY!
- December: Thailand, Mauritania (and 3 ultramarathons in 3 days in the Sahara)
- My Health, Finances, Work, Travels, Life in 202
- FINAL THOUGHTS ON MY 2024
- Past 10 years of recaps and goals:
So how did I do?
I achieved 6 of the 10. With 1 absolute failure. And the other 3 kinda dubious. I’ll go into them in depth now, but number 1 means I just don’t care about the failures!
TLDR?
*Jaa and I had my son, Aidan. I made almost $1,000USD per day throughout the year, so over $300,000USD in 2024. I flew 70 times. Visited 20 countries. Bought a Rolex. Ran a few ultra marathons. Filmed a TV show. More info on everything below….
2024 Goal 1 – GET PREGNANT! SUCCESSSSSSSS
It took over 2 years, but finally Jaa and I were pregnant. And then also had our son in 2024. This was also my main goal for 2023 (you can see my 2023 goals here), but we failed that year sadly.
However, this year WE DID IT! And we’re delighted, and proud, and happy, and relived (and tired!). It was so stressful and difficult to get pregnant. For basically 20 years, I prayed NOT to get someone pregnant, now for 2 years I switched, and was praying TO get someone pregnant. Ooooph. The irony of life.
I said last year that if I only did this one thing in 2024, then 2024 would be the best year of my life. And we did it. I’ll go through the rest of my goals, my successes and failures of course, but they all pale into insignificance compared to introducing little Aidan into our lives.
Also, a massive thank you to my wife Jaa. She really went through it, to get pregnant. To be pregnant. The birth. And now a new mum, with me being away a lot. She’s a superstar. We’ve been together a long time, but I’ve never loved her more than now. When a woman gives her partner a child, the love and care and work they do for it, it’s a whole other level of respect, appreciation and love. So thank you Jaa.
GOAL 2: Finish my 7 summits and ultimate explorers grand slam – SUCCESS
Alright, back to earth for a second after the Aidan stuff! What would normally be a huge part of my life is now a very distinct second.
I spent January in Antarctica. Here I climbed Mount Vinson, Antarctica’s highest mountain. I also ran a marathon in Antarctica, and had an expedition to the South Pole. A pretty wild start to 2024. And with Mount Vinson, that meant I had officially become the first person in history to complete the ULTIMATE EXPLORERS GRAND SLAM, which means you must have:
- Officially climbed all of the 7 continents highest peaks*, aka the Seven Summits.
- Reached both the North Pole and South Pole
- Visited every country** on earth.
*You have to do ALL the 7 summits. No cheating. So cover all bases, that means the Messner List, plus Mont Blanc and Kosciuszko. After research, I kinda feel this also may need updating to include Mount Wilhelm in Papua New Guinea. I’ll look into it and update asap!
** Every country normally is a number of 193-197 countries. However, for the ULTIMATE EXPLORERS GRAND SLAM that also needs to include major territories, observer states etc. To make a claim like this, you need to cover all bases. So no skipping Greenland, Western Sahara etc. Gotta catch them all!
GOAL 3: Increase my net worth my $100kUSD – SUCCESS
My main financial goal every single year since I started monetizing my blog back in 2010. Monthly income is lovely, but it’s vanity at the end of the day. It comes and goes. Ebbs and flows. And with online money, it can disappear tomorrow. Net Worth, as a small-time entrepreneur, is the most important financial metric BY FAR. At least that’s how I see it.
With that in mind, I save aggressively, and invest aggresively. When the times are good, I stay humble. So when the times are tough, the money is there to lean on. Thankfully Jaa is similar with her financial mindset, and it’s put us in a great spot.
I started my blog and online life in 2009. I’ve succeeded in my ‘increase my net-worth by $100k’ in every single year since 2010 apart from last year, 2023, where I spent nearly $150,000USD on my expeditions to Everest, South Pole and Vinson so it battered my bank account. I was more determined than ever to get back to basics.
This year, with a week left of the year, I have increased my net worth by $150,000USD or so during 2024. With money in different accounts, in different countries, and properties in different countries etc, the numbers can look a little skewed, but here it is. You can see my horribile, obsessed spreadsheet to check. I’m delighted with this, working out at over $10k a month increase.
GOAL 4: Run a trip to Timbuktu – SUCCESS
I love, love LOVE running my OneStep4Ward Group Trips. As I get older, and my investments work harder, hopefully giving me some financial breathing space. Still I’ll still never stop running these trips. The people I meet are some of the closest friends in my life, and they also give me an opportunity to go to places that are expensively prohibitive to go solo.
I had a lifetime bucket list travel goal to visit Timbuktu, Mali. But Al Qaeda have had a strangle hold over for it for a decade or so. With that, only a handful of tourists have managed to visit it in years. A select few friends joine me as I chartered a private ‘jet’ (battered old airplane), and unannounced, rocked up in Timbuktu. It was a WILD TRIP. You can read about it here. But we did it baby!
GOAL 5: Increase my real estate portfolio (& buy a piece of land to develop) – FAIL
Objectively, I failed. But I’m not giving myself a hard time. I managed to finish building a house for my mum in Thailand, check the YouTube video of that HERE.
But my goal was to also buy a new piece of land in Thailand, to prepare to build a villa to sell in 2025 or 2026. I didn’t manage to do that. I did manage to save the money for it though, so it’s underway, but I didn’t get the land search done in time to call this one a success during 2024. So a fail.
GOAL 6: Get my first of my OneStep4Ward events off the ground with the Eye of the Sahara Ultra Marathon – SUCCESS
It’s my long term dream, and weird semi-retirement plan, to run 4 events per year which take ordinary people to extraordinary lengths. So they too know that we’re all capable of epic things.
My first event, which will be held yearly in December, was the Eye of the Sahara Ultramarathon. 3 days, 3 ultramarathons, 100miles (160km). From the Eye of the Sahara, to civilisation.
You can sign up for next year’s HERE. DO IT! DM me on instagram if you have any doubts, but believe me when I say YOU CAN DO IT TOO. HONESTLY.
And you can read more about the event HERE.
This year was the first event. 8 people joined, and WE DID IT! It was hard, hot and sandy. Lost toe nails, a few people throwing up, and lots of pride, relief and joy at the other end. This stuff is life changing. And thank you to the guys who joined in year one. Legends.
GOAL 7: Create our prototype of our Denying Gravity hyperbaric chamber – BIG FAILURE
My biggest failure. And it’s a bit of a heartbreaker. One of my best mates, Manu, and I both had the same idea so we joined forces. A hyperbaric chamber is a kind of tent thing you either train in, or sleep in, that mimics what it’s like to be at high altitude. It’s great for your health, and even better for your fitness. I believe in the product so, so much.
But Manu got a new job, and I had a million things on with a new TV show, pregnancy, my trips, my own business etc that we never dovetailed correctly. Definitely much more my fault than Manu’s to be honest. And I regret that. I hope he moves back to Chiang Mai, Thailand and we can get this going. Someone is going to bring these tents to the mainstream and make a fortune. I’d very much like that to be us!
GOAL 8: Take Jaa and my mum to at least 1 more new country each – FAIL
After my mum supporting me so much, I love to be able to turn the tables and take care of her as she gets older. She loves to travel, so I always aim to bring her to new countries.
But this one I failed too. I haven’t brought her to a new country since cycling across Jordan in October 2023. We spent a lot of time together this year which has been great, both in Thailand and the UK. But I failed my goal. Facts are facts. I’ll put this right in 2025. I promise mum!
Travels with Jaa in 2024 was great! We went to Portugal (Madeira, Lisbon and Azores). Spain. Belgium. Netherlands. As well as back to the UK. And also some great trips in Thailand too, especially in the Keemala in Phuket.
GOAL 9: Be in the best physical shape of my life at 40 – TOUGH TO CALL
This one is tough to call if it’s a success or not. I turned 41 in December, just 2 weeks a ago. And I feel super fit. But my body fat is still too high (all that booze and chocolate no doubt).
This year, strava tells me I ran well over 1000km, cycled about 500km and ran a marathon in Antarctica, climbed Mount Vinson, ran 100miles through the Sahara, and trained over 300 times in 365 days. So for sure I pushed it hard. I also managed to injury my back and break my foot trail running. So it’s been quite the year for exercise! Was I in the best shape of my life? Possibly. But not definitely.
GOAL 10: Donate at least $10,000 – SUCCESS
I run charity trips each year in addition to my adventure trips. I do that through my foundation, Mudita Adventures, and this year we did 3 charity trips. Skiiing in Afghanistan, roadtrip through Pakistani Kashmir, and the Eagle Festival in Mongolia. Across those 3 trips we easily smashed my $10k donation goal for the year with:
- Funded a pop-up clinic in Pakistan and donations to a local school
- Huge food donation to the community in Bamyan, Afghanistan
- Running water and functioning toilets in a community in UlanBataar, Mongolia
6+/10 – I’ll take it
With Aidan on the scene, even if this was 1/10 I’d be delighted. So all good. I’m really disappointed with my effort and perfomance on our hyperbaric chamber start-up, but everything else was pretty good. All-in-all, delighted with my goal setting and efforts to meet them. It’s never easy to keep your foot on the gas all the time. But without the goals, there’s no finish line. They keep me accountable, and help me ensure I get to where I want to be in life. And 2024 was a success in that respect.
Now let me look back at 2024 month by month.
My 2024 Year in review, month by month:
January: Antarctica, South Pole, Brazil, Chile and Thailand.
I celebrated New Year on the continent of Antarctica. I met some amazing people on this trip, and it was a real life changer for me. I climbed my 7th and final of the 7 summits, I ran my Antarctica marathon and I reached the South Pole. A january quite like no other for sure. All at the cheap price of $92k for the expeditions and another $5k or so on gear, flights and hotels.
Also, I BLITZED my airmiles and flew 24 hours first class to get there with Emirates, and 24 hours back to Thailand in Q-Suites Qatar. I also managed to spend a week in Chile and visited some friends in Sao Paulo, Brazil too.
All this made January 2024 one of the best months of my life. And also the most expensive month of my life (probably a correlation!).
February: Thailand.
Back to earth. Or at least back to my wife in Thailand! I was broken by the expedition so time for some recovery.
Also, I was back on project management for my mum’s house build. So it was nice to be back to oversee that. Jaa and I had a lovely getaway in Chiang Dai, in the mountains of Northern Thailand. Oh, and I broke my finger trail running and had to have my wedding ring cut off, that wasn’t fun.
And on the last day of the month, I broke my foot, also trail running (a lesson in there perhaps?!). Quite a month.
March: Dubai in the UAE, and our charity trip skiing in Afghanistan
It was my first charity trip of the year. We were doing a huge food donation to a rural community in Bamiyan, Afghanistan. And bringing 18 people along for the ride.
I flew to Dubai, met my sister and her family. Then met with the Taliban, where we got our visas for Afghanistan.
From here, it was a few days in Kabul, then onto to the Buddha’s of Bamyan. And our food donation. As well as some epic skiing in Afghanistan, but I had to skip that due to the broken foot of last month. Still, a fun month!
April: Thailand, UAE again, and Yemen
The rest of March and early April was in full house-building mode again for my mum.
And then in mid-April, it was time to return to the Yemeni island of Socotra, one of the most beautiful spots on earth. I hadn’t been back since 2020, and I had a really cool group of friends who wanted to join, so we had a blast. Epic trip.
May: Thailand, Mali, Madeira, Azores, Portugal, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands and the UK
A busy month. Started off in Thailand furnishing my mum’s house. Then I went on my dream trip to Timbuktu, Mali (that’s a mental story, read about it on my blog HERE). Dodging Al Qaeda, and chartering private jets.
After the sleepless nights of that stress, I had an actual HOLIDAY. A REAL ONE. Thank God. Jaa and I went on a gorgeous ‘2nd honeymoon’, first up in the beautiful island of Madeira, and the Azores. Then mainland Portugal with Lisbon. Then a series of cutesy city breaks in Madrid, Brussels and Amsterdam. Before visiting my mum, who had moved back to the UK while her Thai villa was getting finished.
What a ride.
June; Thailand, Pakistan, Kashmir, China
Back to Thailand, business class thanks to a buy1-get1free voucher, with Jaa. Then I had some visa problems, meaning I was stuck for a couple of weeks in Chiang Mai.
With the visa sorted, I flew to Lahore, Pakistan where our charity was funding a pop-up clinic, and sanitation services to a community. After the project finished, we roadtripped through GORGEOUS Kashmir, alone the Pamir highway, crossed the world’s highest border crossing at the Khunjerab Pass, and then overlanded through Xinjiang Province in rural China.
July; Thailand + Turkey TV show
Just work! Making money online, and Jaa and me working 80 hour weeks on my mum’s house. July was HARD WORK. No times for trips this month. But we got a lot done. And it was lovely to be at home with Jaa, and to be able to eat healthy, train hard and get my life together.
Also, being able to focus on my blog, my advertisers, and making money was a welcome break too.
And then that all changed when I got asked to film a Pilot TV travel/food show for TRT, Turkey (like Turkey’s BBC). I had never done anything like that before, and it was a lot more work than I ever envisaged. Also, I was very much NOT a natural on camera, so it was a super stressful week. Thankfully my buddy, and the producer, Selim is an angel and he got me through it.
Finished the month up with a week in Phuket. After all that work, I treated Jaa to a stay in the famous Keemala Resort in Phuket. Gotta be one of the best hotels in the world?
August: Thailand (and a Rolex, a car for Jaa)
The first 7 months of 2024 were hectic. Online business was good. Things were progressively well with my relationships (more on that later!). Investments were good, and I had finished my adventure goal with the Ultimate Explorer’s Grand Slam. It was time for a little carrot, after years of Goggins-esque stick.
Ever since I finished my journey to every country in the world, I started a savings fund to answer of my dreams as a kid. To buy a Rolex.
I know it’s silly, but when you grow up on welfare, and even a football shirt was out of reach, to buy a super luxury item like a Rolex was on my bucket list for life. And with that I saved. For 7 years. Every time I made a purchase in Thailand, I added an extra $100 to put in a savings fund. And after 7 years of not touching it, and slowly adding to it, that separate fund I had coordined off had now reached $15k. It was time.
Edit in December 2025, that account is at zero again! But in the meantime, I bought my dream watch to celebrate finishing my goal, and ultimatly as a family heirloom to pass on to Aidan.
I’m going to blog about my financial management in depth. I’ve got a good handle on it, and I rarely spend anything. Equally, goals are goals, so I wear this with pride.
I also had one of my best mates come in for a boozy weekend in Bangkok, where I finally watch a Muay Thai fight in Bangkok, at the world’s oldest Muay Thai stadium at rajadamnern stadium, where we went VIP and had the most amazing night. I highly recommend doing this as part of any guy’s Bangkok itinerary.
And we had time for a little August photoshoot too…
September: Ireland, Thailand, Turkmenistan
Finish my mum’s house 100% in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and my mum moved in!
Back on the road! I was invited to go back to Northern Ireland, my home country, by a brilliant Irish government initiative called Northern Irish Connections. It was pretty emotional to be honest, I hadn’t been back in almost a decade. And to reconnect with my childhood, now I’m permanently settled, married, with a kid (and my mum!) in Thailand. It was a lovely experience.
Back to Chiang Mai for a week, then Bangkok, then off to Turkmenistan to run my Gates of Hell group tour. You can join my 2025 one HERE. And, if you’re a maniac, you can join a special Turkmenistan tour in 2025 where we cycle 200miles/300km to the Gates of Hell instead. The 2024 Turkmenistan trip was unreal. Cool people, banging itinerary. The fiery crater, night trains, cheap booze, road trips. It had it all.
And back to Thailand again after.
October; Thailand (and a missed trip to Mongolia)
Life was getting real! I had a Mudita Adventures charity trip sold out to Mongolia that I was due to go on. Thankfully, I run the foundation with Josh, one of my best mates. So with Jaa now 8 months pregnant, I had to skip it last minute. GUTTED to miss the Mongolian eagle festival, one of the coolest travel experiences in the world, but not cool enough to risk missing the birth of my first child!
The trip looked so cool though, that I have organised it again for 2025. And this one I WILL BE ON! Come join me at the Mongolia Eagle Festival HERE in 2025.
In other news, my mum moved into her new Chiang Mai villa that we built! And I bought her a 3 wheel scooter to get between my house and heres (it’s less than 1km).
Other than that it was hospital appointments and training for December’s 100 mile Sahara run.
November: OUR NEW BABY!
What can I say. Every parent on the planet will know how I feel, and every non-parent won’t. But it’s a wide, deep range of emotions. I’m so proud of Jaa, and so happy to welcome Aidan to the world.
With the joy comes a lot of sacrifices. To our freedom, possibly to our relationship, definitely to our free time. But we welcome it. I’m in my 40s. If not now, then when? I’ll try my best to be the best dad I can to my little man. And having had no father growing up, I know I’ll make some big mistakes. But still, I’ll be here, learning and reading, and still trying my best again. Love you little man. Not much more to say. Oh, and thank you Jaa x.
December: Thailand, Mauritania (and 3 ultramarathons in 3 days in the Sahara)
2 years in the planning, and the in the end AWFUL TIMING! But I had to run my first event ever, the Eye of the Sahara Ultramarathon. 8 people started. 6 completed it successfully, with the other too managing over 100km of the 160km. 3 ultra marathons in 3 days. On sand. It’s not easy, I promise. But we got there, minus about 15 toenails and a few hospital trips. What an experience. I’m running it again in 2025, COME SUFFER WITH US!
And then it’s Christmas! With my new, extended family. And even better still, my sister Aisling and the family came to Thailand to celebrate Aidan, and have a big family Christmas. This is what life is all about eh?
And that completes my 2024 month by month. Quite a year!
My Health, Finances, Work, Travels, Life in 202
Now to go into the major aspects of my life, outside of the main goals and to reflect on how I did with this stuff. It’s difficult to look back and see your struggles, but I finds it helps me process my emotions. SO let’s see:
Finance and Business:
Hmmm. Mixed. This blog, and SEO in general, had a great year for me. But with AI coming strong, I spent the year anxious about if/when blogging will end. It’s still going well, but for how long?!
Everything else – the TV show, the advertisements, the public speaking, the group trips, the investments meant I made $311,665USD in 2024. And with that, I managed to increase my net worth by over $150,000. Delighted with that too.
I don’t know how long blogging will be around, so I need to pivot into property development here in Thailand sooner rather than later. If I sit on my ass and wait for SEO and blogging to die, I could be in a sticky situation in a couple of years. So time to get to work on additional income streams that move the needle. Which, for me, is building villas in Thailand.
Physical Health:
Again, mixed. I wear an Oura ring to track everything in my life – sleep, anxiety, recovery etc. And I hit my activity goal 365 times in 365 days. Epic right? Kinda. Why only kinda? Because I only hit my sleep goal 3 times in a whole year, out of 365 sleeps. And they were in the last 3 weeks. So I did 11+ months with awful sleep. Not great.
Alcohol? I have spoken about my token system before. I used to have a bit of a dodgy relationship with alcohol. So, nowadays i issue myself with 75 alcohol tokens per year. Each day I drink is 1 token (whether it’s 1 glass of wine with my mum, or 20 beers with the boys). I’ve been doing this for almost 5 years now, and it’s changed my life for the better, and almost completely sorted out my relationship with alcohol. I can earn more tokens by achieving big goals, or doing 1 2000 calorie work-out. I ended up spending about 85 tokens for the year, and under my limit. So great. I will blog about this soon so you guys can copy if you think it’ll help.
Mental health
An anxious mess, as always, but content with life alongside it. No changes there! I guess my sleep is tied to my anxiety. Stress, people-pleasing, big goals. I need to work on it forever, but I also kinda believe that to be a high achiever, I have to accept high levels of stress. Perhaps just not THIS high!
Physical health? I am 41 now, and I know I’m fit, so that’s great. Statistically, my cardiovascular age is in my 20s. But I can be fitter. I can train harder. And I can eat (and sleep better). Thankfully, through my multivitamins and training now, I almost never get sick, I can run sub 40 minute 10ks, I can run ultramarathons for fun, climb mountains, cycle countries. But there is still a solid 25% room for improvement, especially with my diet. I’m a pig. And it’s a struggle!
On that note, does your metabolism slow as you age? Sure. But a 21 year old guy, to a 41 year old guy, your metabolism slows approximately 5%. FIVE PERCENT! So if you’re looking for an excuse, and I’m talking to myself to here, age isn’t it. It’s choices.
I have ZERO time for people in their 40s complaining about ‘getting old’ unless it’s tongue-in-cheek. There is almost no reason to be out of shape in your 40s, and certainly your age isn’t the reason. Adding 1kg per year? That makes you ‘old’. Not moving enough? Drinking too much? Eating too much? Not sleeping enough? That makes you ‘old’. No time for excuses.
Travel
A really fun year, with the highlight being hitting the South Pole, climbing Mount Vinson, visiting Timbuktu, and running 3 ultra marathons at the Eye of the Sahara. Kashmir was also epic. And Socotra! Actually it was all cool. Travel is the best use of time/money so it’s all amazing!
Countries i visited in 2024:
- Ireland
- United Kingdom
- Portugal
- Netherlands
- Belgium
- Spain
- Antarctica (not a country, but still!)
- Brazil
- Chile
- Thailand
- United Arab Emirates
- Yemen
- Mali
- Pakistan
- Kashmir (not a country, but very unique)
- China
- Hong Kong (just 12 hours!)
- India (just 12 hours!)
- Turkey
- Turkmenistan
- Mauritania
I also flew 70 times. And spent a disgusting $17,191 on those flights. Which is a bit too much to be honest for bot numbers! However, I’m really cracking the UK credit card airmile game these days! I managed to take 15 business class flights/legs during 2024, including taking my wife on a long haul business – 14 hours London to Hong Kong. All of them except for 1 was ‘free’ with airmiles. I flew business with Etihad, Thai, British Airways, Qatar, Emirates, Turkish, Azores Airline. I have the next 5 flights for 2025 lined up for ‘free’ with work and airmiles for next year. If you don’t know how airmiles work, this may help. It’s a game changer!
Relationships
I worked hard on this over the last few years. I’m quite a wild guy, and I’m single minded, selfish, driven. So I’m a tough guy to be close to, I know that. I hope though, that you get some sugar with the spice. I try to motivate and drive others to be the best they can be too. The problem, I think, is they don’t ask me for that. So is that cool? Probably not! Eeek.
Anyway, with all that said, my relationship with my wife is stronger than ever. Same with my mum. And my sister and her family. So all good. Friends too? Use it or lose it. I managed to see, and spend time with, almost all my closest friends. Did a lot of favours, and got a lot back. So on this note, I’m proud of my year. I just wish I was a little more patient, less emotionally reactive, and a bit more empathetic. I’m a work in progress.
FINAL THOUGHTS ON MY 2024
Across the board, mainly due to Aidan, 2024 was the best year of my life. With him here, Jaa and him both healthy and happy, what else could I ask for?
Health, relationships, travels, finances were all great this year. But even if they weren’t, I’m so grateful to extend my family, that it’d be wrong to complain about any small stuff.
I hope you guys made the most of 2024. If you didn’t, don’t sweat it. 2025 is almost here, and you can attack it like no other year. DM me on instagram.com/onestep4ward if you want to share some epic travel experiences. I always have something pretty wild going on. And everyone is always welcome to join!
Past 10 years of recaps and goals:
- 2024: My plans for 2024, and then my 2024 review is the one you’re currently reading!
- 2023: My 2023 Goals and plans for the year and my 2023 year-end review
- 2022: My 2022 Goals and Plans for the year and my 2022 year-end review
- 2021: My 2021 Plans from the start of the year and my 2021 Year-end review.
- 2020: My goals and plans for 2020 at the start of 2020 and then at the end of 2020, my 2020 review.
- 2019: My 2019 goals from January 2019, and then my 2019 year review from December 2019.
- 2018: My 2018 goals from January 2018, and then my 2018 review at the end of the year.
- 2017: My 2017 year review.
- 2016: My 2016 plans. And my 2016 year in review.
- 2015: My 2015 year in review.
- 2014: My plans and goals for 2014
Remember, never travel without travel insurance! And never overpay for travel insurance!
I use HeyMondo. You get INSTANT quotes. Super cheap, they actually pay out, AND they cover almost everywhere, where most insurance companies don't (even places like Central African Republic etc!). You can sign-up here. PS You even get 5% off if you use MY LINK! You can even sign up if you're already overseas and traveling, pretty cool.
Also, if you want to start a blog...I CAN HELP YOU!
Also, if you want to start a blog, and start to change your life, I'd love to help you! Email me on johnny@onestep4ward.com. In the meantime, check out my super easy blog post on how to start a travel blog in under 30 minutes, here! And if you just want to get cracking, use BlueHost at a discount, through me.
Also, (if you're like me, and awful with tech-stuff) email me and my team can get a blog up and running for you, designed and everything, for $699 - email johnny@onestep4ward.com to get started.
Do you work remotely? Are you a digital nomad/blogger etc? You need to be insured too.
I use SafetyWing for my digital nomad insurance. It covers me while I live overseas. It's just $10 a week, and it's amazing! No upfront fees, you just pay week by week, and you can sign up just for a week if you want, then switch it off and on whenever. You can read my review here, and you can sign-up here!