What Happened in 2024 — Year in Review
Five Celebrations, Five Lessons
Every January, I sit down to unpack a full reflection of the past year—all the victories, the setbacks, and the lessons.
Every minute spent working on these annual reviews is rewarded many times over.
I’m writing this reflection to help me make sense of it all. It may be more detailed than you asked for, so feel free to skip to any section that interests you.
I choose to share this review with you because:
Each vulnerable action is a small step towards integrating the public and private versions of myself.
I want to frame our future conversations around how we can help each other fulfill our missions and become the best possible versions of ourselves.
Our mutual success becomes more likely by holding each other accountable, even implicitly.
I might inspire you to dig deeper during your reflection process.
I’ve broken this review into two sections with five reflections each:
Celebrations (What is working well?)
Intentionality builds intensity.
Happiness is a practice.
Nail the energy fundamentals.
Invest in adventures over algorithms.
Keep pushing the frontiers.
Lessons (What did I learn?)
Identity is the hardest thing to leave behind.
Decouple study from recreation.
The writing process is its own reward.
Visibility multiplies value.
Transformation happens in the trenches.
If you’d like to conduct your own reflection process, I open-source my Annual Review Worksheets as a free download.
Celebrations
Intentionality builds intensity.
Meditation continues to be my greatest source of awareness, presence, and wisdom. In 2024, I completed a one-month meditation retreat and finally met my teacher in Nova Scotia after four years of virtual study.
The retreat was one of the most impactful things I’ve ever done. (See: Everything is Included for takeaways!). I accessed a natural openness and expansiveness by pushing beyond perceived mental and emotional blockers. I may still react unskillfully, but I am more conscious of doing so and thus able to redirect.
As with most things, the key is consistency. I schedule my life around my practice instead of the other way around. I treat time on the cushion as sacred instead of checking the box.
I’ve also leaned more into being part of a community. I undervalued the power of walking the path with others; that power shone brightly this year. I now understand that the mirror of shared experience is essential for surfacing blindspots.
Happiness is a practice.
A major achievement of this year is feeling happier and more fulfilled. I’m content, satisfied, and experiencing greater self-love. There is an increased resiliency. I still feel off occasionally, but I bounce back more quickly now.
There are many contributing factors. I’m physically healthy, have a loving and supportive partner, am off social media, and enjoy a low-stress lifestyle where I do whatever I want (for better or worse!). I also maintain effective and established practices for reflecting on and reframing my mindset.
In particular, I’m proud of the shift in my relationship with strong emotions. In the past, resistance to the narrative implications of “negative” emotions might have triggered a vicious spiral—frustration or fear leading to shame and avoidance. Seeing emotions as external phenomena transmutes their energy. It’s all fuel for the fire.
Nail the energy fundamentals.
I activated athlete mode, leveling up my diet, sleep, and exercise. It’s been shockingly effective. At 38, I feel amazing and am in the best shape of my life.
Current protocol:
Bed at an early and consistent time, including weekends. Minimum 7 hours of sleep.
I break a sweat daily. My current protocol is weight training three times a week, twice with a trainer, yoga classes twice a week, and a padel match or a longer bike ride twice a week.
Default to walk/CitiBike when the weather cooperates.
Cooking as default, mostly protein/vegetables. Portion control, periodic macro tracking, nothing consumed within three hours of bed.
No alcohol, minimal caffeine, minimal sugar.
In 2025, I’m adding cardio, taking cooking classes, and being even less indulgent of my sweet tooth. Nothing game-changing. I continue to focus on nailing the fundamentals.
Invest in adventures over algorithms.
For a long time, my life revolved around the internet. I played poker online, ran a company with a fully remote team, and conducted all my coaching over Zoom. Many of my close friendships started in online chats and forums. When the world went virtual, I didn’t miss a beat. However, these online routines can become too comfortable. This year, I rediscovered the magic of in-person connection.
My favorite memories this year were from adventures with friends. Highlights include backpacking the Grand Canyon, whitewater rafting in Colorado, surfing in Puerto Rico, traversing deep playa at Burning Man with the CornHub crew, discovering hidden beaches and mountain villages in Crete, and hiking and biking trips along the East Coast. So much fun!
An underrated aspect of maturing is developing personal taste. Savoring the joy of missing out (JOMO) on opportunities outside of the Venn diagram of Hell Yes. Leaning into team activities that are active, challenging, and take place in nature means that I can commit with conviction.
On that same note, we chose to return to NYC because we love it here—and after almost two years, we still do. I don’t want to take living in the greatest city in the world for granted. So, let’s savor the experiences that only NYC can offer.
Taking the initiative in friendships is an ongoing area of growth. I can sometimes fall into patterns of social passivity, looking for the perfect conditions to make things happen. I love creating shared experiences and bringing my favorite people together, but I also love listening to my favorite music and curling up with a great book. My intention for 2025 is to prioritize throwing the party once again instead of waiting for my invitation.
Keep pushing the frontiers.
Forcing Function grew for the ninth year, and I passed the 1,000-session mark as an executive performance coach. I love what I do, and the reps are paying off.
I’ve increasingly embraced training programs to expand my coaching toolbox. Aletheia, the Hoffman Process, and the Conscious Leadership Group, in particular, have unlocked new levels of depth. Participating in coach exchanges has also allowed me to experiment with and refine my techniques.
My specialty, where I’m truly world-class, is creating the conditions for maximum effectiveness. Sometimes, this means installing and refining best practices—the habits and systems that repeat across top performers. But often, there is a guiding process, an inquiry into what prevents a proven habit or system from being trusted and executed.
Removing these upstream blockers is how we win the inner game. We expand our capabilities and sense of self by shifting how we form our beliefs and narratives. Success is witnessing clients transform—becoming more empowered, resilient, and self-aware. This inspires me and keeps me pushing new frontiers.
Lessons
Identity is the hardest thing to leave behind.
I retired from poker again, going from playing 750 hours in 2023 to 50 in 2024. I’m often asked why I stopped, but I’ve been on the fence for years for professional and personal reasons. Poker has become less lucrative and less fun.
Professionally, the margins in poker are shrinking, and the competitive landscape is unfavorable. My specialty, online cash games, is considered to be dead due to advances in machine learning (real-time assistants) and high operating costs (rising rake). Cash games, online and offline, are increasingly privatized, meaning skill becomes a barrier to game access. Live tournaments remain healthy, but the tournament lifestyle is not—brutal schedules, spending lots of time in casinos (which I don’t like), and unfathomable variance.
For a long time, I was completely obsessed with poker. I couldn’t wait to dive deep into the nuances and study of the game. Today, success as a player is mostly memorization and business development, which isn’t as creative or inspiring. I still love poker as a means of teaching (decision-making, game theory, self-awareness) and building relationships, but my days of total obsession are long behind me.
The hardest part of walking away from poker has been shedding the identity of success. Years ago, leveraging poker was the fastest way to build a platform. Pointing to my wins with new connections quickly and definitively established excellence. The temptation to continue to define myself by past achievements remains strong. However, we constantly evolve, and I am ready to embark on a new chapter with a clean slate.
We are more than what we do, no matter how much others want to label us and put us in a box. Removing our armor of achievements is the only way to discover our true selves. I like who I am becoming.
Decouple study from recreation.
I’m reading too much. The issue is that I consider all reading to be a growth activity, but I often treat it as entertainment. Going media-free for an entire week taught me that limiting my consumption is guaranteed to increase my production.
I finished 66 of the ~108 books I started, with 15 rereads. There were many good books but few great ones. Among the first-time reads, there was only one 5* review (Dilla Time). There were too many 3* entertaining page-turners that I barely remembered. I always look for places of diminishing returns. By limiting my reading quantity in 2025, I expect to increase overall quality, along with retention and application.
I’m testing a solution for decoupling study from recreation. Study is referencing anything that is tied to an active goal or project. Recreation is all other reading, including nonfiction. Study time is unrestricted and always productive. Recreation is limited to one hour daily, with limited exceptions. If it can be done in a reclined position, it’s probably recreation.
The writing process is its own reward.
I published six articles this year:
Your Best Work is Ahead of You (in two parts)
Six is up from four in 2023, but I fell short of my monthly publishing goal. I started the year strong but fell off schedule, taking off the entire summer before recommitting in the fall.
I am entering the year with momentum and am confident in resuming a monthly publishing schedule after streamlining my writing process. For my latest article, Belief Arbitrage, I went from idea → publish in under a week, my fastest yet.
Along with increased speed, I believe this year’s writing was among my best yet. The act of expression clarified my approach to the inner game and has shaped the future trajectory of my coaching practice.
Key principles:
Leverage constraints. Deadlines are the best function I have for pushing through perfectionism.
Review my notes daily. I leave the document tab open, so it’s the first thing I see when I open my laptop.
Use a multi-track process. My biggest delays were after publishing, coasting on endorphins, and waiting for inspiration to strike anew. It’s easiest to jump back in when I’ve already started.
Write from personal experience—what am I most excited to talk about? The structure will reveal itself naturally.
Reduce the scope and go deeper. I don’t need to cover an entire topic in a single article. Stand on my own shoulders.
Writing’s not easy. I’m more of a natural public speaker than I am a writer. Yet the intrinsic rewards of writing seem worthwhile in the face of struggles.
Visibility multiplies value.
I love teaching. Open-sourcing knowledge is central to my life’s mission, and teaching is often the fastest path to learning.
There are two workshops I’m currently building:
Thinking in Games—Distilling the strategic and social principles developed through gameplay. How a master games player sees and interacts with the world.
Performance Intensive—Assessment of current priorities, challenges, and opportunities with facilitated implementation. How to create an inflection point.
These workshops will be offered in person, potentially with a self-paced online version to follow.
I’m also prioritizing expanding my reach by being more visible online and accepting more invitations to speak and guest on podcasts. I could use your help!
The Forcing Function newsletter has organically grown to 12k subscribers, but audience growth has been a blind spot, so I’ve avoided promotion. I know I’m leaving a lot of value on the table. If you have any ideas on how I can grow this community or do a better job getting out there, I'd love to hear from you. (chris@ff.com)
This might mean *unfortunately* dipping my toes back into X/IG after two years. I’d prefer not to, but I’d rather experiment with new methods of engaging with you than stay in my bubble. So it’s on the table.
Transformation happens in the trenches.
I’ve now taken eight teams through my Team Coaching process. For founding teams, this typically means identifying the critical path and getting the right people in the right seats. For investment teams, this typically means streamlining systems and maximizing resources toward the best-performing deals.
The most rewarding project was with a trading firm experiencing scaling challenges. As the firm grew, operations became siloed. Senior management was overloaded, processes were breaking, and critical decisions were often delayed. I accepted an invitation to temporarily join the team in Puerto Rico as an interim COO until a full-time hire could be found. Being in the office streamlined the process of removing operational bottlenecks and reinforcing a culture of continuous process improvement.
I’m excited to work hands-on with more teams in 2025. If you’re interested in creating alignment on vision, priorities, and process at your organization this year, let’s talk.
Thanks for reading. I am eternally grateful to those who made this possible. Thank you for caring, believing, holding me accountable, and inspiring me.
Best wishes for the year ahead. I hope you find what you’re looking for.
If you want to conduct your own annual reflection, you can download my Annual Review Worksheets for free.