A Letter to Myself for the New Year

What's up, everyone. This is Alex Lieberman, co-founder and Executive Chairman of Morning Brew. Welcome back to Founder’s Journal, my personal audio diary, where I give you, the business builder, the tools you need to think better in order to build better, whether that's building a business, a team, or a new product. Today, I am reciting a letter I wrote to myself to kick off 2022. Let's hop into it. 

A letter to myself

So I decided to try something out. It's something that a number of my friends do, and my hope is that it will act as a great center of gravity for the new year, something that I can revisit periodically to make sure I'm staying on track. So what I did is I wrote a letter to myself and the goal of this letter is to focus on what's important, talk about what I want to see happen this year, and provide tangible goals that hold me accountable where possible. So without further ado, let's hop into the letter. Dear Alex, I got to say, this is the first time you've written about or spoken to yourself in the third person. It is weird, but it's worth feeling a bit strange, a bit ridiculous, if it means setting yourself up for an abundant 2022. The goal of this letter is simple, bring intention and aspiration to the five pillars of your life: One, family; two, health; three, wealth; four, work; and five, play. Let's go through each one. 

Family

Family. When it comes to family, you have a few big goals. First, you want to make a more concerted effort to spend time with your grandparents. They serve such important roles in your life: the wisdom from so many years lived, the unconditional love they provide, and valuable perspective they offer. You have learned firsthand the fragility of time and life and you understand the importance of savoring every moment you have with the elders in your life. Second, have fewer, but more meaningful conversations with your mom and sister. We bias to breadth of conversation because that's what feels like closeness to a loved one, but depth matters way more. You would way rather have one meaningful conversation a week than one superficial conversation a day. Third, relationships are work. They require investment. Invest in your relationship with Carly in the same way you'd invest time into anything that matters a lot to you. It is so easy to be a passenger in a relationship, but that shorts Carly the commitment she deserves and it shorts you the growth and connection you hope for in a relationship. Tangentially be as active a participant in wedding planning as Carly wants you to be, from band selection to flower arrangements, provide perspective when it's wanted and enjoy the process. And speaking of wedding, the process has made you think a ton about friendships. You don't believe in having friends for friends sake, but you do believe there are people out there, people who you haven't yet build deep relationships with, who you think could have a profound impact on your life, and hopefully you can have a profound impact on theirs. Invest in new friendships and invest in the five to 10 people that you already care so deeply about. 

Health

Next up is health. The pandemic created easy excuses to let physical and mental health fall by the wayside. It took you out of your typical routine and made it harder to go to the gym, creating a very valid reason for why you weren't working out anymore. Same type of thing on the mental health side, a global pandemic filled with uncertainty and covered oftentimes in a fear-mongering manner, coupled with lack of human connection, created a perfect formula for heightened anxiety and significant challenges to mental health. Don't use this as an excuse; use it as fuel to invest heavily in your mind and body because without that, it will be impossible for you to fully experience. Here are your goals: Physically break a sweat in some way, every day. Mentally, practice gratitude or awareness every day. You normally make sure habits are approachable and a daily commitment seems the exact opposite of that. But the importance of these investments in your life warrant this level of dedication. 

Wealth

Next up is wealth. You are so grateful for the financial success that the last year has brought. The sale of Morning Brew was life-changing and it's given you the freedom of time. You can't forget that. Despite the change in your financial picture, the level of clarity you have around your finances has not improved at all. This has to change. You need to have an always on understanding of your income statement and your balance sheet. Your income statement is the money in and money out of your life. You need to understand what brings money in and what drives it out. And you need to understand what desired net income you want that will ultimately flow over to your balance sheet or your growth in wealth. On the balance sheet side, you need so much more clarity about how your wealth is allocated and how that helps or hinders your long-term goals. In the last 12 months, you've brought on financial advisors and they're great, but at the end of the day, you should always have the greatest vested interest in your money. Just like your income statement, you need to create a balance sheet that breaks down how all of your money is allocated, and then understand how each allocation will give you a good chance of achieving your long-term goal. Three action items to gain financial savvy: One, turn on notifications so you are notified each time your credit card is charged. This will create awareness around the expense side of your income statement. Second, build an income statement and place a recurring monthly invite to update the sheet. Third, build a balance sheet that provides a simple but accurate picture of how your money is distributed across everything from cash to public equities to angel investing to real estate to crypto. 

Work

Next up: work. Work has changed a lot for you in the last six months. You went from day-to-day management of Morning Brew to an executive chairman role. With that you've been gifted time. Your responsibilities have changed, and the very idea of work has taken on new meaning. You've been given the gift of choosing what work you do, which means you need to take seriously the opportunity that has given to you. Here is your recipe for succeeding in work. Step one, understand what you're really good at and understand the type of ways that you want to use your brain. Step two, explore all of the opportunities of work you can do within and outside the walls of Morning Brew and dabble in many things before committing. Step three, only commit to things that feel right, satisfy your skills and needs. And step one and only commit if you can guarantee giving a hundred percent. The goal here, double down on the work you're doing within Morning Brew, because you're getting yourself to use your brain in the exact ways you want to. You're getting to think creatively every single day. You're getting to think critically about the future of media. You're getting to make new connections and learn from really smart people. And you're getting to think about the biggest strategic questions with your co-founder and the CEO of the business. Bring that same process to other areas of work so you can feel the same satisfaction in what you do. 

Play

And finally, there's play. Just as there was more time created for new forms of work, there was more time created for play since moving into the executive chairman role. And what's so amazing is that you have the opportunity for work to be play and play, to be work. You have that privilege and it is something to be so grateful for. The hardest decision you will make around play is how to prioritize it. You have many interests and you're endlessly curious. Curiosity is beautiful, but it also makes choice that much more difficult, but choice is something you must face if you are to commit to committing a hundred percent to all that you do. What feels like play to you? Learning new things feels like play, making new connections and hearing people's stories feels like play, golf and skiing feel like play, travel feels like play. Combine your work opportunities with your play opportunities and make the necessary choices so you can commit fully. Allow these new commitments to take up 80% of your free time. And then always keep a healthy 20% for rest, recovery, reflection, and serendipity. 

That's it, Alex. Family, health, wealth, work and play. Let's stay focused. Let's stay grateful. Let's have one hell of a year. Love, Alex. 

Now let's take a moment to recap. As you head into a new year, identify the five pillars of your life. Write yourself a letter detailing how you will bring intention to those pillars and use that letter to hold yourself accountable to have a great 2022. Now, I'd love to hear from you. 

I want to hear from you 

Founder’s Journal has taken off like a rocket ship in the last several months. It has grown to hundreds of thousands of listeners, and it is consistently one of the top 20 podcasts on the podcast charts, whether it's Apple, Spotify, or whatever other charts are out there. There are a ton of you, but in scrappy Morning Brew style, I want to get to know many of you. So if you haven't yet done so, please reach out. I promise I'll get back to you. Shoot me an email to alex@morningbrew.com and tell me a little bit about yourself and why it is that you listen to Founder’s Journal. Also, if you haven't yet done so, make sure to pound the subscribe button on Apple, Spotify, or the podcast player of your choice. It is the number one way we grow the show and it's also how you can find out about content when it drops. As always, thank you so much for listening and I'll catch you next episode.