My 2022 Annual Review
Published:
Here is my annual review of 2022 to answer the following three questions:
- What went well this year?
- What didn’t go so well this year?
- What did I learn?
1. What Went Well This Year?
Families
Ping and I celebrated the 12th anniversary of our wedding. A relationship is not an easy thing. A great relationship takes consistent effort just like any great art.
Ping will hopefully start her lecturer job in the marketing department at our school. She will graduate around 2023 summer and we both will be working for Iowa State University.
Michael skipped a grade this year. Michael was complaining that school was too easy at the beginning of the second grade. Ping and I thought he was bragging so we brushed him off. After a few weeks, Michael still thought the school was too easy. Then, we started talking to his teacher about the possibility of skipping the second grade. After some tests, it was clear that he was “over-qualified” for the second grade. Since Michael strongly believed that he should skip the second grade, Ping and I signed the paper to initiate the process. He was very sad about not being able to see his second-grade friends as frequently, but he was also super excited to see what third grade has to offer. Needless to say that Ping and I are both proud parents.
Both Ping and my green cards get approved in the fall. It’s a great relief that we don’t have to struggle to get visas to come to USA.
Information asymmetry is real. I learned that I should not talk about many things: traditional Chinese medicine, religion, or politics. I see no need to persuade others including my mom, my wife, and in-laws.
Work
6 submissions. No papers got accepted this year. But I had 6 submissions in total, including some initial submissions and some revise-and-resubmit:
- JAIS: 2
- ISR: 2
- POM: 1
- JMIS: 1
30 minutes daily challenge. I spend at least 30 minutes per day on my research projects for 365 days. This is my attempt to curb my procrastination of delaying things till tomorrow. It has been quite effective. Setting this laughably small task helped me start working on my research every day. Most of the time, I spend more than 30 minutes. I remember I used the same trick to jump-start my running routine back in 2017. That year, I completed the daily challenge of running at least 3 miles.
Bootstrap Research Grants. I was awarded $6K from Ivy College of Business for research support in the next year.
Reading
I read 37 books this year. Out of these 37, these are the five that I highly recommend:
Travel
New York City for a week in June.
- Statue of Liberty
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Running in Central Park with friends
- Restaurants and Karaoke in Flushing
- Empire State Building and World Trade One
- Rosevelt Island
Six national parks in 10 days in Utah and Denver in July.
- Rocky Mountain
- Great Sand Dunes
- Mesa Verdi
- Arches
- Canyonlands
- Black Canyon
Chicago and Minneapolis in August.
- The Art Institute of Chicago
- Field Museum in Chicago
- University of Minnesota
Hawaii Dec 31 2022
- Dec 31 in 2010 was when my wife and I had our wedding ceremony. It’s great that we can celebrate this wedding anniversary with our sons on a trip to Hawaii.
Running
I Finished 2 Marathons: Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota and Omaha Marathon in Omaha, Nebraska. I did not break my record of 2 hours and 46 minutes for a full marathon, but I am happy to recover from the DNF (Do Not Finish) in 2022 Boston Marathon.
I served as a half-marathon pacer on March 19th in the St Patty’s Marathon in Des Moines.
Health
COVID In October, my wife, I, Jordan, and Michael all got COVID. Each of us took about 5 days to turn negative after the onset of coughing symptoms. Fortunately, our symptoms are mild.
Asthma I was diagnosed with mild asthma in April. It helped me understand why I coughed so much when I caught cold multiple times last year. I started taking some Asthma medicine and they are very helpful to keep my cough under control.
Running indoors I used to be a hardcore outdoor runner; I ran outdoors even when it is -20ºF (about -30ºC). Since I learned that cold air might trigger my asthma symptoms, I move my running sessions to indoor tracks or treadmills when it gets freezing outside. So far, no coughing symptoms during the winter.
Eight hours of sleep. Why we sleep by Matthew Walker helps a lot. Both my wife and I suddenly realized the importance of sufficient sleep. So now the routine for us is to do meditation together for 10 minutes and go to bed before 10 pm. It’s not 7 out of 7 days perfection, but we made it about 5 out of 7 days a week.
Blood donation. I donated 500 ml (17 oz) of blood in July. It took me more than one month to fully recover. Due to the slow recovery, I would not recommend it to any active runner like me.
Piano lessons
It’s been two years since I started taking weekly piano lessons. My piano teacher Dr. Janci Bronson has been very effective in teaching me the basics of piano playing and in helping me master some Chinese pop songs.
2. What Didn’t Go So Well This Year?
An addiction to dopamine rushes. This is still an issue from time to time. For example, when I feel bored in my office, I would close my office doors and start wandering around on Twitter or YouTube. Sooner or later, I would end up on some websites that I don’t feel proud to be at.
I need to talk to my mentor I forgot to talk to my mentors this year. This is something I can improve for the next year.
3. What Did I Learn?
- Daily Work of 30 Minutes help
My biggest Resistance is denial. By denying the meaning of my work, I give myself no motivation to work. To counter such resistance, I start to put in 30 minutes each day to work on my research. 30 minutes are not enough to get me tenured, but those 30 minutes positioned me in the right direction. 30-minute research is a laughably small goal that I don’t fear starting. It helps me to get started on working on my papers each day. And, happily, most days I work more than 30 minutes on my research. I get this idea of working at least 30 minutes per day from my running habits. When I started running in 2017, I made a goal of running at least 3 miles per day. It’s not a huge goal for many runners, but it got me into Boston Marathon with such consistent effort. Even though I did not earn my tenure yet, I think this consistency in my work ethic is the key to success in my academic career too.
- To keep my office door open when I work at school.
Another form of Resistance is distractions. The main distraction for me is YouTube and Twitter. If I start watching YouTube, it is very hard to stop. The engineers on the other side of YouTube can feed me non-stop entertainment all day long. The only problem is that I need the time to work on my research/health/family. So, just like last year, I do need to keep my office door open when I have an Internet connection. Knowing that someone passing my office might see my screen, I would be less inclined to go to YouTube.
