33. 2022 End of Year Awards

Around this time last year, I was supposed to be flying home for Christmas.

As you can probably guess, 'supposed to' are the key words here, as I was instead self-isolating with Covid, and feeling very sorry for myself.

So, to give myself something to do (other than order another delivery of cheese and Coronas from Getir), I decided to do a bit of a 2021 round-up in the form of the Blogs and Dogs End of Year Awards.

And because of its overwhelming popularity (we'll go with that…), I thought it'd be rude not to bring them back for 2022!

So, using the same format/10x categories as last year, here are the Blogs and Dogs 2022 End of Year Awards…

1. Quote: “In life we must choose our regrets”

This is something I heard journalist and author Douglas Murray say on Chris Williamson’s podcast Modern Wisdom, and I liked it a lot.

When we hear the word ‘regret’, we tend to have negative associations with it (i.e. that it's usually the result of some poor decision on our behalf), as opposed to seeing it as an inevitable part of our existence.

But the finite nature of life, meaning we can only do so much with the short amount of time we have on this earth, means that some regrets are unavoidable. We can do and get good at some stuff, but we can’t do and get good at everything.

We have to choose the things we don’t do (and therefore suck at), meaning that some degree of regret is essentially an inbuilt feature of any decision.

For example, we can’t be, say, the most empathetic person, and the most popular, and the best parent, and in the best shape, and highest up the career ladder, and the most sociable, and the most knowledgeable, and so forth. Something’s got to give. If we choose one thing, we sacrifice another. We have to choose our regrets.

A nice idea, and quite a reassuring one.

2. Podcast: Modern Wisdom

Just edging out Howie & Pals (great podcast btw, Spotify and Apple Podcasts to check it out!), we have Modern Wisdom.

I only came across this podcast a couple of months ago after listening to the host Chris Williamson on Joe Rogan, and I think it’s brilliant. Thought provoking conversations, life lessons, great insights, and generally interesting chat with an incredibly wide range of guests across a whole host of different industries. There’s also a good mix between relatively unknown guests and much bigger names, such as your Andrew Hubermans, your James Clears, and your Jocko Willinks. Excellent stuff.

3. Book: Outliers

For the first time in about 15 years, I re-read all the Harry Potters this year. I absolutely loved them. It was also very refreshing to do something for the pure enjoyment of doing it, as opposed to doing it for some other reason (to learn, develop, get inspiration etc). So a huge shout out to Potter for the very relaxing and generally magical times.

However, giving this to Potter didn’t feel particularly original, so we’re going for another option; Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.

Outliers is more in the self-developmenty world (save your groans!), and though it does touch on some of the classic/more cliched themes from that sort of content (your perseverances, your work ethics, your self-disciplines etc.), it’s more focused on factors that are less spoken about.

Using a whole host of examples, from Bill Gates to The Beatles, and Korean Pilots to Jewish Lawyers, it covers things like the impact of where we grew up, what year/month we were born, our historical cultural influences, and more broadly, just luck in general.

If you like these kind of books, I couldn’t recommend it highly enough.

4. Purchase: 3-Bar Leg Stretcher

Admittedly, this is a bit of a left field shout. I bought this 3-Bar Leg Stretcher (I can’t resist buying random exercise/stretchy shit like this. My flat’s full of them, sorry Aimee!!), and it’s been a bit of a game changer.

Someone who actually knows what they're doing with this leg-stretcher thing

I initially bought it to try and help my lower body flexibility for Jiu-Jitsu. It’s not really had the desired effect of improving my Jiu-Jitsu (yep, that’s still terrible), but it has brought a bit of mobility back to my overly tight hip flexors. This seems to have massively helped with injury management/prevention, and reduced soreness after exercise; not just Jiu-Jitsu, but running, swimming and strength training as well.

It’s a bit of an odd thing to have lying about, but as a general hip stretch/mobility exercise, I would defo recommend giving it a go (the movement itself can be done without the leg-stretcher device, and against a wall instead).

5. New Exercise: Dead Hang

On the subject of movements that seem to help my knackered old body, the dead hang is another one. On this, you literally just hang by your arms from a pull up bar. I initially saw the movement on Smashwerx’s YouTube channel when looking for exercises to try and fix a buggered rotator cuff.

It seems to work, as well as having a load of other benefits too. In addition to building grip and upper body strength, the movement decompresses the spine which can help release shoulder pain, lower back pain, and generally stretch out the body. Which I've found to be particularly useful if you've been sat in an office chair all day.

The exercise is becoming increasingly popular, but my (admittedly, completely non-medical) point of view is that it’s still hugely underrated. Big fan.

6. Influencer: Chris Williamson

Bit of a lazy answer really (meh, it's December), but this is per point 2.

On top of his podcast, Chris Williamson has also got an excellent weekly newsletter that’s definitely worth checking out.

7. Moment: n/a

Kinda self-indulgent this one, isn’t it? (Which yes, appreciate you could argue this whole thing is)... so we’ll give it a miss. We’ll chuck in a new category next year instead.

8. Learn: Sauerkraut is very good for you

Granted, probably not the tastiest food on the planet, but goodness me I’ve felt the benefits of eating more sauerkraut this year (usual placebo effect caveats aside).

I’ll leave the detailed health benefits to someone who actually knows what they're talking about, but at a super basic level, my understanding is that in addition to it being packed full of minerals, vitamins and nutrients, due to sauerkraut being a fermented product, it contains a load of probiotic bacteria which is good for the gut microbiome and our general digestive health (or something like that).

Either way, if you’ve also got a dodgy gut and don’t currently eat it, I’d say it’s worth looking in to.

This is the bad boy, which you can just get from Tesco. Though admittedly it is about as appetising as it looks.

9. Word: Retrospect

The word 'retrospect' is just quite pleasant on the ears, isn't it? And not only that, when you say it, it also makes you sound a bit smarter which is always good.

Having said that, I do usually tend to use it in the context of “In retrospect, I should have probably done X differently"...

10. Christmas song: Snowflakes, Robbie Williams

So, this isn’t the best Christmas song (Shakin’ Stevens will obviously always hold that title), but I’m needing to give Robbie a bit of airtime as I’ve listened to his Christmas album ‘The Christmas Present’ about a million times already this year. The whole album is full of tunes, but in a close contest with Bad Sharon, Best Christmas Ever and One Last Christmas, Snowflakes just comes out on top for me. Banger.

And there we have it, the 2nd installment of our annual awards. Ten, well nine, worthy winners. Do let me know if any thoughts/feelings/disagreements, or if you have any ideas for a new category for next year.

Other than that, all that’s left to do is to wish you the Merriest of Christmases and all the bloody best for 2023. Catch you then! X