Annual Review: 2019

This year was both one of the best I’ve had and kind of a pain in the ass to be honest.

What happened?

  • Left my previous job
  • Started new job at Healthwise
  • Tried out QA for a year
  • Totaled my Outback
  • Bought a house
  • Renovated the old house for my mom to move in
  • Smoked a bit of meat, improved significantly with cooking
  • Started streaming on Twitch
  • Started learning again
  • Started writing again
  • Stopped giving a fuck about what others think is the proper way to go about getting things done
  • Realized I truly hate unnecessary process, procedures, and bureaucracy - (MVB is what I want and need, as well as autonomy)

I read quite a few books this year, mostly for self improvement and learning:

  • Unf*ck yourself
  • Crushing it
  • Ego is the Enemy
  • The Obstacle is the Way
  • The Hard Thing About Hard Things
  • Own Your Weird
  • You Need A Budget
  • Armada
  • Ready Player One
  • The Martian
  • Company Of One
  • The Dispatcher
  • The Bobiverse Trilogy
  • Artemis
  • 4 Hour Work Week

Goals/Themes

I tried to get away from the whole large goals this year and went about trying to set some overarching themes for the year instead. So instead of saying I want to lose 100 lbs, I decided to say I want to focus on health and fitness. I still think it’s a good method, but I prefer concrete goals that can be quantified. I like the idea of using habits to enforce and accomplish themes or goals, but the vagueness of using just themes kind of caused a lot of “what do I do now…” I feel.

Ship new products/projects

Didn’t quite happen. I did a few sample apps for work, but really let this slide with the new job. I did learn some new things with Gatsby, .NET, and such, but I don’t feel like I did enough to say this one was a success.

Commitment to marriage

Set out the year to be more intentional with how I spend my time with my wife. Wanted to put more effort into our marriage than I have been, and I tried to do little things to brighten up her days and weeks. My wife is an incredibly patient person with me, I would be wise to remember that. This year I’m continuing this theme, but I’m going to try to do more than just a few things each week to try and help.

Teaching (writing, speaking, videos?)

Started code streaming on Twitch, at the end of the year but it was a start. Blogged a little more than the previous few years. No videos, but that’s fine. Did speak at Boise Code Camp again this year.

Health and Fitness

Got back into weightlifting for the first part of the year, but fell into the same habits of shitty eating and not getting to the gym by mid year. I’ve continued weightlifting during the holiday season, and plan to start competing in meets this year, but I don’t know if I’m going to seriously compete. I think using a meet is a good thing to have as a means to train for instead of just to lose weight or lift more, but I’m not sure that serious competition is what I’m after.

©️ 2024