I’m a strong believer in moving forward. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve spent way too much of my life holding grudges and being anchored on past trivialities. One day, the concept of time started clicking (pun of the day, folks) and I realized I still have enough to accomplish great things. I also realized I did NOT have time to sit and moan about how unfair life could be.
So I became goal-oriented and plan-driven, logging everything for periodic reviews to get the most out of life. What better way to do that than over the holiday break? Here are 6 accomplishments of mine in 2017 that I did on my own time outside of the office:
#1) I published to this blog on the first Monday of every month in 2017
This was a goal I set in the summer of 2016. Give or take some lighter posts, I’d say I nailed it.
#2) I submitted an entry for a weekend Game Jam
And boy am I rusty! Learned a few things about VS Code and Mac development, but I clearly need to work on some degrading coding skills.
#3) I took the N5 JLPT
That’s Japanese Language Proficiency Test, specifically the basic level. I don’t yet know if I passed, but I know how I feel I did and that’s a good measurement of my progress towards fluency, which is the only reason I took the exam.
#4) I played a fully online match with my son in the mobile game I’ve been working on
I added multiplayer to my game, using Tuesday nights to work on the code. It’s got a long ways to go, but the fact that it was playable from start to finish brought me great joy.
#5) I took my family to the beach
What? A 14 hour drive with two boys is not an accomplishment?
#6) I bought a new house
Working hard to keep my financials in order gave me the opportunity to provide a bit more breathing room for my family.
Summary
Goals help shake you out of your rut and help you experience life. Sometimes, you fail at them. Like, horribly fail at them. But, if you can adjust your perspective, you can see positive results, whether its a lesson learned or thicker skin. And you get that by consistently getting up and doing.
Any accomplishments you’d like to share from 2017?
The Digital Helm 