2022 was a year of deciding not to do things, which is actually an accomplishment for my family. We’ve consistently moved and I have changed jobs almost every year, on average. We’ve been chasing the ideal city, home, and working conditions for most of our adult lives. While I know we’ll still move, probably sooner than later, I’m taking the win for not making any major changes last year.
That doesn’t mean we didn’t dabble with the idea of moving. Within the last six months we put in offers on two different houses, toyed with the idea of expatriating to Europe, and have been browsing houses in Portland on Redfin. But for the time being, we’re staying put.
Taking inspiration from Ryan Boone, the following is a list of 2022 failures and accomplishments, and goals for 2023.
2022 failures
- Did not get anywhere near 1,000 followers on Twitter. This was a goal I set for myself in 2021, which I immediately lost momentum for and didn’t make much progress this year either (currently at 616). My initial plan was to establish credibility by posting more often on my blog, with links to follow me on Twitter at the bottom. But I just. didn’t. post.
- Only published a single post to my personal blog. After posting four articles in 2021, I had big plans to sustain and improve that in 2022, but it didn’t happen. It was my first year at Twilio/Segment and after my two month long job search, I couldn’t find the motivation to talk about myself.
2022 accomplishments
- Guested on my first podcast. I was fortunate enough to be invited by superstar recruiter Taylor Desseyn onto his podcast to talk about my interview process leading up to getting hired at Twilio. It was fun, easy, and I’d like to do more in the future!
- Got published on the Segment blog! Although I didn’t live up to the goals I set for my personal website, I was able to get over 2,000 words published on my employer’s blog, talking about the work that I’m doing.
2023 goals
- Publish at least 12 posts on my blog. Considering I only did one in all of last year and just four in the year before that, this is a lofty goal. But I’m working on establishing new habits that I think will make it attainable.
- Stay consistent with my daily habits. Just before the new year I solidified a list of daily habits based on what I already do inconsistently: exercise, avoid social media, and write. Hopefully by being more deliberate with my time and creating a healthy physical and mental space for myself, I’ll be able to accomplish my writing goals.
- Convert my blog from Gatsby to Eleventy. For the last several years, I found myself spending more time updating the code that runs my blog than posting content. While I realize I’m continuing to delay that by completely redoing the code yet again, it feels necessary. I want to simplify the dependencies and create a codebase that I own nearly end to end. I’m hoping that will give me a clean base to build on for all the goals I have in 2023.