Happy New Year – Happy New Decade

Here’s to a new year!  And not just that, but to an entirely new decade!  If you want to feel a bit surreal and/or old, check out this interesting article of factoids over at Wait But Why

To start off, I’ve been seeing these Decade In Review listicles floating around.  Seemed like a fun little exercise, so here’s mine:

  • 2010 – Welcomed our daughter into the world and went back to college to finish my degree
  • 2011 – Started smoking meat and making homemade spices as a hobby.  Earned my first 4.0 GPA.  Drove cross country from Philadelphia to Wichita.
  • 2012 – Graduated from Fort Hays State – Bachelors in Information Systems
  • 2013 – Broke out of my comfort zone and started coaching youth sports and college recruiting.  Celebrated 10 years of marriage with our own private road trip around Kansas
  • 2014 – Despite having lived in California for several years, finally took Karla and the kiddos on a cable car and hiking through the SF streets
  • 2015 – Rediscovered writing by starting a blog
  • 2016 – Took a family road trip through the Midwest.  Rekindled my tabletop and pen & paper gaming hobbies, making many new friends along the way.
  • 2017 – Embraced my career specialization and spoke for the first time at a global conference
  • 2018 – Traveled to Hawaii, our first time off the mainland.  Sold our home in Kansas, packed up our lives and relocated to Arizona
  • 2019 – Doubled down on my career specialization and earned a promotion.  Said goodbye to our first ‘baby’, Maureen as well as to one of the most influential people in my life.

It’s amazing how time flies and how so many of these memories seem so recent.  My life today doesn’t resemble the life I started in 2010.  I’m sure many of us will have a similar experience in 2030.

Speaking of, what’s next?  In keeping with my guidelines around starting less, I’m looking at improving or finishing what I’ve already started rather than taking on new challenges.

Choose health – As much as I belabor this point and punish myself for failing, I still keep missing the mark.  That’s no reason to give up, just to try it again and try it different.

Learn more – My reading habits have fallen off a bit this year as well as my self study habits.  I’ll be setting aside dedicated time for this in my professional as well as personal studies

Build more – As with my reading habits, my writing habits aren’t doing much better.  Starting off on the right foot, I’ve been setting aside dedicated time for writing and have already submitted a candidate session for Knowledge 20!

Not an ambitious list in the context of beginning a new decade, but I’m thinking embracing a principle of ‘Doing Less to Accomplish More’ will be prudent.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to add them here or address them to john@benedettitech.com

Happy New Decade, everyone!