I did a year in review for 2015, and want to continue the trend by looking back on 2016. Despite the political changes that I’m not thrilled with, 2016 was a great year for me personally. Without further ado, here is my year in review, with far too many bullet points.

Things I Enjoyed in 2016

  • Career
    • I changed jobs in April. It was hard to do, but ultimately the right call. I now work three days a week at a job I thoroughly enjoy, and have two days a week for my own personal business adventures.
    • This was a year of deep technical improvement for me in the realm of software engineering. I did less iOS work than in previous years but really pushed myself in other areas. I’m now a vaguely competent devops engineer, have experience with PHP / Laravel, have spent several months in Rails 5, toyed with React (and abandoned it), and wrote a small app in Swift 3.
  • Fitness
    • I didn’t manage to improve my squat or bench this year, but still put up a solid 300 lb squat and 195 lb bench at the end of the year. I added cleans back into the mix this year; although my 1 rep is still low at 185 lbs.
  • Reading
    • I read 52 books in 2016! Reading has been a hobby of mine since the 4th grade, and will continue to be in the future. I’ll be doing a post on my favorite books of 2016 soon.
  • Personal Software Projects
    • Postcard Panda received a lot of love from me this year, and processed $4500 in revenue (if only that were profit).
    • I spent the last two months of 2016 working on software for wrestling teams. More details coming soon!
    • All of my other projects are essentially in maintenance mode, and will remain that way.
  • Tiny House
    • The first full year of living in a 270 square foot apartment is complete! Did I mention it can be cleaned top to bottom in 30 minutes??
  • Travel
    • Travel was a bit of a fail this past year, but trips to Wyoming and Portland were highlights. Plus my new job allowed me to visit my family in Seattle more often, and play golf with my Dad during the week.

2016 - Hit Or Miss?

In my post from 2015’s year in review I did not make any hard or fast goals for 2016. I did however break out three different categories. Here’s how I feel about all three:

  • Uncertainty
    • Honestly, I have no idea what I was rambling on about in the 2015 version of this year in review. Did I create uncertainty in my life in 2016? Yes. Did it cause me to grow personally and professionally? Yes. Was it as drastic change in my lifestyle? Not really. Is this a useful goal for 2017? No.
  • Professional Freedom
    • I nailed this one in 2016 due to a job change, and so far it’s the best professional situation I’ve found myself in yet. My boss and team at Shelterluv are awesome, and I get to both manage and engineer my own project internally. My part time schedule has also allowed me to spend time creating my own software, which was a major area I wanted to step towards in 2016.
  • Adventure
    • On the bright side I did manage several trips in 2016 including a week in Wyoming and Iceland. I sincerely hope to return to Iceland someday; I felt more in awe of nature there than I have in a long time. Mandy and I also took several camping trips, spent our anniversary in Portland, and managed some random getaways. We unfortunately didn’t make it out of the country together, which is a goal for 2017.
    • I did buy a motorcycle in 2016, which I have enjoyed thoroughly.

2017 - The Goals

  • Professional Development
    • Continue working on improving Shelterluv. I have internal goals with specific numbers, but for this blog it’s enough to say I want to excel, as I hope to work there for a long time.
    • Make my businesses much more profitable. Specifically, I would like to make up the lost 40% of my pay that I’m currently losing by only working three days a week.
    • Publish a mobile app written in Swift and a mobile app for Android.
  • Adventure
    • Get outside the country two or more times.
      • Mandy and I already have New Zealand booked for November!
  • Personal Development
    • Read 50 books in 2017.
    • Give one new hobby a chance.
    • Make non working hours sacred. By that I mean that I do not plan on working on the weekends, or in the evenings. In early January I had been falling into this trap by artificially creating deadlines for myself, and it’s just not worth it.
    • Continue working out at least five times a week.