December 25, 2019 by Glenn
2019 Year in Review
I can't believe it's already been a year since I last wrote one of these. Time flies when you're getting old! As the year comes to a close, I'd like to just take some time to reflect back on everything that's happened over the past tweleve months.
Last year I set four goals for myself
Out of those four goals, I achieved one: public speaking.
I spoke infront of two usergroups over the summer, presenting on understanding Laravel collections.
I would argue that out of any of the four goals, this one was the biggest deal from a personal growth stand point - the idea of standing infront of a group of people is extremely uncomftrable for me.
I made it through unscathed and even received some positive feedback.
As for the other goals.
I wanted to grow my twitter audience, instead it shrunk.
I wanted to blog once a month and failed immediately at this.
I also wanted to launch my first info-product course on refactoring php, and despite putting in some legit work on this, it too fell by the wayside.
I even tried to organize my own php conference but ultimately had to call that quits as well.
From a career stand point...
I'm not totally sure if I can count this year as a win.
The company I'd been employed at for the past three and a half years closed their doors after 20+ years in business.
I managed to land a steady stream of freelance clients and contract work, so the bills got paid! I also got to meet some great people in the process.
Ultimately however I let some personal issues drag me down and I've spent the last few months of the year focusing on my own mental health.
I did have some fun throughout the year.
I attended my third Sunshine PHP conference.
I got to attend to a handful of great concerts including: Switchfoot, Hootie and the Blowfish, Train, The Goo Goo Dolls, Disturbed, and Alterbridge.
I even got my first ever tattoo this year - a small one, but it counts.
I also completed my first ever 5k. Even going to it in the first place was a big win for me in the way of personal growth, as I ended up going completely alone after everyone in my group bailed one by one. Normally that would be enough to make me give up.
So what's next?
I'm going to avoid setting any specific goals for myself this year. The theme for the year is simple: be happy.