Hello 2021!

I wrote this post on the 2nd January 2021 and had every intention of finishing it & posting it shortly after. It's the 8th April now and I've just found the post so I've uploaded it, albeit a bit late.

Many moons ago when I used to write here more often, I would create an annual challenge list and post them up here. I posted my 2011 list late in 2010 and here's a recap of those 2011 challenges.

I think 2011 was the last challenge list I created & completed. That was 10 years ago, and the lasting comment from there was:

You are the architect of your own future

And whilst I still live by this line, I don't do it nearly aggressively enough. Especially as I'm now approaching 40 and wouldn't mind a bit of a less stressful life and a little break every now and then.

However life is life, and we just keep on.

Like a lot of people, I tend to work better or achieve more when I've got a realistic goal set for me. I set a few personal challenges throughout 2020 which didn't happen because COVID. Lame excuse indeed.

2021 will be exceptional in terms of my career. There's a lot happening which should prove fruitful for my team, my company and my colleagues. This is awesome and many levels and all of this has come about because of that tag line above.

We've all worked tirelessly throughout 2020 pushing new avenues, new contacts and new ideas which have created potential opportunities and we're grabbing those opportunities with both hands and making it work for all!

But back to the point of this post.

Si posed a question on his On The Side community asking what everyone's goals were for 2021 and I answered as follows

1. Reduce screen time overall - COVID and the subsequent lockdown has meant more screen time for me. Don't get me wrong, it's been nice not having to commute everyday but those 2 hours I normally spend cycling to & from London were replaced with 2 hours of screen time as "working from home" soon became "living at the office". Eurgh. I want to spend less time looking at my laptop, or my phone or TV and spend more time with the kids, board games, books, bikes... anything that's not a screen.
2. Be more active - 2020 was going to be great. I had aimed to cycle 5,000km throughout 2020 and with a solid 40km commute each day, I should have been able to easily hit that but lockdown in March put paid to that idea and I achieved 3,000km which is still some going. Throughout 2021, I want to complete 4,000km on the bike, but also dust off my running trainers and get back on the road. It's been years since I've ran and I used to really enjoy a 10km+ run on a weekend.
3. Read more books - Staying away from the screen should help here. I want to read some more fiction and non-fiction. Any recommendations?
4. Produce some music - I've done this before but lost touch with that creative process. I used to love firing up Fruity Loops, programming some beats and a cheeky sub-bass and then playing those tracks in my DJ days. I'd love to do that again!
5. Be more positive, generally - I can be a right negative git at times and I'm all too quick to point out pain points in suggestions or pitfalls within ideas and that must suck for my friends, family & colleagues. I will do less of that this year.

I've stuck with 5 goals for the year. I could go on and add a bunch to this but I get easily distracted so I should cap it at 5 and focus on these goals.

I have also set myself a reminder for June so I can do a half-yearly write up on how this is going.