What a time to be alive.

This year has been as weird as it has been amazing. In Australia, we’ve gone from burning to the ground to Covid to a downright wintery Christmas. Alice Springs recorded its lowest Christmas high temperature of 20 degrees Celsius. The stock market has tanked, only to rebound and in some sectors flourish. China and Australia are starting to engage in economic warfare. Most notably, people were beating each other up over toilet paper.

Thankfully, none of these are within my locus of control. This is actually a good thing because I can focus on what matters to me.

So what has happened in my life that is noteworthy.

Personal

Quite a lot has happened in my life this year, but I am highlighting some of the best parts.

Home and away 🇦🇺

I survived my first Canberra winter. Canberra is one of those places where as soon as you mention you live there to a non-Canberran, they remark about how cold it is.

It is not cold here. Not real cold, not you will die if locked out your house in boardies and t-shirt cold. It would suck but you won’t die.

And, I loved it - it is beautiful here. Snow-covered mountains, foggy mornings, and sunny clear days (for the most part).

We traveled to the south coast a few times this year. I have traveled a lot in Australia but seen little of the south coast. It is a magical place with some beautiful beaches, rainforests and lovely weather. In 2021, I hope to get out there more often and explore with the family. Highly recommend Merimbula and Narooma.

One bummer was hitting the snowfields this year. We got down there just in time for the fields to be declared shut for the entire weekend we were there. Still, I was able to experience some actual cold and do a little bit of hiking with my buddy. Out of all the traveling we’ve done this year it was the only true Covid effected situation we experienced.

Work

Work has been busy but rewarding. I have learned so much as developed a lot as a person. Definitely the best working year I’ve had since 2016. The highlights have been the increase in my skillset: Django Angular Docker CI/CD Ansible, and Packer Microservices Design and architecture I feel grateful to have been able to learn all this, and greater still to have kept my job during the pandemic.

2021

I don’t do resolutions, I do try to make habits and sometimes I fail, or forget so this should keep me accountable.

Things I need to do to achieve all that I am capable of:

1. I plan on do more in public; building tools, more blogging and I aim to speak at a local tech conference/meetup.
2. I’ve started a SaaS business idea that I think has legs. If it’s a flop, fine, but I will use it as a platform to level-up my dev and business skills. Checkout pftrace.com.
3. My execise commitment wanes and waxes throughout the year, I need to make it more consistent - min 15 minutes of activity per day that isn’t walking (I do 20-40 mins of that already)
4. Save money; I have calculated that it is the small frequent purchases that have the biggest effect on my bank balance. None of those things make me healthy, wealthy or happy.

🍻 Here’s to internet accountability!

Reflection

Another year completed and one of the best I have had in the last few. Whilst everyone is in the midst of Covid despair, I have tried to focus on what I have and what makes my life great. I have my family, a place to call home, and purpose in life - that’s what makes me feel wealthy, and this year has added to that wealth.