2019 Goals Review

So, a year ago I set myself a series of goals, they weren’t hard and fast, but more a series of things I wanted to work towards. I also knew that some of them were unlikely to go anywhere, especially those lower down the list. Overall, I’m reasonably pleased with the outcomes.

One. The Podcast. This one was the biggest disappointment, despite some really good progress. I have got the first few scripts finished, I got my recording cube set up and I did some practice recordings, but I was unable to find collaborators I needed. I’m going to keeping pushing this, but I’m considering a change of track away from a multiple cast production to some monologues, but more of that another time.

Two. Run 5k. I completed a GPS confirmed 5k run in December, it took me forty minutes or a pace of roughly eight minutes per kilometre. For the last few months I’ve regularly been running between three and four kilometres, so I still have some work to put in to get be a regular 5k runner, but I now know this distance is something I am perfectly capable of. But from the start of the year, where a couple of minutes running left me breathless I've made some huge strides (pun intended).

Three. Weight down to 108kg. At the close of the year I was weighing in at 104kg, although a bit of a blow out over the new year period saw that rise to 106kg but I’m taking steps to get back on track again. Whichever way I look at it, I’m lighter now than I have been for more than a decade, probably more than fifteen years. More importantly the weight loss and the improved fitness appear to be helping stabilise my kidney function. Since the weight loss kicked-in I’ve had no signs of gout and I’m less prone to muscle cramps. At my last Renal clinic in November the Nephrologist suggested I could get another five to seven years before I need dialysis or transplant intervention (although this is heavily caveated by the risks of any sudden hits caused by illness).

Four. Learn Dax. I’ve made plenty of good progress here. I’m using basic DAX at work fairly regularly although my systematic knowledge of the language in patchy. I have the ‘definitive’ manual now, I have some training coming up later this month on Azure Fundamentals, and I’m supposed to be getting an invite to a Microsoft Ignite event showcasing developments on the Power Platform.

Five. Garage project. This never happened. There were always too many other things that needed doing first. Although I still plan to do this some work in the back garden has a higher priority for the spring.

Six. Learn Python (or R). I never expected to get far with this, despite a few false starts. It’s something I’m still pushing to do, but lack of time means it is likely to be a slow burner.

Seven. Learn Latin. A bit of a hopeless vanity project. Something I’ll revisit in the future, but probably not for some time.

I’ll be putting together some new goals this week, although I might have a little bit of a rethink about how specific they are, and whether it’s a bad idea to be too prescriptive around some of the self-development I want to achieve given the time pressures.