My 2019 Goals

For those of you who have known me for a while you’ll know that I have pretty much been a workaholic my entire career. Almost all of my goals in previous years have been focussed around career development and progression. Well, for 2019 I’m bucking that trend and I’m setting myself no goals that are directly related to my career.

That doesn’t mean their won’t be positives in 2019 for my career, it simply means at this stage I’m not setting any direct targets relating to the job.

Why?

Well, the really simple answer is I’m happy with where I’ve gotten to in my career. I’ve worked hard to get where I am, that doesn’t mean there’s not still things for me to achieve, I still want to learn new languages, new techniques and improve the skills I have.

In saying that though, I’ve put off so many things in my personal life that it’s now time to bring those into focus for 2019.

1. Buy A House

One of the goals I’ve had for many years is to be able to purchase a house before the age of 30 and I’m really happy that I can say that this year that should happen. I spent most of 2018 saving up to have a deposit while trying to enjoy life at the same time. I’m now starting the journey towards picking a property and buying it. If anyone has any extra advice, please let me know!

2. Learn To Drive

This is one of those things that I really wish I’d done when I was younger but simply had no reason to. Every job I’ve had has either been in an area I could walk to from where I was living, or in a City making it nearly impossible to drive there, and due to that, plus Scotland’s reasonable transport links across the Central Belt (note: this is where my train gets cancelled tomorrow morning…) I’ve never quite felt the need to learn to drive. But buying a house has changed my mind, while probably not with my first property, going forward I want to be able to stay a bit further away from the train station / town centres and a car will be a requirement.

3. Read 12 Books

This is a goal I’ve set myself for the last 3 years, and I’ve only achieved it once. This year I want to read 12 books ideally separated into 3 technical books and 9 fiction books. For some people this goal will seem really low, but I’m the type who really struggles to read technical books (I learn by doing, not reading) so I fully expect these reads to take up more of my year than I’d like to admit.

If you’ve got any suggestions for books to read get in touch! I primarily read cop-action type books, think Jack Reacher, but I’m also partial to a good autobiography.

4. Complete 2 Video Games

Again, this might seem like a really simple goal to some of you, but I simply lose patience with games. I’ve lost count of the number of half completed games I’ve got, just last year I can think of Mario Odyssey, Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Spyro & Assassin’s Creed (although I am still playing this). I also completed Spiderman and God of War which is the most large games I’ve completed in 1 year for ages.

This goal is really about just relaxing a bit more and when I come home spending less time thinking about programming or work as I don’t want to end up burnt out again.

And that’s that, my goals for 2019 all feel achievable, and I’m reasonably hoping to complete the first 2 in the first 6 months of the year. Who knows, maybe at that point I’ll come up with a lofty ambition surrounding programming or the day job.