Speak at more conferences and schools

I have spoken at Music City Tech/Code and DevSpace conferences and will be speaking at CodeMash next month, that’s big one. I’ve also spoken at Covalence and NSS. I spoke again at ITPA and I’ve made contacts at various user groups in Nashville and other areas.

Start blogging more.

Not enough time and a change in focus mid year. I wasn’t planning on starting graduate school last year when I set this goal. I started building the blog and creating a backlog of posts and ideas but that got put aside as I started school. I just don’t have the time as I’m getting used to the new schedule.

Pay off the last of my private student loans.

This one came as surprise as I’d over calculated how many payments I had left. They didn’t take out the regular payment about 3 months earlier than I expected to have it paid off. I called to make sure I wouldn’t get a ding on my credit and found out it was paid off.

Go on a long bike ride, either to visit friends across the country or one of my sisters.

Fourth of July I spent all day on my bike but this one fell to starting graduate school. I planned a ride up to St. Louis but changed my plans because orientation for school was that weekend.

Get into story writing.

I’ve started writing my story down. I’m thinking about making it a book or a podcast or both. A few chapters are outlined already and I’m making progress.

Drop another full pants size.

Early in the year I did a 6 week challenge that was a great kick start on diet and exercise. I ended up losing a pant size in June or July. Actually I’ve almost lost two.

More public speaking (like Beej).

Cut down on conference talks, but increased other talks. Calling this a win.

Fix my sleep.

It’s way better, but the early part of the year was very rough.

Start saving money for land to build a house on.

Continuing to save. The bulk cooking is pretty solid though and is saving me a bit of money.

Meditate and exercise much more frequently.

Did well on both counts, but the hernia took months longer to heal than expected.

Go on an actual retreat. Alone.

Was planning this when my grandmother passed on. Used a few too many days to be able to do it.

Start pushing for some work from home capabilities at my job.

Two days a week. Plus a lot of the distractions have been eliminated.

Publish our first book

We have finished recording all chapters. Will is in the process or writing out the outlines into chapters and BJ is in the process of editing the audio.

Sponsorship for Complete Developer Podcast

Had a few here and there but not yet found a regular sponsor.

Increase our listeners.

Our average downloads have almost doubled since last year. Great job spreading the word, keep it up. We hit a lot of benchmarks this past year. So many that we had to reset our rewards for hitting target numbers.

Expand Developer Launchpad.

We have a social chair for the group who now plans and hosts our social events so all we have to do is show up.

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