2015 was a good year. I got engaged. Increased my “Countries Stepped Foot In” list from 1 to 81. Hiked up to the a mountain trail, which I was led to believe was an easy hike. It ended up involving 1,200 feet of elevation gain.2 Thanks Kevin. Skied down a mountain without any formal training. Again, thanks Kevin3.
I learned a lot about what I was capable of and how easy it is to travel the world. I also learned that snow is not as soft as it looks when your feet decide to go in different directions as you slide down a mountain. And you should probably have slightly more training than watching South Park.
My 2015 turned out to be all about learning. Learning from both experiences. And the old-fashioned way, reading books. I finished 27 books this year4. That had to eclipse my previous high water mark by something like 25 books.
Why am I telling you this? Excellent question. It’s not just to humble brag about my 2015, or that I can read. But to show a little bit of what I was able to accomplish by setting some goals and slowly building to them day-to-day for the entire year.
But I also want a record of my goals for 2016. I want to keep building on my learning from 2015. I want to make my focus on 2016 about applying learning. Reading books is good and all, but it doesn’t much help me if I don’t actually put some of those practices to work.
Case in point I spent hours working on learning French in preparation of traveling to Europe in the summer. The problem was I never worked on actually applying that by practicing speaking it. I can read it relatively well, but speaking and deciphering spoken French is another story. So when it came time for the trip, I was too timid in my abilities to try it out. I did here and there, but I mostly reverted to English. I needed to apply the learning. Even if it did mean feeling stupid.
That’s what I’m going to do in 2016. Apply what I learn and share the results. Whether it’s about building a business, learning a language, or developing with WordPress. I’ll be sharing my findings on this blog, in the monthly WordPress Meetup I help out at, and any other way I can think of.
That’s why I’m writing this post. To put it out there. So when 2017 roles around I can look back and say that I accomplished what I wanted. And maybe got a little better at sliding down a mountain with two pieces of wood strapped to my feet.
Or better yet maybe this years trip will be to a beach.
