My 2017 Annual Review

Time for my 2017 annu­al review.

In this blog art­icle, I’ll do my best to answer these three ques­tions:¹This format is inspired by James Clear’s annu­al reviews.

What went well this year?
What didn’t go so well this year?
What am I work­ing toward?

Here we go:

1. What Went Well This Year?

Photography. I’ve also explored this interest since my wife, Lisah, is into pho­to­graphy, too. It’s a great way to spend time out­doors. It’s a cre­at­ive pur­suit involving tech­no­logy, soft­ware, and social media. I’ve stud­ied the sub­ject extens­ively, and the more I learn, the bet­ter I get (which isn’t always the case). I’m not a “great pho­to­graph­er” by any stretch, but I’m get­ting to the point where I at least start to know what the heck I’m doing. I at least feel like I’ve got­ten past Mount Stupid!

Jack. I’ve spent much qual­ity time with my son due to my wifey’s odd work hours. It feels like it’s been pre­cious for both of us.

Career change. I felt like my pro­fes­sion­al learn­ing curve stalled, so I had to take action and do some­thing dif­fer­ent for a while. So, I aban­doned my oth­er­wise cher­ished life as a freel­an­cer to pur­sue anoth­er entre­pren­eur­i­al chal­lenge togeth­er with oth­ers. I learned tons of video pro­duc­tion and pro­gram­mat­ic advert­ising in the pro­cesses, two oth­er­wise weak spots in my pro­fes­sion­al tool­box.

Supporting my wife’s career. Wifey is a tele­vi­sion host for a daily live format on Swedish crime. She’s remark­able, I think, and I’m proud to have pri­or­it­ised her career over mine this year. And it hasn’t been a sac­ri­fice; it has instead been grat­i­fy­ing to sup­port her in her pro­fes­sion­al development.

2. What Didn’t Go So Well This Year?

Midlife crisis. Throughout the year, I couldn’t fig­ure out my place in life. Maybe I’ve exper­i­enced an early onset mid-life crisis? I had dif­fi­culties updat­ing my social media chan­nels simply because I had trouble believ­ing why any­one would care about my life and what I had to say. And I star­ted second-guess­ing my motiv­a­tions for hav­ing a “per­son­al brand”—who am I try­ing to impress and why?

Entrepreneurial stress. Building a brand is tre­mend­ous fun, but most of the admin­is­trat­ive work that goes with it is mind-numb­ing. Starting a brand new agency (with a new dir­ec­tion) with four seni­or con­sult­ants requires a lot of new busi­ness from day one to cov­er all expenses. It takes a lot of energy, for sure.

3. What Am I Working Toward?

Getting health­i­er. Sadly, I came out of 2017 in worse shape (men­tally and phys­ic­ally) than I entered it. My num­ber one pri­or­ity in 2018 will be to take bet­ter care of myself. I want to live a long and healthy life with my wife and son, so I’m tak­ing steps to get my pri­or­it­ies straight.

Figure things out. My inner drive is a large part of who I am, and I am com­pletely lost. If this is a mid­life crisis, it can’t last forever any­way. I have unique skills and believe my best pro­fes­sion­al years are still ahead.