The World According to Mitch

I can honestly say that I don’t think I have ever made New Year’s Resolutions… at least, I have never written them down.  At the end of 2014, my annus horribilus, I am looking forward to a spectacular 2015.

Yesterday afternoon – December 30th – I was looking at my dashboard on www.asana.com – a tool that my boss recently introduced into our organization that  helps us to keep track of our tasks – and realized how much I have been able to accomplish in the month or so since he introduced it.  Don’t get me wrong, I was probably almost equally productive in the previous months… you know, when I wasn’t distracted by illness, my separation, my parents’ separation, kids’ illnesses and whatnot.  It’s just that this tool not only helps me to track what I need to do, it helps me to stay focused on those tasks.  It is a tool that, going forward, I will be using more and more.

What my focus on Asana reminded me of on that particular afternoon reminded me of the old truism – if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.  I have thought to myself several things I want to do in 2015, and so maybe putting them down on paper (yes, I still refer to my blog as ‘on paper’), and try to remember them so that I do not lose focus.  I am planning out several goals for 2015, and I plan to succeed.

Professional Life

There are some changes coming in the next few weeks that I am not prepared to share yet.  However the abstract of it is that I plan to continue to grow professionally, grow my knowledge, my network, and my reputation.  I have a couple of certifications that I have been putting off completing and I was challenged by my friend Sharon last night to complete them.  Additionally I have to renew a couple of certifications, and I should do that. 

I plan to re-focus the main theme of The World According to Mitch back to IT.  Does that mean I am going to stop talking about topics such as Weight Management, Martial Arts, and my personal observations?  No… some of those will stay on that blog, but the Weight Management component is being moved to a new blog that I have created.  Going forward I am going to invite my readers to subscribe to my second blog if they want to follow that side, and this one if they are interested chiefly in IT.

I plan to deliver to my readers the high quality and relevance you have come to expect from my blog over the past decade.  Wow… I can’t believe it’s been nearly a decade since I started blogging.

I have been asked by some if I plan to try to get re-awarded by the Microsoft MVP program.  The answer is that I have no such plans.  I will continue to participate in technical communities, and contribute by way of blogging, articles, and speaking engagements.  However I never really stopped doing any of that.  If Microsoft does not feel that my contributions warrant an award, then I will do it for the same reason I have always done it – to help the communities.

Personal Life

I think I need to be a better father than I have been to my children.  That is not easy for me, and I am not sure how I will do it.  Spending time with my younger son is easy, but my older son has school, works, has homework, friends, is probably dating, and so on.  I am going to continue to try to figure that out.

I need to be a better provider.  The last year my finances have been a disaster, and as such when I moved out of the house into my condo I was not able to pay all of my bills and meet all of my financial obligations to Theresa and the kids.  Fortunately I think I know how I will be able to do that starting in 2015, and that is my goal… in addition to paying down all of my debts and credit cards and bills.

Most of you are by now aware that my wife and I separated this past year.  In 2015 I hope to continue the healing process.  It is not easy, but I will continue to grow.

I started to lose weight in 2014… and not because I stopped eating from stress and depression (were that only the way my mind and body worked I assure you that by now I would be a lithe 215lbs).  Since I started the journey I have lost about 40lbs, and I plan to continue on this path (although December has been a total clusterf*¢k in that regard).  I am hoping to lose another 70-90lbs in 2015.

I decided in June of this year that it was time for me to start training for my 3rd Dan Black Belt… but I was wrong.  Before I was able to do that, I realized I needed to get myself back up to the level befitting a 2nd Dan Black Belt.  I needed to refresh my memory of all of the patterns that I needed to earn my 1st and 2nd Dan Black Belts.  While I am not entirely there, I feel that I am now at a place where I can begin to spend the next five months in training and preparation, and to test for my next belt in June.  Whether I am ready in June or not, I plan to earn it in 2015.

I plan to continue to teach, and to improve as a Taekwondo instructor.  Under the tutelage of my Masters I will continue to try.

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There are a lot of other things I would like to do, but I don’t think I am going to over-commit.  I hope that I am able to do what I have outlined here, and hopefully more.  As John Lennon said ‘Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.’  I think what I have outlined here is reasonable, achievable, and with a little luck a year from now I will be able to look back at this list and smile, and say ‘Mission Accomplished!’

Happy New Year to all of you!