2023 — A Year in Review

2023 has been a year of transition.

2022 was one of the most challenging years I’ve ever faced. Dealing with personal loss and the conclusion of a long-term contract left me feeling lost.

One of the things that I realized was the most important things to me was to have more control over my time. It was clear that work was not the most important thing in my life. Spending time with friends and family became a top priority, and I realized that work should only be there to support those values. In previous jobs, I would come home from work mentally exhausted and I didn’t want to return this cycle of work, sleep, repeat.

In January, I decided to finally dive into working for myself as an independent software developer. Thankfully, I’ve been able to develop a great network over the years, and I was able to find some clients pretty quickly. Aside from a vague revenue goal, I didn’t really have a clear plan on what the year would look like. Taking things one day at a time was the only way that I could approach the year, as I slowly started to rebuild and figure out my next chapter, both professionally and personally.

A few highlights of the year:

hitting my revenue target for the first year of my business
took a painting class (I was inspired by a conversation with a friend in Europe about creative outlets)
a week getaway to Mexico
my first time portage camping in Algonquin Park
a 2 week “work-cation” to Whistler, BC
a return to TIFF to see a number of great films

With a more flexible work schedule, I was able to prioritize spending more time doing the things that really mattered. Being able to meet friends for lunch during the week, or work from a local coffee shop was such a great feeling. After a long period of time where I felt like I had so little control over everything in my life, it was so important to be able to take back some of that control.

I’m looking forward to 2024, and have even started to put together some goals for the year, as well as think about some long term things that I’d like to accomplish… something that I hadn’t thought about in a number of years.