I’ve been sitting on the 2007 review for a year, but it’s time to release it into the wild so I can finish my review of 2008. I was working on the 2007 review just after New Year 2008, but then Arliin passed away, the cats moved in, I had to learn how to inject Beano, my last day at my government job arrived, and I became preoccupied with figuring out my employment situation.
Life was a little topsy-turvy at the beginning of 2008, but then the rest of the year TOOK OFF like a galloping horse. But, I’m getting ahead of myself — back to 2007. First:
Last October I was driving back from New York City, and I mentioned writing a ‘Year in Review’ while in conversation with one of my passengers (who I’d just met a few hours before). She commented that she didn’t do anything of the sort, that she didn’t believe in looking into the past, she only looked forward. I was a bit taken aback. “What about goals?” I asked. “How do you know if you’ve made any progress if you don’t review what you’ve done? What if a goal is long-term?”
Writing in this website has been very useful to me in terms of keeping track of myself. I believe in setting goals — a mix of short-term, long-term, easily-attainable, and relatively large-scale — but part of the plan is measuring and benchmarking in some way. Some things aren’t quantifiable or measurable, sure, but if I want to become a better photographer, for example, how on earth will I know I’m better if I don’t look back at my old photos? How will I know if I travel more if I don’t actually count vehicle mileage or boarding passes? How would I know if I wrote more or less this year if I didn’t compare my publishing stats? Perceptions are one thing, stats may say otherwise.
While I don’t think it’s necessary to share all my goals with the world wide web, I think it’s a morale booster to share the personal victories and accomplishments, whether large or small. There are hard times in every calendar year, but there is always something worth celebrating and there are always lessons to be learned from new experiences, taking personal risks, stacking up the gains against the losses.
I’ll probably add to this, but here’s the 2007 list for now, in no particular order: