2022 Goals

Every year I find it useful to sit down and set some goals for the year. It helps to give me some direction. I usually split them into business goals and personal goals. I also typically put together a reading list for the upcoming year. Here are my goals for 2022.

Business Goals

The big thing this year is to continue growing the business. That means getting a steady stream of revenue. It also means raising my prices and revisiting my pricing model so I can get to the point where I am no longer just surviving but I have money to invest back into the business. The main investment is just getting stuff off my plate. In 2021 I hired a social media person and an assistant. This year I’d like to build a small team of contractors and hire a project manager type to help me manage everything.

In addition to growing the business I have a few other goals:

• I want to do more teaching/coaching/mentoring. I’m not sure what that will look like. It could be running more workshops or online classes, growing my MasterMind group or doing more prerecorded online classes. It could also simply be bringing on a bunch of contractors and mentoring them.
• I want to continue to be involved in GDevCon N.A. and the GLA Summit. I really enjoy attending those types of events, so I want to do my part to ensure they continue to happen.
• I’d like to do some big service project. I have a couple ideas. I’ve always been interested in Latin America. Maybe start some sort of coding school down there or an apprenticeship program. I’ve also been interested in cybersecurity, so maybe something where I help dissidents or journalists avoid government surveillance by authoritarian governments. Both of those would allow me to use my unique skillset and interests to really benefit others and have more of an impact in the world around me. It would be an ongoing project, the kind of project you could never declare done. It will take time, but I want to start researching and refining ideas next year and piling up resources.
• Another thing I want to get better about doing is being more intentionally about recognizing and rewarding people who have sent me business. A large portion of the business I did this year was due to referrals by 2 different people (you know who you are). I need to do a better job of recognizing and rewarding them, and in general just trying to build my referral network.

Metrics

That all sounds great, but I want to have something measurable. A litmus test. So here goes.

• Get to $20K MRR.
• Sell 1 retainer package for coaching/mentoring
• Grow Mastermind to 10 particpants
• Create 1 more prerecorded online class
• Sell $10K worth of prerecorded online classes
• Create more modules for Git class dealing with submodules and subtree
• Run a workshop at GDevCon NA and net $10K
• Run one other inperson workshop and net $10K
• Continue with 1 blog post/week
• Bring on at least 1 more contractor
• Have at least 20% of revenue come from teaching/coaching/mentoring

Personal goals

My main personal goal right now is just about maintaining my sanity and my marriage. I have 2 little kids at home: a 6-month-old and a 3-year-old. I haven’t slept for more than 20 minutes at a time in several months. Sleep deprivation really is a form of torture. It adds a lot of stress to our marriage, so goal number one is just nurturing that relationship.

But I do have some other goals.

• I want to finish another 100 miler. I did sign up for the BigHorn 100 and a couple training runs.
• I want to do more climbing. Having kids has slowed me down so I’d like to see if I can get out climbing some more this year. I’m under no illusions things will go back to the way they were before I got married and had kids, but I think can definitely find time to do more than I’ve been doing recently.
• I’d like to get into mountain biking this year. It may compete with the running as far as time, so we’ll have to see if I can swing it. The 100 miler is in the middle of the summer, so maybe I don’t start mountainbiking until the fall.

Metrics

• Finish BigHorn 100, Salida Run Through Time and Collegiate Peaks 50. Don’t just survive, thrive.
• Buy a mountain bike and get out and ride it
• One big ice climbing trip (Ouray or Cody), 1 long weekend/destination climbing trip (maybe the Needles, Mt Rushmore, Tetons, Zion, RedROcks, etc) , at least one trip to Vedauwoo, Try to get out climbing at least once a month.
• One family vacation/getaway of at least 4-5 days. Probably backpacking in the Tetons.

Reading List

Every year I also create a professional reading list. It includes a lot of coding books, some business books, and some personal development books. My goal is to read a large chunk of these. I may get to them all, but if I don’t that is ok as long as I put a dent in the list. I’ll often call an audible as in if there is some specific business or coding challenge I am facing, I might substitute in a book about that instead. That’s what I have been doing the past couple of years. 2021 was the first year I actually finished all the books on my list (or at least came close – it is Dec 17 as I am writing this, and I still have 1.5 books to go, so we’ll see but I am optimistic.)

Here is my list for next year. It’s a pretty good mix. A little programming-heavy, but there are some good coaching books in there.

• The Programmer’s Brain
• Man’s Search For Meaning
• Test-Driven Development
• Technical Debt in Practice; How to Find it and Fix it
• Technical Agile Coaching with the Samman Method
• Philosophy of Software Design
• Coaching Agile Teams
• How to Talk so Kids Will Listen and Listen so Kids Will Talk
• Thinking in Systems
• The Phoenix Project
• Joy Inc
• Continuous Integration