2019 on A Geek's Life

Quarterly Review - Q3 2019

Mon, 30 Sep 2019 16:59:27 +0000

Went Well

Transition to new role at work
Restarted a weekly Thankful Thursdays feature on here, in a bid to build an attitude of gratitude
Significantly increased my monthly run distance peaking at over 100km for July & August
Came through my regular BP checks in August without any need to adjust meds etc
Interviewed for AOC role, waiting to hear back on a potential offer, also waiting to interview for a senior M&C role at an oil major in the next few days.

Didn’t Go Well

Spiritual life is still out of sorts,
Suffered occasional bouts of panic, negative self talk and lack of self confidence both at work and my personal life. Need to get a regular meetup and support set up with an older wiser head/ mentor (eg Pastor W?)
Didn’t write as much as I thought I would. Need to establish a series of rituals to make this happen semi-automatically
Relationship with S appears stalled, with us both living our separate lives and not bonding as well as we should, current living arrangements being the primary cause I believe.

Year Objectives and Status

The 11 things:

The Monthly Wrap: March, Much Ado About Nothing (Much)

Wed, 03 Apr 2019 03:48:48 +0000

Highlights

Broke 50km distance for the first time in 2019
Kept up my daily devotional streak, thanks to the CoE’s Lent Pilgrim app
Completed a book! (James Clear’s Atomic Habits). Still behind on the year plan though

Lowlights

Habit streak tracking still patchy at best
Finances ended up a mess - home improvements were unbudgeted for but perhaps add value to the house (not quantified though)

Next Month Focus Area

NaPoWriMo Day 1: Prayer

Mon, 01 Apr 2019 19:02:57 +0000

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash. For NaPoWriMo Day 1.

\\\* Fold your hands in quiet contemplation, eyelids shut, pressed tightly together, a wall standing tall between the harsh light outside and the quiet darkness within. Breathe, inhale the scent of home, bread and wine, blended into the memories of your youth, when Faith, child-like, bubbled free. You who have wandered seven hills and seven rivers into a far country, drawn by the lure of freedom but now have had your eyes awakened seek redemption. This is what prayer is, quietly heeding the call of the divine

Full Circle

Sat, 19 Jan 2019 05:39:19 +0000

Dragging myself out of bed to begin the motions that will end in my lining up at the starting point of this week’s Aberdeen Parkrun, it strikes me that it is just over a month ago that I shipped myself and a couple of bags out of town for an extended holiday season. In between there have been pit stops in various parts of Surrey, East London, Chelmsford, Kent and an extended traipse through several towns within the Valencian Community. A second full week of work has beaten any remnant of festivity out of me, which heightened the sense of finality of the park run. I have come full circle, back to the grind of life. Wash, rinse, repeat. The run itself was hardly memorable - three minutes slower than my PB from last year putting the surfeit of Christmas pudding into perspective.

The 2019 Actions

Mon, 31 Dec 2018 07:24:38 +0000

List of running actions and habits for 2019 for tracking, derived from The Year of Living Intentionally:

Read The Hero With A Thousand Face
Utilise the hero’s journey in updating my Life Plan
Identify my band of friends and brothers and engage them individually once a month
Identify devotional to use for 2019 (should involve reading 10 or less verses):YouVersion selected
Track performance vs KPIs (various), report monthly, quarterly and annual
Find web filter app for Linux and install
Remove phone and laptop from bedroom
Run >=25km a week
Practice intermittent fasting
Eat <100g of carbs per day
Exercise daily (run or fitness blender)
Limit coffee intake to one cup per day (morning)
Explore options/ procure a blood pressure monitoring wearable
Save >= 10% of net earnings (less GAYE)
Restrict spend to <110% of budget
Clarify medium/long term work plans (data science, corrosion/materials/welding/inspection) and location
Update M&C roadmap, include gap analysis and closure plans (vs XoM competencies)
Complete Data science Data Scientist track course, decide on Udacity Nanodegree
Join a Data science for good meetup/ hackathon
Identify/ complete a creative non fiction writing/ blogging course
Learn to use kdenlive or other editing suite, also inkscape?
Build list of books to read/ themes for 2019
Read a chapter of a book per day
Write compassion kid once a quarter
Identify/ complete assertiveness training/ coaching
Find a mentor for work and personal life
Call siblings / in-laws once a month, call Dad weekly
Meet up with one of Rotimi, Deji A and Deji Ajayi once a month
build stock picking tool (strategy and triggers)
Identify app for tracking daily/weekly actions completed vs planned
Determine my target macros (fat, protein, carbs) and total calories