Looking Back at 2016 – Life in General

2016 was a pretty busy year for me, especially in all the ways that I didn’t set goals around.  This post is mostly going to be about that stuff (I’ll be posting about all my New Year’s resolutions first thing in the New Year).

Work/Life Balance

This last year has been a busy one at my job.  Between being short staffed for the entire year (by one, and sometimes two full-time employees), it was a bit of a struggle to keep up with everything.  Even so, I feel somewhat dissatisfied with my own work performance this year.  While things certainly got done, I don’t feel like I was able to lead the efforts that I really wanted to, nor advanced the high-level initiatives that needed my attention.  In the end, there were opportunities that passed me by, and I want to do better about that next year.

For the most part, I feel like I did a bit better in my social life this year than I did in 2015.  Spending every week at the Rogue’s Roost and getting to know the group up there better was pretty rewarding.  I feel more comfortable around them now, even to the point where I ran a Werewolf game, which is a fairly big step for me.  I’ve also been able to keep up with John with our Saturday morning gaming, which is something I always look forward to.

My home life has been a lot more rocky this year, and with the changes coming, there are definitely challenges ahead.  I think the most difficult thing is going to be getting used to being single again, and not having a steady counter-balance to my job.  I will be the only person responsible for making sure that I don’t become a complete workaholic, and to make sure that I have something to come home to every night.

Health

I feel good about my health at the end of this year.  I made dental hygiene a priority this year, which has made me feel better about my teeth at least.  I also made exercise a bigger priority, and have been keeping up with my walking goals.  While it didn’t make it into my resolutions this year, I set a goal for myself to walk 80k steps/week, which I’ve done pretty well at up until the latter part of the year.  I took the exercise bike as my alternative to walking last Winter, but I haven’t been as dedicated this Winter (instead, just skipping my walks when it’s -10 degrees outside).

There is still some things I need to improve upon, however.  I need to make the time to go see my doctor and my dentist again as these have somewhat fallen off my schedule.  Again, this one is going to be on me, as no one will be watching my back.

Everything Else

This year, I expanded my knowledge of vehicles exponentially.  Last year, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you the difference between one sedan and another, but this year, having gone through the exercise of actually shopping for a car, I actually feel like I know something about cars.  I’m sure I have barely scratched the surface of what there is to know, and I’m also sure I’m still quite a ways from being competent at anything vehicle related, but I do know a lot more than I did at the beginning of the year.