At the closing of a year that felt like 5, it’s still important for me to sit back and reflect.Here are the previous annual review posts: 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019.Overall, the year exposed many things.
Inward.
Cutting through the fear to the father.
With things locked down, fellowship and surrounding ourselves with other believers just didn’t happen as it did in the past.
The blessings of a more digital world is that church happened online.
In many cases, it brought our family together. We prayed more together, was found opportunities to be thankful and show gratitude for the things we had. We also prayed for those less fortunate, those more impacted, and had lots of hard conversations.
With the pandemic, it was important to focus more on my individual health - mentally, spiritually, and physically.
Throughout the year, I really leveraged the home gym we invested in, but struggled to truly make sureshot habits. In May, I went 30 days working out straight, but when I broke the streak, I slowly retreated back to a day every week or two.
Although I didn’t make the time to exercise consistently, I made sure that no matter what time I went to bed, I was keeping a pulse on my sleep quality and readiness (using AutoSleep for iPhone & Apple Watch).
We welcomed our little Olive June into the world on January 19th, 2020!
She’s been such a little ham, and is learning so quickly thanks to her big sister Violet!
Since our time living on the islands of Hawai’i, we really looked forward to going back every year, but due to COVID and travel restrictions, we couldn’t make it back to the island (cue LOST quotes).
This led us to explore more around our state, taking many day trips to Door County and other areas, exploring new parks, restaurant take-out, and just getting some fresh air with the girls.
We also were able to get away to a nearby lake a couple hours away with my Brother and his family, where we stayed at an AirBnb for about 5 days.
I designed and rendered out a brand new backyard living space that would help us live outdoors more and leverage our backyard and time together.
We didn’t get to the project, but was also able to paint all of our soffit and fascia, garage doors, brick, and have a few other upgrades coming in spring with new lighting, beams/boxes in the front yard, and some landscaping.
Obviously, no one saw the pandemic coming, nor the destruction and divergence it would have on businesses big and small. We were very fortunate to continue working alongside many of our client partners, and also keep all of our crew members working.
Despite the climate, we were able to also attract and begin working with some great new partners in FinTech, Healthcare, and Logistics.
Kris and I had been kicking around an idea around helping people make more progress for a few years. With COVID-19, the timing and opportunity really presented itself so we began testing it, digging into the problem space, and ultimately launching a platform for people to connect more meaningfully by design. We even were featured as Bubble's App of the Day in January.
This has been the hardest part of the pandemic. As for almost everyone, early on in the pandemic (only a couple weeks of lockdown), we had zoom calls with friends, texted frequently, and checked in on each other.
COVID has been polarizing for many relationships, and despite sharing compassion, the competing viewpoints made the distance and time apart even harder.
I’m hopeful that a booming time of rekindling and relishing in the presence of others will follow this time of isolation and separation, much like in the roaring 20’s - after the time of WW1 and the Flu of 1918 that lasted well into the beginning of 1920.
In 2020 we continued the debt snowball and were able to pay off the last of our school loans! A weight and indebtedness we celebrated removing!
I both read and listened to a lot of books throughout the year, and found that listening to books on audible during outside work helped the time fly and feel that I was learning and growing at the same time.
Most books fell into the realm of professional development, leadership, and business, but many of the books this year were also on parenting, potty training, and raising your children in a loving, but disciplined way.
Here’s a small sample of some books from this past year:
My word for 2021, is: Discipline.
Doing the things I said I would, when I no longer feel like doing them.
Doing things I need a break from, but work for a breakthrough on instead.
Doing things that are easy to stop when no one is holding me accountable.
Cheers to a healthier, happier, more connected New Year!
