Reflections on 2020 and Earlier

I can’t recall exactly why I didn’t bother write a goal post (pun?) last year, but let’s ignore that for now. I’m back in action! Let’s start with some reflections:

• Berlin has now been my home for 3 years. This is the longest I’ve lived somewhere outside of my home city since Calgary (over 11 years ago)! I’m loving my home and my life here so I don’t see myself moving again anytime soon. Here’s a view of my happy place in my flat (Meine Wohnung).

  

• I managed to do start some initiatives related to my 2019 goal around game streaming!. My videos have been vieed 377 times and watched for 71hrs. The Soul Level 1 Dark Souls play through is by far my favourite. It’s really a shame I lost episode 1 on Twitch. I learned that doing these streams and videos does take a lot of time and energy and doing it while working full time is not feasible for me (I did these videos during a couple months break from work).

  

• Journal entries: 27 - I found myself writing in my journal a lot less in 2020. This is not something I want to abandon this year. Reading my previous entries has been valuable to me. That being said, I’ve probably written more words in 2020 than previous years, they just aren’t publically accessible. My internal work journal probably has more than 27 entries.

Goals for 2021:

• Permanent Residence - Given how much I gush about living here, you would think I’m a permanent resident? Nope, my residency here depends on my work permit. I want to break this coupling.

• Winding Down Work - I’m reaching a point where I would prefer to have more time in my life than money. Success will be reducing my hours somehow (most preferrably working 4 days a week). This is primarily for obligitaory employed work. I know I’ll never stop working :-)

• Cycling Initiative - I bought a bike this year, and given that all things are pointing to me sticking around Berlin, I’m not as concerned about have to either sell it or transport it. I’ve been dealing with all sorts of different pains in my legs/knees/back ever since I injured myself training for a half marathon in 2015. Riding a bike has been the best activity for me. Even walking long distances hasn’t been good. I want to incorporate bicycling with how I travel and experience Germany. I have a MASSIVE goal around biking to Luxembourg for a wedding.

  

• Launch Personal Finance Site - The first two goals wouldn’t have seemed feasible to me but the way I’ve been managing my money has opened them up to me. At the moment there’s a skeleton of a website for a project that I’ve called Good Enough Money.

Summary

I’m looking forward to shaking things up a bit. My appetite for risk and adventure is back. Funny how in my last update I mention my travel hunger is satiated. That’s certainly turning around now.

this post took 3 pomodoros to complete

• yearly-goals