This is my 3rd Year in Review. This page is an effort to put into the words the progress I have made in life over the past 365 days. Areas where I succeeded, areas where I did not, and overall what I am working towards next year.

This review is 100% for me. I share it to encourage others to do something similar, while also increasing my own personal accountability.

I will be asking myself the same three questions I asked last year:

• What went well this year?
• What didn’t go well this year?
• What am I working toward?

What Went Well?

Life Direction: For the first time in my life, I feel that I am no longer searching for a direction. If you’re lucky, most of your 20s are spent searching for something. What will naturally drive, inspire and motivation each day. At 28, I think I finally discovered what motivates me is programming, specifically for Game Development. I think this is true for two reasons. 1st, programming is motivating because at its core, it is the daily exercise of problem solving which I love. A more complex form of Sudoku and other logic problems. This makes everyday a mental challenge, and leaves me feeling like I’ve used my day well. 2 – Game Development is one of the most multi-discipline industries out there, especially when you’re doing it alone. Yes, it’s a competitive industry, but it also keeps me engaged every single day and there is always something to work on that interests me. It feeds my desire to “be productive all the time”, which in turn makes me feel happy and fulfilled.

Programming: To do a deep dive into the above, this year I made the jump from “learning how to program” to being a true developer. I am confident that there are many things I can build, big and small, and the real question is just how long it will take and what do I want to work on. For now, my focus is on improving how I learn and approach problem solving and building my programming knowledge base.

Building a Product: I released a beta version of my game, Idle Brewery, right before the holidays on both the Apple Store and the Android Store. It worked with only a few bugs, and overall the reception from my family and friends was positive! There is definitely still some major work to do on that front, but it is work that I am excited to take on.

Relationships: This year my oldest brother asked me to be the Godfather of his son. I celebrated my 7-year anniversary with my girlfriend, and spent a ton of time with my close friends and family.

Sailing: My team won Match Race US Nationals this year, which is the first national event that I have ever won. I’m incredibly proud of this achievement.

What Didn’t Go Well?

Mental Health: Whenever I do not actively focus on mental health, it starts to slip backwards and I fall into old, well-worn grooves of prioritizing short-term stimuli over the long-term care of my mind. The biggest way I can combat this is to stick to my routines, specifically my morning routine of journaling and meditation. This is easy when I’m at home in my own element, but whenever I travel or am somewhere new I feel myself quickly.

Career and Stability: This was a personal choice and for 3rd time in my career, I am starting over completely from scratch. I doubled down on this decision because rather than focusing on finding a new job immediately, I took the path of building something for myself. While this comes with risks, I knew my own project would motivate me more than working on somebody else’s business. The risk here is that I may not be able to build something that will allow me to support myself, but that is a risk I’m willing to take. The truth is, you can only take these risks so many times in your life, and since this is the second time I’ve attempted to take this one I’m determined to put in the maximum effort to make it work.

Giving Back: This was a year that I spent focusing 100% on myself, which is not a bad thing. There are many times throughout your life when you need to prioritize yourself over others. That said, giving back and helping others is a core part of a life well-lived and in future years I plan to make this a larger focus of my goals.

What Am I Working Towards?

One Thing. Making A Living Off My Games: Hell or high water, this is what I am singlehandedly working towards. My primary public goal last year was to become a developer. I accomplished that. My private goal was to earn $1000 from an online game. That is a goal that missed, primarily because the scope for my game was too large.

I’m not sure how I will make it into a career, but the one thing I’m sure about is the best thing I can do is to keep putting one foot in front of the other. I just launched the beta version of Idle Brewery and hopefully I’ll be able to publish it to the app store in the next month or so. After that, my focus will become split around marketing, updating that game, and starting work on my next game.

Anyway, that is it. It’s a solo-goal year and I look forward to seeing how far I get over the next 365 days.

As Always…

My life is a work in progress. If you’re reading this, you’re witnessing the two-year mark of me deliberately building a life that I want to live. Even more so than last year, I am astounded by the progress one can make in 12-months, and I hope my example can inspire you to make a positive change in your own life.