The famous connecting dot theory introduced by Steve Jobs in his speech at Stanford University in 2005:
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.
When I look back my entire 2022 year, at first glance everything seems blurry. Why? Probably, because there wasn’t anything as such to stay on top of my mind. But that’s not true. There are few small and big setbacks, there are few countable achievements.
2022 was not a waste at all as it seems if I put it that way.
I love how Gary Vee discussed it in “The Diary Of A CEO” podcast episode he did with Steven Bartlett. He has shared his life experience by dividing it into decades.
Age in decades v/s what you should do
- 20-30: Taste a lot of things, make mistakes, have fun, try different things- like everything, eat it all.
- 30-40: Refinement of 20-30.
- 40-47: Evolution of 30-40
- 50-60 : Insanity. Accomplish selfish to selflessly
- 60-100+ : Continues with the same energy and purpose in the remaining few decades.
I wouldn’t wonder if he writes a full fledged theory around this in the coming months or years, the way he wrote his famous content model or 1.80$ strategy to grow your business and brand
I’m about to cross 30 years of my life and looking back at the last 8-10 years, how I could not agree to Gary’s theory about 20-30 years he explained in “The Diary Of A CEO” podcast episode.
It was the period of my life to try out different things and see what is meant for me. That’s why I tried almost all possible things starting from Facebook, Instagram, Quora, Blog, YouTube, and whatnot!
On technical front, being an Electronics and Telecommunication engineer, I have taught myself C, C++, C#, DOT NET, a little bit of Java, SQL, and ended up learning SAS (Statistical Analytical System) and finally built my career in this technology. In fact I’m still learning new things coming in SAS, especially Cloud tech SAS Viya and Microsoft Azure.
I don’t regret things which I tried and haven’t seen any significant results yet or if I have completely failed for that instance. I rather regret things which I have not yet tried but I wanted to.
2022 Flashback:
Life is unpredictable. Due to a major setback in 2021, I decided to go slow in 2022. With 100% honesty, I have not achieved even 50% of what I set goals for myself in early 2022.
The biggest reason could be I set unrealistic goals. Somewhere I knew those goals were not achievable in one year but I thought I can drag, stretch myself and reach at least as close as possible, probably overestimated close to 90%. But in reality I have not even reached close to 50%.
Anyways, here are a series of things that happened in 2022. I’ll not segregate it as good or bad. You can read and tag Good or Bad by yourself.
2022 Life Events
New Job
Hurray! This year I made one more decision and joined a new company as a Senior Advisor that I always wanted to work for since I moved to Norway.
I know this is the opportunity to learn and do something big in data analytics and cloud technology. You can find more about my professional career on my LinkedIn profile.
New Vlog YT Channel
This was always on my mind to start a YouTube journey for the last couple of years.
Finally, my wife and I started a new YouTube channel named “mini Vlogs Norway” and so far we have uploaded more than 20 videos on my channel and have got 250+ subscribers (Not a bad at all).
In 2023 I have a goal to create at least 50 videos throughout the year without looking at the followers/subscribers count. I’m not in a hurry. I have patience and am aware that I’m doing this as a hobby.
Though I also want to confess that two years are enough to try out something new. If this channel doesn’t work out by the end of 2023 then I’ll not continue with this in 2024. I’d rather prefer to give more time to my other hobbies.
IG Journey
My wife and I also started an Instagram account with the same YouTube channel name “mini Vlogs Norway”.
We haven’t seen any attraction there yet though we’re kind of on & off with using Instagram.
We don’t have much hope though it’s good to have an Instagram account so at least you can scroll through some funny IG reels to pass your time when you get bored. Haha! 🙂
New Blog
I’ve a habit of observing people – the way they talk, write, appear in public, raise their voice, things they do! By the way, this is not ghosting. With the pure intention of learning, you can observe/study people without disturbing them at all.
It has become easier due to social media and other presence on the internet.
What I observed is that most experts are documenting their journey. This isn’t related to any specific profession or field. You may be a student, engineer, chartered accountant, freelancer, or VP at a tech company, people are documenting what they know.
Their way of documentation might be different. Few prefer to write it on Twitter, few are writing it on Quora, some create YouTube videos, whereas some people write blog articles.
I like this idea and started writing about SAS programming on my blog learnSASCode. Again, my intention here is to use my free time and write about my expertise, experiences that might help others.
Surprisingly, 500+ people visit my blog per month and learn SAS programming, data analytics, and concepts around Business Intelligence.
I feel proud. I would love to continue doing this.
50,000+ LinkedIn Friends
I love LinkedIn. It helps me to keep updated with the new technology, trends, what’s happening in the world, and whatnot!
My love for writing couldn’t stop me sharing my thoughts on LinkedIn. I usually talks about writing, life stories and experiences, things I read and observe.
I didn’t even realize that by doing this 50,000+ people decided to follow my profile.
I’m still clueless how it has happened. Looking at the response and feedback, I would love to continue with this hobby of writing content on LinkedIn. Time spent on LinkedIn I enjoy the most compared to other social media platforms.
Sister’s Wedding
This was my personal and most important project of the year. Living in Norway and trying to prepare for weddings in India, it was quite hectic and frustrating.
Though my mom and dad did a splendid job with the preparation. Of course we did help as much as we could before the wedding and after the wedding.
I must say, it was a grand wedding and we did it together!
Finally that vacation
I go on vacation multiple times a year. But I had a dream to go on vacation with my mom, dad, and sisters.
I tried to plan a vacation together before but somehow we couldn’t manage to plan it. Since my sisters are married now it has become very difficult. So I understood that I can’t take all of them on vacation at the same time.
So this time I planned only with my sisters and finally we did it. We went to Havelock Island, Andaman.
It was their first time on a plane.
Imagine the excitement!
Personal Finance
Since early this early I started taking personal finance seriously. I was doing investment but only in real estate. You may call it an old school investment.
This is what I knew but then I learned stock market investment, mutual funds, Digital gold, and so on.
My portfolio is relatively very small but I have started contributing seriously so in the next few years it can become a decent investment.
If you’re also not serious about your personal finance, this is the time. It’s not rocket science, neither it’s easy. As they say, earning money is easy but investing is a little difficult.
That’s why the earlier you start, the better it is.
Looking Forward to 2023
This time I will not make the same mistake again. I want to keep my 2023 resolutions as simple and realistic as possible.
I would call it mini goals. Things I want to do in 2023 and their possible outcomes considering the best and worst case scenarios.
Invest In Myself
When it comes to learning tech or writing, it always excites me. Things are changing so rapidly, especially in cloud technology. There is no doubt I write so badly. I want to improve my writing skill as well.
In 2023 I’ll invest in myself to learn new tech, learn new techniques to improve my writing. I’ll enrol in a few courses for sure.
Read Books
I won’t say, I am going to read 100 books in a year.
Oops! That hurts.
I will read at least 12 books, 1 book per month. This is more doable, practical, and realistic. And I think I know what I’m going to read throughout 2023. Which is of course books on money, personal finance, productivity, and entrepreneurship.
Here are a few examples that are on top of my mind but not limited:
- The Power of Habit – by Charles Duhigg
- Hyper Focus – by Chris Bailey
- Thinking, Fast and Slow – by Daniel Kahneman
- How to Become a People Magnet – by Marc Reklau
- Rich Dad Poor Dad – by Robert Kiyosaki
- The Psychology of Money – by Morgan Housel
- How to win friends and influence people – by Dale Carnegie
- Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? – by Julie Smith
- I Will Teach You to Be Rich – by Ramit Sethi
- Start with Why – by Simon Sinek
#1 Priority: Continue to Deliver Quality Work
There is no excuse or adjustment when it comes to delivering quality work at my 9-5 corporate job. There will not be any.
I’ll keep that way and continue to put my corporate job as my highest priority over everything else. After all this is what makes me happy.
Health
Health is just a priority on paper. In reality it is the most ignored thing in my life. I’m sure this is the same situation with most of you as well.
Honestly, it looks dicey as I write this but I have to say this, I’ll try to exercise regularly. I know this is a good resolution for the first week of January but everyone knows what happens after 1 or 2 weeks.
If I don’t exercise regularly then at least I’ll try to go out for a run or a quick walk. I’m not sure how it will go especially during winter at -10 or -15 degree Celsius temperature.
As I said, everything else looks dicey though I am going to follow one thing for sure, that is eating healthy food. I’m pretty much certain about it.
Hobbies
In my spare time I write, I go skiing, sledging, ice skating, I travel, create vlogs on YouTube, I spend some time on social media, and so on. All of these are my hobbies.
I can’t pinpoint which one is my most favorite or least favorite. It depends on my mood, current season, and the kind of life zone I’m in.
Let’s deep dive into a few of my hobbies.
Continue with YT Journey
Last year I created a total of 20+ videos. In 2023 I will try to create and upload at least 50+ videos on my YouTube channel.
Since those vlogs are in my mother tongue language that is in Marathi, it takes less time to create videos.
I don’t need a script, or a fancy tool to shoot. My phone and the basic iMovie mobile editing software are more than enough.
Build an Identity and Authority
I came across this tweet from a very famous writer, twitter influencer, and educator, David Perell.
I like the way he explained how your personal website should look like. He has shared a kind of outline of how it should be and explained it further.
Fun fact: This article is also a part of building personal identity and authority on the internet by simply sharing what I have been doing so far and what I am looking forward to in 2023 and beyond.
LearnSASCode
I love writing. That’s why I’m writing this article as well.
I love educating people. That’s why I write educational blog articles. I have a goal to write at least one blog article per week and publish it on my blog.
Today at learnSAScode blog, roughly around 500+ people visit my blog every month and learn about SAS programming. I want to educate as many people as I can. I would love to see visitor numbers go up from 500 to 50,000 visitors per month.
Promise:
If I cross 50,000 milestone within a year then I would love to open a new YouTube channel and convert those articles into YouTube videos as well with more visually appealing content.
So that more people can consume my content and learn from me.
Happy and Healthy Life
This is the most important thing I want in my life. This is not just about 2023.
I will have a big smile on my face if nothing happens in the above list but just this one. After all this is what you want to achieve in life.
Lastly, whatever has happened, I must say, 2022 was beautiful. 2023 would be even more exciting, challenging, and I’m gonna enjoy it for sure.
Wishing you a Happy New Year 2023!