Detailed Notes
This short series is from a presentation on preparing for the new year and ending strong. These times are always good for reviewing and making adjustments to become better in the year ahead.
Transcript Text
[Music] so how well we do a lot of work and we push the building but you know becoming a better developer building better developers one of the things that we need to do is stay healthy you're not going to be as productive if you are exhausted or ill in some way or just you know if your diet is just not very good and so health is key and plus it feels really bad you're not going to live as long so i guarantee you're not going to get as much done if you you know have less days to do man that may seem a little morbid but unfortunately it's part of the truth so maybe in the year and maybe you've put on weight in the last year particularly there's a lot of people that gain covet weight if you look about the last couple years in specific because people were you know sitting around not as active maybe it's time to make some changes so maybe you decide that it's time to do you know maybe some some regular sit-ups or push-ups or join a gym or you know go for a walk or a run or swim or things like that to get your you know get the blood flowing get some endorphins running get your body just feeling a little bit better another way a big impact on that stuff is diet and food maybe now's the time to look at things like how much sugar you consume or caffeinated drinks or fatty foods or and this even goes on with some finances a little bit you know maybe you eat out a lot and particularly maybe eat out and eat some really crappy food and you can do a win-win if you don't eat out as much you have some healthier meals that you prepare at home and you uh save some money there but also then you're eating healthier so maybe look at diet food that's and that may be a planning thing where you say hey i'm i'm gonna start setting aside an hour every evening that's going to be to cook and consume you know a nice meal as opposed to running over to mcdonald's or something like that maybe there's some sports or activities like that that it's it's time for you to you know do that to add a little bit of accountability to your desire to get out there and you know be active it's one thing to say i'm going to walk every day it's another if you join a i don't know baseball team or soccer team or something like that where they're you know they have games on a regular basis saying okay hey we're expecting to be at the game get out there and exercise and maybe with that too you don't want to you know stink it up when you're playing that game so that is additional motivation for you to do other exercise outside of the sport you know whether it's weight lifting or cardio or something like that and then there's mental health and stress as you are doing sort of your annual retrospective there may be some things that you're you're looking back where you're like that was a you know that was a rough haul that was a b and c happen and i was just depressed or exhausted or just spread too thin and maybe it's things like i'm just i don't take breaks enough during the day it could be very simple things where take a look at those and see if there's some adjustments that you can make where you maybe say okay out of you know maybe i do like a pomodoro technique where i'm going to spend 10 minutes i don't know staring out the window or go for a you know just to walk around the you know the building the house wherever i'm at just something to get away from work for a little bit as a stress reducer on a regular basis maybe you just don't have enough fun maybe you have filled your schedule with work so much that it's time to go back and say all right i need to take you know a half hour a day for my own mental health and do something that's just fun or i need to make sure that i take you know saturdays i'm not working that i'm doing other stuff i'm not using it as a spillover day and all these things are great to do now in these times where it's a little less hectic because they're a great time to start it those are the times where you can say okay i'm gonna i want to get the momentum of doing this thing and i have less distractions to you know be that excuse to say okay today i'll just pass and i'll catch up on it tomorrow finances one of the things that you know we have is we have bills and maybe you made some major purchases you know in the last year the year before something like that so these are some things that it makes sense as we're getting near the end of the year maybe you've got a bonus or things of that nature where there's some things that's worth paying them down or paying them off or maybe as you're looking into the year ahead you say you look at what your your trajectory is and set yourself up to say hey you know i can if i do a little bit more if i make a little bit of adjustments here i could make a a nice either you know do a sizable payoff pay down of this thing or maybe i can pay paid off you know maybe i can if i throw an extra 10 bucks a month at this bill it can be you know paid off by the end of the year instead of having to take it into the year ahead maybe there's some year-end giving and contributions that you want to make if you've got some some extra money that doesn't necessarily need to go to pay down debt or something maybe this is time to to give to that charity that you've always said you're going to give to or uh you know donate things like you know if you're cleaning stuff out you know maybe there's some things that you can go ahead and get those donations in so you can cover it for the tax year and get the extra bonus of not only feeling good for giving something but also you know get a little tax bonus when that comes around so you've got a little less of a burden uh there's again some amazing some gift planning and reviews that you need to do uh you know there's some things for the year ahead that you know maybe this year you got stuck last minute buying christmas gifts and or holiday gifts of whatever sort and having to wrap them and do all that kind of stuff maybe there's if you're looking you're behind you know maybe there's some birthday gifts that you missed or things like that maybe you know this is not a bad time to look at the year ahead and say okay these are the things that i wanted to do that i didn't do i need to you know schedule them or plan or something so that i don't fall into that trap again or maybe i just you know i've got that hard to hard to buy for a person and i know they're you know maybe their birthday's coming up in june but i need to sort of look you know start thinking about what i'm going to get for them now so i don't end up in june scrambling and trying to get on you know some random thing because i just wasn't thinking about it sometimes it helps to just you know occasionally in a mental site sense pull something off the shelf examine it for a little bit and then you can put it back because you know there's those gift ideas will pop up as you're surfing the internet through the next six months also are there vacations that you you know bigger plans that you want to have for the year ahead and you want to have some destination vacation or something where you need to you know maybe make some reservations or maybe it makes sense to start saving for that now and and putting some money aside so that you're not financially crunched and then stressing when you go on that vacation as opposed to enjoying the time and making the most of it so focus on more on the looking ahead what are you know this year that's that's coming up what do we want to do look at what we've done this year what are some of the major goals and next steps that we've got and again in all these areas whether it's you know career business whether it's financial whether it's personal whether it's health it goes back to the concept we mentioned early on with the business is there some prep work that needs to be done are there people i need to notify are the relationships i need to begin are there subscriptions i need to start is there money i need to start putting aside is there are there habits that i need to start building though if it's a health thing maybe it's i need to go talk to a doctor first before i launch into this thing that i want to do to make sure that it's that's healthy that it's not something that's going to be an issue particularly let's say i want to go i want to lose 100 pounds in the year ahead and i'm going to do it through some sort of you know massive diet and health thing that's that's pretty substantial so maybe it is something you want to talk to a doctor or an expert of some sort to say yeah you can do that or no you need to adjust your your goals with some of these things are there appointments or communication that needs to go out if you want to go this goes back like if you want a vacation you need to go ahead and reserve the hotel rooms or or tickets or spots are there appointments that you need to schedule to prepare for like the the classic would be if you're gonna go on a beach vacation you know maybe you're somebody that wants to schedule some tanning appointments or weight loss appointments before uh are there like for example weddings or graduations that are coming up that you need to uh i don't know schedule you know get a hair appointment in or order some some thank you cards or cards of various sorts for that thing or maybe a suit that you need to you need to rent or clothes you need to buy and things like that is what is it that i want to do i've got these goals and these next steps i want to take are some of these going to require some some groundwork beforehand are there in a similar sense are there some prerequisites that i need to look at a certification be a good example i want to if i want to get a certain type of certification it may be that i have to maybe have to take a certain class or i have some other tests that i need to pass before i can even take that certification it's sort of like if you're working on degree if i want to have you know the the final couple of classes there are probably some other classes i have to take before i can even take those so maybe there's some pre-steps that i need to take some prerequisites that i need to address before i can dive into those those major goals and take those next steps and with all of this i think it's important to look at where can you find some help as far as accountability is concerned if these are some things particularly looking the year back or years that have gone by are there things that you keep seeing that you want to do but you just when push comes to shove you don't get them done you know things get pushed aside that they get pushed back they get shifted to the next week or the next month or the next quarter or the next year are there some changes that you need to make are there people that you want to tell about it you know not to be self-serving but it does your mentor mastermind group need to know about it so that and maybe be told that hey keep beating the drum on this for me to help me be motivated enough to get it done or to be accountable enough that i'm like oh crud i need to get this done or make progress on it so that i i don't feel ashamed essentially when people say hey how's that going and i say uh so maybe there's some accountability that you need to put in place uh look at the things where you've you've been challenged or failed in the past and are there some adjustments you can make to help drive you forward and make it successful this time around looking ahead are there ways that you need to invest in the future that makes sense today for example we're talking about you look at um tax implications and stuff like that are there and maybe even just where your finances are at are there or gosh looking at you know interest rates and how markets are doing and things like that there may be some expenses that it's it makes more sense to take those on now than it does in three months or six months are there some things that uh for example are there products that or services that you want to buy or need to buy but because it's maybe it's a year in sale and you can go get those cheaper now than you can three or four months from now we've already missed black friday but sometimes that's a great deal because everybody has deals at that time there may be subscriptions and things like that that you want to have in your head and it's better to do it now because there are deals and sales going on than if you do it three or four months and maybe you don't want it maybe it's going to be more costly overall to start it now versus start it later but maybe not for example maybe there's uh you know food or related dry goods that last forever that or close enough to it that you know it makes sense to go ahead and make those purchases now even though you're not going to need them for three months but because it's not gonna it's not like they're gonna be you know useless in three months you've just you know looked at those expenses earlier when you look at some of your goals and things you want to do is there some sort of savings or payment plan or something that you need to look at to get yourself in position for that maybe you bailed on a vacation this last year because when you got to the point where you needed to pay for some of it you didn't have the money so you know maybe the year ahead you say all right i need to set aside x amount of dollars you know a week a month or whatever so that i don't run into that again so i have that money set aside similar to the expenses you should book this year are there maybe some cost saving opportunities to take advantage of a good example is your your cell phone and your cable bills and contracts a lot of those things change from you know time to time and throughout the year and so maybe now is a good time to examine some of those things and maybe do some maybe there's some bundling you can do or some new uh services and plans that have become available that you can take advantage of and reduce some of your your monthly regular costs make some adjustments to your budget some things that maybe you you can stop doing or you don't need anymore that you can reduce some of your costs and then are there other career steps that you need to start taking we we talk about the career roadmap but maybe there have been some challenges in the year that's just gone by maybe you applied for a position and didn't get it and have some specifics about it that you say okay here are some needs so that the next time that opportunity comes up i will have those you know be able to check those boxes off or i'll have that experience or those skills so that i am a you know a better fit for it and it could be certifications it may be working on a degree it may be um you know certain experiences that you need to have so maybe you need to search out a certain type of work uh maybe even volunteer doing something so that you can say yes i've you know i've done that i have some experience now so there's some things that maybe were you know blockers of some sort that and maybe even now maybe it's something in the next couple of weeks is where we're getting into the year that you can take some steps that will put you in a better position in the future to to win that win that position or when that that job or that contract you
Transcript Segments
[Music]
so how
well we do a lot of work and we push the
building but you know becoming a better
developer building better developers
one of the things that we need to do is
stay healthy
you're not going to be as productive if
you are exhausted
or
ill in some way or just you know if your
diet is just not very good
and so
health is key and plus
it feels really bad you're not going to
live as long so i guarantee you're not
going to get as much done if you you
know have less days to do man
that may seem a little morbid but
unfortunately it's part of the truth
so maybe in the year and maybe you've
put on weight in the last year
particularly
there's a lot of people that gain covet
weight if you look about the last couple
years in specific
because people were you know sitting
around not as active
maybe it's time to make some changes
so maybe you decide that it's time to do
you know maybe some some regular sit-ups
or push-ups or join a gym
or
you know go for a walk or a run or swim
or
things like that
to get your you know get the blood
flowing get some endorphins running get
your body just feeling a little bit
better
another way a big impact on that stuff
is diet and food maybe
now's the time to look at things like
how much
sugar you consume or caffeinated drinks
or fatty foods or
and this even goes on with some finances
a little bit you know maybe you eat out
a lot and particularly maybe eat out and
eat some really crappy food
and you can do a win-win if you don't
eat out as much you have some healthier
meals that you prepare at home and you
uh save some money there but also then
you're eating healthier
so maybe look at diet food that's and
that may be a planning thing where you
say hey i'm i'm gonna start
setting aside an hour every evening
that's going to be to cook and consume
you know a nice meal as opposed to
running over to mcdonald's or something
like that
maybe there's some sports or activities
like that that it's it's time for you to
you know do that to add a little bit of
accountability to your desire to get out
there and
you know be active
it's one thing to say i'm going to walk
every day it's another if you join a
i don't know baseball team or soccer
team or something like that
where they're you know they have games
on a regular basis saying okay hey we're
expecting to be at the game get out
there and exercise and maybe with that
too you don't want to you know stink it
up when you're playing that game so
that is additional motivation for you to
do
other exercise outside of the sport you
know whether it's weight lifting or
cardio or something like that
and then there's mental health and
stress
as you
are doing sort of your annual
retrospective
there may be some things that you're
you're looking back where you're like
that was a you know that was a rough
haul that was
a b and c happen and i was just
depressed or exhausted or just spread
too thin
and maybe it's things like i'm just i
don't take breaks enough during the day
it could be very simple things
where take a look at those and see if
there's some adjustments that you can
make where
you maybe say okay out of you know maybe
i do like a pomodoro technique where
i'm going to spend 10 minutes
i don't know
staring out the window or
go for a you know just to walk around
the you know the building the house
wherever i'm at just something to get
away from work for a little bit as a
stress reducer on a regular basis
maybe you just don't have enough fun
maybe you have filled your schedule with
work so much that it's time to go back
and say all right i need to take you
know a half hour a day
for my own mental health and do
something that's just fun or i need to
make sure that i take
you know saturdays
i'm not working that i'm doing other
stuff i'm not using it as a spillover
day
and all these things are great to do now
in these times where it's a little less
hectic
because
they're a great time to start it those
are the times where you can say okay
i'm gonna i want to get the momentum of
doing this thing and i have less
distractions to you know be that excuse
to say okay today i'll just pass and
i'll catch up on it tomorrow
finances
one of the things that
you know we have is we have bills
and maybe you made some major purchases
you know in the last year the year
before
something like that
so these are some things that it makes
sense as we're getting near the end of
the year maybe you've got a bonus or
things of that nature
where there's some things that's worth
paying them down or paying them off or
maybe as you're looking into the year
ahead you say you look at what your
your trajectory is
and set yourself up to say hey you know
i can if i do a little bit more if i
make a little bit of adjustments here i
could make a a nice either
you know do a sizable payoff pay down of
this thing or maybe i can pay paid off
you know maybe i can if i throw an extra
10 bucks a month at this bill it can be
you know paid off by the end of the year
instead of having to take it into the
year ahead
maybe there's some year-end giving and
contributions that you want to make if
you've got some some extra money that
doesn't necessarily need to go to pay
down debt or something maybe this is
time to
to give to that charity that you've
always said you're going to give to or
uh you know donate things like you know
if you're cleaning stuff out you know
maybe there's some things that you can
go ahead and get those donations in so
you can cover it for the tax year and
get the extra bonus of not only feeling
good for giving something but also you
know get a little tax bonus when that
comes around so you've got a little less
of a burden
uh there's again some amazing some gift
planning and reviews that you need to do
uh you know there's some things for the
year ahead that
you know maybe this year you got stuck
last minute buying christmas gifts and
or holiday gifts of whatever sort and
having to wrap them and do all that kind
of stuff maybe there's if you're looking
you're behind
you know maybe there's some birthday
gifts that you missed or things like
that
maybe you know this is not a bad time to
look at the year ahead and say okay
these are the things that i wanted to do
that i didn't do
i need to you know schedule them or plan
or something so that i don't fall into
that trap again
or maybe i just you know i've got that
hard to
hard to buy for a person
and i know they're you know maybe
their birthday's coming up in june
but i need to sort of look you know
start thinking about what i'm going to
get for them now so i don't end up in
june scrambling and trying to get on you
know
some random thing because
i just wasn't thinking about it
sometimes it helps to just you know
occasionally
in a mental site sense pull something
off the shelf examine it for a little
bit and then you can put it back because
you know there's those gift ideas will
pop up as you're
surfing the internet through the next
six months
also are there
vacations that you you know bigger plans
that you want to have for the year ahead
and you want to have some destination
vacation or something where you need to
you know maybe make some reservations
or
maybe it makes sense to start saving for
that now
and and putting some money aside so that
you're not
financially crunched and then stressing
when you go on that vacation as opposed
to enjoying the time and making the most
of it
so focus on more on the looking ahead
what are you know this year that's
that's coming up
what do we want to do look at what we've
done this year
what are some of the major goals and
next steps that we've got and again in
all these areas whether it's
you know career business whether it's
financial whether it's personal whether
it's health
it goes back to the concept we mentioned
early on with the business is there some
prep work that needs to be
done
are there
people i need to notify are the
relationships i need to begin are there
subscriptions i need to start is there
money i need to start putting aside is
there
are there habits that i need to start
building though
if it's a health thing maybe it's i need
to go
talk to a doctor first before i launch
into this thing that i want to do to
make sure that it's that's healthy that
it's not something that's going to be an
issue
particularly let's say i want to go i
want to lose
100 pounds in the year ahead
and i'm going to do it through some sort
of you know massive diet and health
thing that's that's pretty substantial
so maybe it is something you want to
talk to a doctor or an expert of some
sort to say
yeah you can do that or
no you need to adjust your your goals
with some of these things are there
appointments or
communication that needs to go out
if you want to go this goes back like if
you want a vacation you need to
go ahead and reserve the hotel rooms or
or tickets or spots
are there
appointments that you need to schedule
to prepare for
like the the classic would be if you're
gonna go on a beach vacation you know
maybe you're somebody that wants to
schedule some tanning appointments or
weight loss appointments before
uh are there
like
for example weddings or graduations that
are coming up
that you need to
uh i don't know schedule you know get a
hair appointment in
or order some
some thank you cards or
cards of various sorts for that thing or
maybe a suit that you need to
you need to rent or clothes you need to
buy
and things like that
is what is it that i want to do i've got
these goals and these next steps i want
to take
are some of these going to require some
some groundwork beforehand
are there
in a similar sense are there some
prerequisites that i need to look at
a certification be a good example i want
to if i want to get a certain type of
certification it may be that i have to
maybe have to take a certain class or i
have some other tests that i need to
pass before i can even take that
certification
it's sort of like if you're working on
degree
if i want to have you know the
the final couple of classes there are
probably some other classes i have to
take before i can even take those so
maybe there's some pre-steps that i need
to take some prerequisites that i need
to address before i can dive into those
those major goals and take those next
steps
and with all of this
i think it's important to look at where
can you find some help as far as
accountability is concerned if these are
some things particularly looking the
year back or
years that have gone by
are there things that you
keep seeing that you want to do but you
just
when push comes to shove you don't get
them done you know things get pushed
aside that they get pushed back they get
shifted to the next week or the next
month or the next quarter or the next
year
are there some changes that you need to
make are there
people that you want to tell about it
you know not to be self-serving but it
does your mentor mastermind group need
to know about it
so that and maybe be told that hey keep
beating the drum on this for me to help
me
be motivated enough to get it done or to
be accountable enough that i'm like oh
crud i need to get this done or make
progress on it
so that i i don't feel ashamed
essentially when people say hey how's
that going and i say uh
so maybe there's some accountability
that you need to put in place uh look at
the things where you've you've been
challenged or failed in the past
and are there some adjustments you can
make to help
drive you forward and make it successful
this time around
looking ahead are there
ways that you need to invest in the
future that makes sense today
for example we're talking about you look
at um
tax implications and stuff like that
are there and maybe even just where your
finances are at are there or
gosh looking at you know interest rates
and how markets are doing and things
like that
there may be some expenses that it's it
makes more sense to take those on now
than it does in three months or six
months
are there some things that
uh for example are there products that
or services that you want to buy
or need to buy but because it's maybe
it's a year in sale and you can go get
those cheaper now than you can
three or four months from now
we've already missed black friday but
sometimes that's a great deal because
everybody has deals at that time there
may be subscriptions and things like
that that you want to have in your head
and it's better to do it now because
there are deals and sales going on than
if you do it three or four months
and maybe you don't want it
maybe it's going to be more costly
overall to start it now versus start it
later but maybe not
for example maybe there's uh you know
food or related dry goods that last
forever
that or close enough to it that you know
it makes sense to go ahead and make
those purchases now even though you're
not going to need them for three months
but because it's not gonna it's not like
they're gonna be you know useless in
three months you've just you know looked
at those expenses earlier
when you look at some of your goals and
things you want to do is there
some sort of savings or payment plan or
something that you need to look at
to
get yourself in position for that
maybe you bailed on a vacation this last
year because when you got to the point
where you needed to
pay for some of it you didn't have the
money
so you know maybe the year ahead you say
all right i need to set aside x amount
of dollars you know a week a month or
whatever
so that i don't run into that again so i
have that money set aside
similar to the expenses you should book
this year are there maybe some cost
saving opportunities to take advantage
of a good example is your
your cell phone and your cable
bills and contracts
a lot of those things change from you
know time to time and throughout the
year and so maybe now is a good time to
examine some of those things and maybe
do some
maybe there's some bundling you can do
or some new
uh
services and plans that have become
available that you can take advantage of
and reduce some of your your monthly
regular costs make some adjustments to
your budget some things that maybe you
you can stop doing or you don't need
anymore
that you can reduce some of your costs
and then are there
other career steps that you need to
start taking we we talk about the career
roadmap but maybe there have been some
challenges in the year
that's just gone by maybe you applied
for a position and didn't get it and
have some specifics about it that you
say okay here are some needs
so that the next time that opportunity
comes up i will have those you know be
able to check those boxes off or i'll
have that experience or those skills
so that i am a you know a better fit for
it
and it could be certifications it may be
working on a degree
it may be um you know certain
experiences that you need to have so
maybe you need to search out a certain
type of work
uh maybe even volunteer doing something
so that you can say yes i've you know
i've done that i have some experience
now
so there's some things that maybe were
you know blockers of some sort
that
and maybe even now maybe it's something
in the next couple of weeks is where
we're getting into the year that you can
take some steps that will put you in a
better position in the future to to win
that
win that position or when that that job
or that contract
you