Annual Plan 2021

My annual plan last year got me excited, but it feels a bit different this year. It’s still one of my favourite things to do. I find it important to look ahead and have an idea of what you want to get out of that time, because otherwise it will pass quickly without you even realising it.

Writing

My main goal this year is to keep up what I started at the end of the last one, which is to keep a journal. It’s very ad-hoc at the moment, but I don’t pressure myself to do it every day, slowly making it part of my daily routine.

Also, I’ll try to write up my experiences from the Transcontinental race in 2019.

Reading

I’ve been reading more fiction throughout 2020 and want to continue that. We have stacks of books at home I want to go through.

I am also keeping up with my habit of listen to audio books when walking. They are generally non-fiction and on varied subjects, anything to challenge my thinking.

And finally, my goals is to learn more about property investments, so I have at least two books I want to read on the subject.

The overall goal hasn’t changed, I want to read an average of five pages per day (often more).

Finances

This category will have a fairly central focus for me in 2021. I want to optimise what is there now and concentrate on saving as much as possible.

I am planning to continue the regular investments and do more of the individual stock investments. The latter have taught me a lot in 2020 as I then have to read more about the companies and the market before I can be confident enough to invest in them.

There are many different strategies when it comes to investing, but one that is close to heart for me is value investing, and I learn a lot from Sven Carlin’s YouTube channel.

Professional growth

This is going to be an important category as well in 2021. Since I switched jobs last year, I find that there are a lot of opportunities in my current role. I want to take as many of them as I can, because I find myself in a position of real growth – in terms of technical skills, but also in many other ways.

Specific goals:

Optimise current deployment strategy across FE teams for the micro-frontends architecture
Set a new standard and improve the internal component library
Get the next level AWS certification
A course on “How to have difficult conversations”
A course on leadership and communication
A course on “Clean Architecture: Patterns, Practices, and Principles”
A course on micro-services (as that’s what I work with day-to-day)

A lot of the above I would do as part of my quarterly objectives. If all goes well, I would like to do a talk on the first item from the list above.

Piano

Last year I started following the Playground Sessions’ training program. This year I want to:

Complete the beginner level of music theory (I’ve done 30 days out of 99 so far)
Learn 5 songs (I did 2 last year)

Travel

As we all know, travelling is very difficult at the moment, so this is not really a plan, more of a wishful thinking. But I would like to at least go back home to Bulgaria for a bit (and work remotely?).

Health

Calisthenics

Last year I’ve done a lot of body-weight training and am currently following a level 3 from a program that has three levels. Due to the nature of the exercises I cannot perform their most difficult variations, so it will take repeating the level several times to make progress. I am currently almost at the end of completing it for the first time.

My specific goal is to complete this level two more times in 2021 (it takes about two-three months to complete it, depending on the rest periods).

It will be good to review the progress I’ve made on the exercises involved at the end of the year. So I will record the current progress compared to that at the end.

Yoga

I’ve been doing a lot more mobility and strength work in 2020. Specifically at the end of the year I joined Andra at following a series of 30 day programs. I can see a lot of benefits from doing them, in terms of mobility, strength, breathing and mental health.

My specific goals is to complete the current level of the program we are at, plus the next level.

Surgery?

One of the reasons I want to go back to Bulgaria is to get a second opinion on the problems I’m having health-wise, talking to a specialist. Once I get their opinion I will decide whether to undertake surgery or accept a new long-term perspective for managing the situation.

Relationships

This is one of the things I always struggle planning. Part of the reason is that you can’t really objectively measure your relationships, or at least not in a way I am familiar with. Even if there was, I don’t think I would want to do that, because for me relationships are something that you have to approach intuitively. Although there are practical steps you can undertake to improve them, one of them being communication.

Last year was, overall, very beneficial in strengthening my close relationships. I want this year to continue that. To keep the close circle of people that are my support network, to keep regularly in touch with them. To also maintain honest and open communication, to listen and to be there for those that need my support.

A key word I have recently discovered, that summarises my goal is authentic. I want to be authentic in my relationships and seek the same from the person on the other side.

Giving up

I will be giving up on studying languages this year. Even though I still might do some learning, it will not be part of my goals for the year.

I am giving up also on cycling altogether for 2021. It is a very difficult decision, but I don’t see any other options based on how it has impacted my health.

One thing I did well last year is allow myself to just let go and not push as hard. I want to repeat that this year. Give up on the idea of getting it all done.

Summary

I expect this year to be a lot about accepting the fragility that 2020 highlighted both personality and for us as a society. In accepting that fragility I want to focus on growing myself as a person, to reduce the stress, to increase the awareness and empathy that is so needed. Moreover, my goal is to take responsibility of the previous resources I have available. Those being people, energy or finances. To manage and increase them. One of these responsibilities is to keep myself healthy and well, so that I can be there for others, but also not worry the people that love and care for me.