OK, so the year has almost come to a close and I think I had a whopping six posts this year, and most of them came out near the beginning of the year.  Definitely didn’t meet my blogging goals for the year, nor many of my goals for that matter.  The tyranny of the urgent has a way of redirecting one down an unintended path.  Very ironic since I had a great post about goal setting back in January.  Maybe this year, I will follow my own advice.

That said, this has still been a great year, though nothing major to brag about. In all honesty, as far as work goals and achievements if feels a bit lackluster.  I had some good moments – vExpert again, speaking moments at VMworld and my local VMUG, a couple certifications knocked out, and a few long running and cool projects for our customers.  Personal goals were good too.  I finally got my weight back to a normal level after a scary 2014 when my weight plummeted due to a mysterious digestive issue.  I also had great periods of downtime with my family, saw my 5 year old start reading voraciously, and my wife continue a dream job at our daughter’s school. We continued our acclimation to the Carolina culture after transplanting here from the DC area in 2013 – best decision we ever made.  House, neighborhood, work, school, church, friendships… we’re still amazed at how everything just fell into place for us.  We celebrated joyously with our neighbors as they welcomed their first child. We thanked God for the successful treatments of both my parents who each faced incredible health issues this year.  I survived getting struck by a car as a pedestrian with nothing more than a sprained hand.  And I met some awesome folks and deepened existing friendships.  I guess not a bad year when I put things in perspective.  Perhaps the way to look at this year: Not everything I had set out to accomplish, but I was blessed and protected and am enriched because of it.

So as I ponder work-life balance and consider all the conversations I’ve had with others this year about this topic since I’ve struggled through this, one thing keeps coming to the surface.  The things that are most important to me – my family, relationships, and health – are all still very much intact and abundant.  In all my work and goal setting and worldly pursuits, I must always remember the best achievements are those completed with and for the people closest to us.

Hopefully, I’ll keep this close to my heart and mind as I reset my goals in the new year.