The Blog of Chris Stott

I thought I’d publically share my annual review this year. This is a personal journey I wholeheartedly support (and I support your view if you don’t think it is necessary to do one). I haven’t done it consistently in the past, so I am going to be playing along with Chris Guillebeau’s annual review for this one.

What went well in 2011?

I climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro!

This was my 30th Birthday present and challenge to myself. I made it all the way to the top and was very proud of myself.

We moved house

This was a pain, and as only happened recently it’s still a financial pain. I don’t really see moving house as much of an achievement as I like flexibility of location and therefore moving should be easy. However, it’s a pretty major life change so I’ll stick it in what went well.

I managed to maintain a healthy day job Work:Life balance

I still have a day job. Fortunately I am able to manage it effectively around my life.

I stayed primal

Of course I could have stuck to it more, but i’m in the 80% range. I certainly want to make sure that I have a good fitness goal for next year having had Kilimanjaro this year. Goal for next year will probably be around functional fitness.

I re-kindled a writing habit

I got back in to blogging and managed (although with admitted peaks and troughs) to cultivate quite a healthy writing habit. I’m defintely favouring shorter blog posts rather than long eBooks (see below)

I didn’t buy an iPhone 4S

This is quite an achievement for me. OK so I did buy an iPad. I also switched back to a very basic phone (as my iPhone 3G is practically a brick now). I resisted the urge to buy a fancy phone. I suspect this will change rapidly when NFC goes mainstream.

What did not go well in 2011?

Lack of focus with my online / freelance businesses
Although I spend a lot of time working on my online businesses, I don’t have focus and that is causing lack of progress. This absolutely must be rectified in 2012. The only way to do this is to pick less than 3 things to work on.

Extremely poor editing

I enjoy writing. I enjoy publishing. The bit in the middle, editing my work bores me to tears. This is why I have written but unedited free eBook on in my Dropbox waiting to be shared with the world. I certainly need to get these out in the world before starting any more.

Not playing enough guitar or being in a band

On my death bad I will wish I was in a band. Nothing serious or chart topping just some fun. I again continue to fail to make this a priority in my life.

Still seem to be spending too much money

I don’t know where it goes. I need to track this better so that I can channel funds towards my passions.

Didn’t travel enough

After our years round the world trip, we said we weren’t going to travel abroad this year. Travel is my passion – sue me. While for some people I traveled a lot this year, I want to spend over half of my time abroad so I have to put this in the ‘didn’t go well’ section until I tip the balance. I traveled to Las Vegas for my 30th, Tanzania to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, Zakynthos for a break with the wife and Montpellier in France for my annual family rugby trip.

This is the first part of my 2011 annual review.

It’s very personal, but if you’d like to ask questions then please do so. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for the next part of the review.