2022 Retrospective
Year’s end is a customary time to reflect and, wow, what a year it’s been. During the last third of 2021, I hatched a plan to enter semi-retirement, relocate across the country (to the beach!), and commit to my “New Life Contract”. Several elements of the New Life Contract are reflected in my 2022 retrospective (below). In essence, the contract with myself was to semi-retire early, creating more space in my life for family time, personal pursuits, and continued professional contributions with less stress. The relocation occurred in late 2021 and the remainder of the contract’s implementation ensued in 2022.
During the course of this year, I encountered this quote by Richard J. Leider and David Shapiro from their book Repacking Your Bags, which truly resonates with me:
living in the place you belong, with people you love, doing the right work, on purpose
Without further ado, here’s a self-assessment of 2022 relative to the six categories within my New Life Contract. The green bars indicate achievement on a scale from 0% (no green) to 100% (green extends fully to the right).
I’ll take a B on this. Highlights included establishing a daily 5-mile walking routine, doing some regular kayaking, lowering my cholesterol substantially (but not yet enough), keeping my blood pressure in check, and completing a much-needed foot surgery. Running (due to the foot problem) and strength/flexibility training languished. Healthy eating and weight loss were mixed, with periods of marked success when I logged my food intake using a free app (MyFitnessPal).
This one goes in the win column. I averaged 7.5 hours of sleep per day (matching my goal) and meditated for 10 minutes on 82% of days (calculated from my InsightTimer app stats). Sleep and meditation were generally less during business and personal travel, which constituted about 20% of the year. I spent significantly more time connecting with family throughout the year and volunteered in the community (guessing 120 hours) via a sea turtle protection program. My aspiration to establish a daily journaling habit … well, there’s next year.
Thanks in large part to the daily walking habit (above), which created time for audiobooks, I leaped over my annual reading goal of 52 books, completing 68 books and making progress on a few others. I completed many print books but a majority were in audio format (the debate about whether audiobooks count as “reading” is noted). Progress toward learning to play flamenco guitar was effectively nonexistent. Language learning was spotty, with minor progress learning Spanish and Portuguese (partly through immersion during travel and partly using DuoLingo).
We were disciplined and stuck to our financial plan throughout the year. In fact, we saved and invested at a rate better than planned. Our first year living within the semi-retirement budget developed in late 2021 was successful. The financial markets have not been kind to most investors this year, myself included, so although that’s outside my control, I’ll give this category a low B overall.
Spending nearly a month in Europe (separate trips to Italy and then to Spain and Portugal) headlines accomplishments in this category, which includes travel. We also made trips within the U.S. to visit family and be a part of special occasions. I’ve also made substantial progress preparing to walk the Camino de Santiago next year – something that’s been on my bucket list for a long time. Meanwhile, back at home this year, there was near daily beachcombing (again that 5-mile walking habit), some fishing (not much catching though), and a very successful container garden. As for birding, hiking, and photography – well, maybe next year. I started this blog in late 2022, and I’ll claim it as a hobby.
Career-wise, this was a very good year. I successfully transitioned from a full-time role supporting a single large project to a part-time role (“semi-retirement”) supporting large projects across North America. My assignments were intellectually interesting, afforded me lots of creative and schedule flexibility, and provided many opportunities to share hard-earned expertise. I’m confident that I made a meaningful impact for clients and colleagues. I did not read as much of the new literature in my field or contribute a technical paper as I’d hoped.
For a life-changing year, following an untested New Life Contract, I’m more than satisfied with my progress. Time to plan for continued success in 2023!