Looking Forward
I have a post in another branch that was written to reflect on 2014 and to set some personal objectives for 2015. Reading it back however, it seemed a bit doom and gloom, when really, all I wanted to do was look forward to 2015. So, here we are with another, much tamer version.
Last year was chaotic for me and my family. We moved house twice, I had three different jobs, we had numerous health issues both physically and mentally and to some degree I lost focus with many aspects of my life.
I am determined to get things back on track this year.
I have a solid employment contract that is paying well enough that my wife has gone back to working casually so she can invest more time with our son. This contract will see me through most of the year, beyond that, I am forming a much stronger plan of attack of what I want to achieve when the contract does indeed end.
Goals for the year ahead:
Find a good remote role: By the end of the year I plan on working for a great company in a remote role with developers from all around the globe. Preferably working on some awesome SaaS. I worked remotely for six months of last year and loved it, it really is where I want to be. I plan on spending some time this year locating the company I want to work for (I already have a few in mind) and then pursuing a position with them.
Get more involved with my local community: For years I have helped run phpfreaks.com, and that's nice and all, but I'm really keen to get out there more in the real world. In march I'll be attending PHP Conference Australia, which I am very much looking forward to, along with that however, I need to get along to more local meet ups.
Loose weight: The last 18 months have seen me put on mass amounts of weight and become increasingly less fit. I need to be more proactive about my health. I have signed myself up to participate in the inaugural #biggestloserphp that will be running for the first few months of the year (starting today). It's a good opportunity to get motivated and maybe meet some new friends along the way.
Learn Sketch & spend more time doing front end: Front end & design has always been something I have been interested in and is even something I think I have an eye for. However, I have a pretty limited skill set in this area mostly due to a complete lack of knowledge when it comes to actual design software and just a lack of practice developing much front end.
Get involved in Symfony: I have been working with Symfony now for a number of years and really want to start contributing. In fact, I should make it a goal to contribute to more OSS in general. As far as Symfony goes though, I'd love to find a mentor to help me through the process, I'm also hoping they have a few more hack days planned for this year.
Blog more: Last but not least, I should blog more. The last three years have been terrible.