42 in Review

Hey, Everyone; it’s my birthday today, and I planned to write a post about the technology behind one of my favourite series, Batman: The Animated Series. However, that’s not what this post is going to be about. I’m turning 43 today, and for the past 12 months, I have been calling this my “Douglas Adams” year. What does that mean? Douglas Adams (For those of you who don’t know) wrote a book called The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. It’s a fantastic book about intergalactic hijinks and wacky adventures all around. One of the key bits of it is the search for “The ultimate answer to life, the Universe, and Everything.” Once the answer is found, it is discovered to be….42. There has been a wild amount of speculation about why the number 42 was the answer to life, the universe and everything. The one story that I particularly liked was that in older computer operating systems, most functions required a number at the end of the file name, and “42” was used for a variety of different functions. The lesson (Applying it to Hitchhikers Guide) is “Life is what you make it.” I was saddened to learn recently that that wasn’t entirely true, and Douglas Adams just made up a number and thought it was funny. This, to a degree, is fair cause having the entirety of the universe boil down to one two-digit number is funny; that being said, I decided over the past 12 months that I was going to do some “Self-improvement stuff” because I wanted to make sure that my life was what I wanted to make it.

1) I tried to sort out my life with lists – I love a good todo list. Scratching goals makes me quite happy, so when I decided to overhaul my life, I knew I needed some benchmarks. I decided that (after a couple of years of not doing it) I was going to get back to setting myself a yearly goals list. I used a product that I love called Notion (Which I will be discussing extensively next month), which allowed me to create annual goals, sub-goals, and daily todos that all coordinated together. I recognize that I’m a massive geek for this, but let’s be honest here: I’m a tech geek, and lists are a part of how I work. What I like about lists and organizing my life through them is it gives me the ability to plan out what I want to do with my life. This is both in a short-term sense (say, a year) and a long-term sense (say, ten years), which I haven’t tried before, but I’m giving it a go and seeing how well I can do this. I’ll be reporting on that as well in the future.

2) Restarted the blog – I would like to take a second for the people who stuck with my absence over the past couple of years. I had a difficult run for a couple of years, and I don’t like that I hadn’t been writing for all that time, but I had a lot of stuff to work through before I was able to come back. Luckily, though, I was able to get through it, and I’m back and kicking butt. Interestingly, taking the time in this way allowed me to work on other projects and get them squared away so I could focus more on the blog.

3) I had an incredible support system – Something that has always helped me and will very likely continue to do so is having people around me who are willing to support the things that I do. Not just blogging but all of my other random hobbies and activities that I enjoy. It’s particularly helpful to have a loving wife who is extremely understanding and willing to help me up when I’m down. Having the support that I did was very helpful for me. I remember when I started blogging again, and I told my wife that I had started writing, her comment was, “Good. You’re much happier when you’re writing.” This is very true. Having the support system that I do is great because they cheer for me when I’m doing well and can support me when I’m not. I’m so grateful for everyone’s support.

I’ll be honest: the fact that the origin for the number 42 thing in Hitchhiker’s Guide isn’t what I thought it was is a little disappointing to me. That being said, it didn’t stop me from having a great year. No matter where you are in your life, you should do everything you can to make your life as good as it can be. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a “reaching for the stars” kind of message. I believe it’s essential for people to continually improve their lives, but sometimes a small change is all we can achieve. Sometimes, a 1% change can make all the difference. Even if something you can do to make your life better is to read a little more, walk an extra block, or whatever, that will be taking a step towards making your life better. This life is all we have, so why not do what we can to make it all we can?

What are you going to do to make your life better?

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