2022 - The Year of Plentiful

2022 is about to end. It is that time when I say goodbye to one more year in my life and welcome a new one. 2022 was a hectic year for me. Many of my decisions this year will have rippling effects for years to come. But there was also a good realization that I must take action; sitting idle won't help.

As always, I have divided this review into those areas of my life where I have been putting more focus throughout the year.

I wish I had put more focus on my fitness this year. My sedentary lifestyle may put me at many health risks in years to come. My activity levels have been abysmally poor for most of the year. A big reason behind this was my busyness in other parts of my life. 2022 was an amalgamation of stress, fear, anxiety, surprises, gratitude, and happiness. Fitness took a back seat due to the quick turnaround of events throughout the year. Early in the year, I continued with Yoga. However, I was a lot more irregular this year because I wanted to gain muscles while keeping my weight constant. So, I decided to join a gym in the second half of the year to focus on muscle building. However, due to the stress of wedding preparations, I couldn't find the motivation to continue beyond two months. There was one positive, though - whenever I committed to working out, I could notice a boost of confidence spurting inside me. Unfortunately, I found it challenging to maintain this motivation for long.

I didn't have to suffer from any significant illness this year. I occasionally suffered from slight back pain, which can be attributed to my poor posture. Doing Yoga keeps my back in shape, but whenever I stop doing Yoga, I start feeling the pinch again in one or two months. This factor alone makes me realize the importance of keeping my body active.

I managed to sleep around seven hours each day throughout the year. However, this data doesn't include my afternoon naps, so my daily sleep duration is undoubtedly higher than 7 hours. Sleeping in the afternoons has become a habit that I never intended to develop. But now, it has become a permanent fixture in my life. In 2023, I plan to keep my tendency to sleep in the afternoon in control, but that will require sleeping enough at night, without which all my efforts will remain useless.

I slept the least in June, which is surprising. I was expecting it to be in July, August, and September when I was in the midst of my courtship period.

I would have liked to put a graph showing my sleep and wake-up times as well, but my graph plotting skills require some polishing, so for now, I will stop here. Someday, I would like to analyze that data as well.

Joining Netskope was a good decision for my career. While I learned a lot at Cisco, my experience at Netskope has been different. This year, after seeing the turbulent market conditions, I kept on wondering if joining Netskope was a financially prudent decision. If I keep this fact aside, my experience at Netskope has been good.

I have not been able to keep up with emerging technologies in the last two-three years. While my basics are solid, I should invest some time in learning new trends to stay relevant and employable in the future. The tech industry can be fierce at times. With all the turmoil in the world, it becomes even more important to keep myself updated. For the last four years, I have been lacking in learning new things (irrespective of their connection to my work). That may have put me behind my peers by a few years. Whenever I see my peers racing ahead of me, I feel disappointed. I know that becoming part of this rat race will only give me grief, but as a human, I am not immune to these emotions. However, I am very well aware that taking action is the only way to come back on track.

For the first time in the last three years, I feel clarity in my thoughts about my future direction, which may be a good sign. Going into 2023, this clarity can prove miraculous for my career and personal life. I hope it is the case.

Writing regularly was one of my primary goals this year. For the last couple of years, I have been struggling with some mental block when it comes to writing. It turns out that the problem was the lack of content. I either did not have anything to write about, or needed to try harder to gather the material, or procrastinated. I wrote less this year too, but I could get into the flow whenever I wanted to.

Blogging was not a priority this year. However, journaling has proven to be a wonderful experience for me this year. More so, it gave me a window into my thought process when making the most critical decision of my life - whether to marry or not. I wrote extensively around that time about what I was thinking, what I liked in her, and what I didn't. When I reread those entries, it immediately brings a smile to my face. Such has been the impact of journaling on me. I plan to write many more journal entries next year. I hope these new entries will also bring a smile to my face in the distant future.

I have a long-term wish to start a newsletter and grow my audience, but I wonder if I am ready to put in the effort required for this task at this moment. Also, I need to be more confident about whether I have good content/topic to write about. Since I still hesitate to share my blog posts on social media, starting and growing a newsletter will be an uphill task.

Getting committed this year meant that I finally had some inspiration to engage with creative writing. And I thoroughly enjoyed writing for someone else. In the last seven years since I started writing, I have never tried to write in Hindi. But after doing it this year, I realized that I enjoy writing in Hindi. I plan to continue this (even if sporadically) in 2023.

I have a feeling of disappointment while writing this section. I decided to read 24 books this year. I am ending it without reading a single book. Throughout the year, I could not make up my mind about reading. A significant reason behind this was the double thoughts in my mind about the objective for which I was reading and whether I could retain whatever I was reading. I found myself struggling to come to terms with the fact that no matter what I do, I will never be able to recall everything I read. This realization was the root cause behind my disillusion with reading. Unfortunately, I still need to find a definite answer to this dilemma. However, I can still restart my reading journey with fiction books, as I don't see the need to remember such books.

Having said this, it is not that I didn't read anything at all. I managed to read the first three modules of Zerodha's varsity content. These modules are such a valuable source to learn about the markets. I thoroughly enjoyed reading them. Unfortunately, at least this year, I didn't use the knowledge gathered. To start with the stock market again, I may have to reread the modules to recall the concepts (this is one example of the issues I mentioned in the previous paragraph).

One side effect of not reading enough books was that my mind tried to find other avenues to pass the time. In the first half of the year, I took refuge in movies and TV series to relieve myself from day-to-day life. I watched 22 films and three web series in the year's first half. Before getting married, I watched only two movies between July and November. After getting married, in December, I watched five movies.

I was in control of my social media usage in the first half of the year, but Instagram caught me off guard after that. I have never been a fan of Instagram, but this year, circumstances forced me to get into the rabbit hole. Currently, I have managed to control my Instagram usage. Still, I need to keep my eyes open to avoid any addiction.

I don't have my phone usage data, but I am sure it has skyrocketed this year. Since July, I have managed to use my phone for more than 6 hours every day on a routine basis. I must figure out how to reduce this usage and focus on more important things.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, I have been staying with my family. It has been three years, and with each passing day, I feel uncomfortable even thinking about moving back to Bengaluru. With the feeling of belongingness combined with the mess that Bengaluru is in, I find myself resisting moving back to Bengaluru, at least in the near future. My employer supports remote work, which gives me hope that I can spend a few more months here in Jaipur. Staying in Jaipur has obvious monetary benefits, but I see long-term hindrances in career growth. I may have to find a middle path to avoid stagnating in my career and satisfy my emotional cravings towards my family.

On the family front, this year has been incredible. Several long-term wishes of my family got fulfilled this year. My mother came back home after a successful recovery from a severe ailment. We shifted to a new house. I got married. My brother got a government job. What else could I have asked for?

As the latest entrant into my family, she has been a welcome addition. When 2022 started, the idea of getting married was completely absent from my mind. There were other more important stuff in my life that required immediate attention. But life had its plans. And I am glad that life had its way. Though I was not rooting to get married, I found a person with whom my thoughts match. I have not been a people-friendly person in my personal life, so it will take some time to adjust to another person's presence. Still, the way we have spent the last five months together, this will be a fun journey together.

My experience says I could improve following up with my new year's resolutions. However, that is not going to stop me from resoluting some more goals this year as well. Even if I don't achieve any of these, they will linger around in the back of my mind and remind me to take at least one step toward them.

I don't know of any method to quantify my fitness progress, but I aim to keep my weight under 65 kgs while transferring some of my weight from fat to muscles.

I have decided to read at least 24 books (2 books per month) this year. A combination of fiction, non-fiction, Hindi, and technical books would be ideal and help me avoid the sudden lack of interest. You can track my progress here.

Some journal entries, FutureMe letters, and a few blog posts should be enough for this year. I am writing more than ever privately, but as a side effect, public writing has taken a back seat for now. I will write on this blog whenever I have something important to share.

I enjoyed journaling in 2022, so this is also high on my priority list for 2023. I intend to write only sometimes, but doing it once in a while - on important events of my life - should be doable.

Now that I have a partner-in-crime, I plan to travel extensively (while keeping financial and professional commitments in mind). The resurge of COVID is threatening to spoil one of my trips early next year, so I also need to keep an eye on that. However, I will travel as and when possible. Expect some travelogue posts on this blog in the near future.

2022 was a good year for me. I achieved many goals this year. After a long time, I have some clarity in my mind about my future course of action. I hope to execute some (or all) of my plans in 2023.

This year taught me a vital lesson - every time you plan something, there will be a lot of apprehensions. All it takes to proceed further is to take one step. Everything else automatically falls into place.

Thank you, 2022, for this critical lesson. Adios, I will never forget you for bringing so many new memories into my life.

And welcome to you, 2023!!!