Always be Pushing
This year will be my biggest yet. Not in the New Year, New Me way but I have very distinct goals to accomplish and KPI’s (Key Performance Indicator) for each. These changes didn’t come with the date change of January 2016, they came as a result of thinking and dissecting exactly what it is I need to meet my own level of success. Quite frankly, had I had my “Come to Jesus” moment in July, and I would have written this then but alas, I am older and wiser. I realize as a Product Manager I have to wear many hats, I have to be agile and I have to turn out a functional and meaningful product. Not to get all metaphor-y on you but, the greatest product I will ever work on is myself. I always need to be making tweaks and adjustments. I always need to provide value across platform (for my work, my community and with those closest to me). I will work tirelessly for my next company to make it their product great, but I realize I need that same level of dedication to continually be working on myself as well. As a PM I have a structure to building. Why wouldn’t I use these same tools and structure in my own life? Just as one does in Web Development, I must Always be pushing.
First thing on my radar is get a rad PM job. I want to work with wildly intelligent people who inspire me, challenge me and bring new perspective to how to think. I want to work with people who love what they do on a product that matters. Always be pushing.
Become a expert PM. And what does that even mean?! Alright, so this one will take much longer than a year but even though I am a slow runner I will still finish the race and continue to run until I get first place at the next one. I don’t do well with second best. This means I need to really figure out best practices from top influencers and product Gurus around the world. There is no formal training for this career path — leave it to me to continue to have to make my career up as I go. Yes, there are mentors out there that I fully intend to learn from but I also need to do the dirty work. This means at minimum I must read 3 articles a week plus watch an hour worth of product talks. Now I know, I know, this will not make me an expert but if I do manage to read a minimum of 156 articles this year on product and watch/participate in 52 hours worth of talks I will be much better off that I would be otherwise. I am excited to discover the unknowns and find the unknowns I have yet to come across. Practice makes perfect and as I continue to seek out thought leaders, I will inevitably have a better grasp on my job and on my opinions around what I find to be best practices. Always be pushing.
Hello to HelloDevs, again. There is no secret this is the single thing I am most proud of to date. However, I “got busy” and I “didn’t have time” you know the usual things that keep us from pursuing things we love. I say no more to this. I loved working on this. I loved how it affected the lives that went through the program. This means I will be hosting once a month code and coffee’s; a couple hack-a-thons for Jr Developers; more classes for those wanting to learn and improve; provide resources; build a better community; lastly, create a safe space for learning because this shit aint easy. Always be pushing.
Speaking of shit not being easy, I have a code list of projects, that I want to work on. I realized recently that sadly I have let my coding take so much of a back seat it takes me a considerable amount of time fumbling around to make things work. (I know, welcome to web development.) I want to be a better Developer. Thank God, I have friends who are practically saints that can help me understand what I don’t remember or simply what I don’t understand. Sometimes people are the greatest, and thank god the tech world has roughly a billion great people in it to help me on my journey. I have created this list of projects that I have been wanting to do or learn to use but quite frankly have been too scared to try as I am afraid of failure. My failure indeed was more in the fact that I didn’t try, now I am fixing that. I would be better if I had actually tried. I have roughly 12 projects to work on with acceptance criteria for each. I need to be better. My students deserve better and also HelloDevs deserves a better leader than what I have been providing. That was a hard truth to come to and probably the root of my excuse “ I don’t have time”. This will be fixed. I will be better. Full list of projects: Code My Way to a Better Developer. Always be pushing.
By the end of this year I want to be able to move to another country. I very much intend on making my mark on this world and I can’t do it from just one place. I of course have a massive travel bug so there is no surprise I would want to live someplace with a new adventure and new cultures. Now this doesn’t mean I will 100% be moving abroad this year but it means I am going to spend this next year making my skill set so valuable I could move anywhere in the world and work on things I love. I think so much can be gained from living abroad. So much can also be gained career wise by working abroad, New perspectives to be had, new ideas to hear about and new experiences to grow from. This will undoubtedly be something I will work for and achieve. This is important to me. Always be pushing.
Probably the most shocking and most personal will be the fact that I don’t intend to date this year. Yep, you heard me right, No boys. Don’t get me wrong — this isn’t some bra burning statement of feminism (Although fuck yeah feminist). This is simply that they don’t fall into the plan. My time and focus will be on my career and my passions. I simply don’t have time. It isn’t my priority. Being the best Developer, PM and community leader are where my loyalties lie. I have heard ‘you can’t have it all’, I still don’t know that that is true but what I do know is I wasted a lot of time last year on boys. Everything from the time consuming boyfriends to the endless, mindless swiping left and right, I just don’t have time for that. All of my dating apps have been removed with no intention of reinstalling. Hours on hours on hours of my life are gone do to the online dating distraction. It wasn’t providing the value I needed. Now this isn’t to say that I haven’t met some great guys on these sites but I need to focus on what is next for me. The “right person” will come along when he needs to and I am in no rush to settle down. I have questions around my future that I need answered before I drag someone else into the crazy. I have goals that are just far more important to me at this time. Always be pushing.
Lastly some short and sweet goals both fun and personal. I wants to have aRoaring 20s Birthday party, one Jay Gatsby, Zelda Fitzgerald and F.Scott Fitzgerald would be proud of. I want to Become a better photographer specifically — street photography. I love taking pictures. I am not as keen on being a good photo editor. This is a massive problem of mine, I take a trillion photos and never make time to edit them, since I love photography I will start making time to do this. Through all this, my last goal is to become a better writer. This has been on my list for a couple years but I never really had the courage to pursue it in a way that made me totally comfortable, so I once again, “didn’t have time”. This will change as I continue to write this blog. Practice makes perfect. Always be pushing.
So many goals, I have 52 sprints to make count. I have set these goals and possibly more important steps to achieve them, metrics. I am a geek so I love the shit out of data. “What gets measured, gets managed”- Peter Drucker. I am proud of what I have accomplished before now but this year I will put myself through a personal accelerator. This challenge will be just that a challenge but it will be worth it. Always be pushing.
