2021 - My Plan for a Banner Year

The dumpster fire that was the year 2020 has officially ended. Looking back on the year I wasted it from a health and improvement perspective. I can blame any number of things from an early in the year health scare, the COVID-19 pandemic, home renovation projects, etc. The simple answer is that I was just lazy and did not put the effort and thought into making several important things a priority.

Back in 2013, I wrote a post about my plans for having a Banner Year. Looking back, I wouldn’t call the plan a complete failure, but I certainly did not accomplish everything on the list (especially when it came to the fitness and health related items). Unfortunately, this has been true over the last decade of my life.

Before 2021 gets too far along, I wanted to sit down to do some forward thinking and planning. So, what will I work on this year? Here’s the list …

My Faith

• I will Tear Up My Bible.
• I will pray with my wife daily.
• I will pray with my children daily.
• I will serve my church through the gifts that God has given me.

My Family

• I will make spending time with my wife a priority – encouraging her and talking through plans and goals for our family.
• I will make spending time with my childing a priority – encouraging them, playing with them, and engaging in the activities that interest them.
• My wife and I will pay off our car loan ($18,000.00 USD).
• My wife and I will give some real consideration, thought and planning to move out of New Jersey.
• My family and I will take the month of May for a road trip around the Western US.

My Mental & Physical Health

• I will complete Andy Frisella’s #LIVEHARD Program.
• I will lose thirty pounds and keep it off – two pounds per week for 15 weeks (April 17, 2021)
• I will read twenty-four or more books. Goodreads
• I will spend more time outdoors.

My Career

• I will land a new career opportunity by June as I will be unemployed at the end of April.
• I will pass the Microsoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer Associate Exam (AZ-500).
• I will pass the Microsoft Certified: Azure DevOps Engineer Expert Exam (AZ-400).
• I will pass the Hashicorp Certified: Terraform Associate Exam.
• I will pass the Docker Certified Associate Exam.
• I will pass the Certified Kubernetes Administrator Exam.

My Mixed Bucket

• I will post to this blog at least twice per month.
• I will reduce my collection of unused technology items by either selling on eBay or up/recycling, as necessary.
• I will buy a new iPad – hopefully for an iPad Mini redesign – Please Apple, please 🙂
• On December 31st, I will declare 2021 a Banner Year.

A big thanks to those of you that read this full list. I would encourage you to do some forward thinking of your own for 2021.

“The only person that limits you stares back at you in the mirror every single day.” – Andy Frisella