2022 was a generally good year for me. A change in jobs, getting more comfortable with the third year of pandemic life.
A change in jobs
While not looking to change jobs, I was fortunate to get the opportunity to make a change that I’m happy about. Moving from an in-house SEO role back to an agency has been an adjustment, as expected. But, so far, I’m enjoying the greater intensity and faster pace of getting things done.
Plus, I think the added experience of working in-house has helped me have more empathy for clients and what they have to go through to get recommendations implemented.
Giving up alcohol
I was never a heavy drinker and have been fortunate not to have to deal with any addiction issues. But over the past few years, I’d begun to notice that whenever I did drink, I’d have trouble sleeping. So, having two beers on a Friday night and two beers on a Saturday meant I’d be exhausted by the time Monday rolled back around.
The change has been great. In addition to having more energy over the weekends, I’m finding I generally feel more consistent and experiencing less brain fog (save for the week or two following getting COVID in July). This is definitely something I see continuing with in the future.
Plus, it turns out that the selection of non-alcoholic beers (or NAs) is pretty strong and seems to be improving all the time.
Trying to quantify less
Hearing Seth Godin on a podcast a few years ago, I remember he spoke about how he tries to quantify things as little as possible in his personal life.
Before 2022, I had been taking the opposite track – tracking and quantifying anything I could (especially when it came to exercise). This year, though, I’ve been trying to quantify less.
This meant no longer wearing a running watch to track my steps, pulse etc.
Instead, I’ve been trying to focus more on how I’m feeling. This vibes-first approach has helped me focus on things that I enjoy doing (like playing tennis again) rather than activities that would help with whatever metric I was trying to track that week.
Looking ahead to 2023
I’m cautiously excited about 2023. I’m looking forward to see what paths my new job take and continuing to learn a new approach to growth marketing.
I’m also cautiously hoping to travel more this upcoming year. My partner and I have been relatively conservative in traveling in this “living with COVID” period we’re all going through. But we’re anticipating more long weekend trips to neighboring states that hopefully minimize risks to ourselves and our families.
I guess “cautiously hopeful” is my general stance towards life these days. Wooo!
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