Archives for 2022

I recently noticed how I spend significantly more time on goals for work compared to personal ones.

So I’ve taken time this week to reflect on 2021 and set personal goals for 2022.

Instead of reinventing the wheel, I used Rohan’s annual reflection template.

They cover the right set of topics for what I need: highlights, lessons learned, sources of learning, themes for the year ahead, etc.

I also like how the questions are easy to answer, but also inspire me to take the time to write out thoughtful responses.

I’m pairing it with a set of annual and quarterly goals that I’ll revisit throughout the year.

An individual, team, or company can only focus on one thing at a time, maybe two.

Any more than two, and the focus is spread too thin.

Things will always be added to our plates, and our typical reaction is to think, “I can make it work.”

But the trade-offs, and their consequences, aren’t immediately apparent.

We bury ourselves in the work, and only further down the road we realise we’re overextended.

Although it takes discipline to anticipate future challenges, ruthlessly prioritise, and build in a margin of safety, what’s the cost of not doing it?

For 15 years—from the time I was 5 til 20–I can’t remember my mum ever swimming in the ocean.

It just wasn’t her thing, she said.

The sun too hot. The water too cold. Someone needed to watch our stuff.

However, more than a decade later, she’s been in the water every day on this recent trip to the beach.

Shocked, I asked her what changed.

She said, “As I get older, I choose to be open to new things and experiences.”

And that was it. No further explanation.

I then started to notice other small changes that have built up over the years.

She goes to the gym almost every day; something she never did when I was a kid. She reads voraciously—even more than she used to. And she’s now always up for a trip on the boat with my dad.

She’s quietly and consistently setting a great example on choosing to be more open with age.

I’m really proud of her.

Playing board games is one of our camping traditions.

This year, we brought 10 with us.

Not excessive, at all.

From strategy, to numbers, to cards, to words, to abstract—we’ve got a sufficient range and styles to satisfy everyone in our 8-person group.

Quite a few are 2-player games that Dad and I get a lot of mileage from, and the rest of them are a mixture of classics (i.e., Catan), and off-the-wall (i.e., Dixit).

Dad and I have a rivalry on Yinsh, an awesome 2-player that requires equal parts abstract and strategic thinking. Super easy to learn, but tremendous depth once you get into it.

Codenames has become a staple every night after dinner, as it’s a great word/guessing game for a larger group.

I’m also really enjoying Azul, because although there’s an element of competition, the goal is to complete a mosaic of tiles which makes it quite relaxing.

Full list here:

• Catan
• Ticket to Ride
• Love Letter
• Skip Bo
• Dixit
• Azul
• Yinsh
• Jaipur
• Hive
• Codenames

Let me know if you’ve got recommendations for larger groups, or if you’ve got a few family favourites!

Catching the fish and eating it is the fun part.

But it also comes with a tax: an early morning start, weather checking, route planning, boat cleaning, and quite a bit of mess.

But the tax doesn’t have to be a cost. It can also be an investment: a memory, a story, and a moment that can’t be traded.

I’ve loved going out fishing with the family over the past week. Dad did it a tonne when he was a kid, but our family only did the odd bit when I was young.

So we’re making up for it now!

It may not be fishing for you and yours, but it’s worth asking what’s the tax you’ll pay to create those most valuable memories?

I’m currently camping by the beach with family for 2 weeks.

We’re at the base of Mt Maunganui. It was our Christmas Break spot for more than a decade as I was growing up, and it’s great to be back.

With my 3-year-old nephew now on the scene, we’re taking a lot of photos. In the midst of capturing a funny moment, or new experience, there often isn’t time to set up a nice shot.

Balance. Exposure. Contrast. Saturation. Alignment. Framing.

It really doesn’t matter if what you’re trying to capture is the emotion, the moment, the memory.

When we’re framing memories, it doesn’t need to be perfect.