I would like to say that this past year was less dramatic or less challenging than the year I purchased a home and traveled to Florida three times. I would like to say that I read as many books as I planned to read. I would like to say that the hard work had an immediate impact on getting into a new role at work. What I can say is that the year had its drama and challenges. I read 25 books. My learning in the last nine months has been exponential.
My temporary work assignment carried over into the second week of March, which was just in time to help my old team with the last two weeks of a sales promotion. I returned to a mess of a workload with people training and falling behind in their regular work. I was surprised to find the team so far behind. I am just one person, could I really have left such a big hole? Other than that initial shock, the rest of the year doing my regular work was rather uneventful. Most of the mental energy was in the waiting and preparing for an interview for a job they had just created. It was in the the department I had just come from. The role was an entry-point into the area and the “Professional” level / paygrade. I figured I would be a likely candidate as I had done my work and extra work (Including taking extra courses through LinkedIn and reading three project management and leadership books) during my six-month assignment. I was lucky enough to get an interview but was apparently not the correct fit. I asked for official interview feedback. This could have been a great opportunity to learn how they would have expected the interview to go. While that did happen, it was more of a character attack on my personality. I later learned it might have been more than a little office politics affecting my experience. While processing that, I learned how to build out a SharePoint site and started exploring automation and AI Agents through the tools we have at the office. It is a fascinating world, but I think I’ll need more access before I can take it to its full potential.
In my personal life, I decided to realign my finances under the guidance of the Money Guy methodology and started saving enough to be ready for 2026. They have a different approach than the other popular financial coaches or advisors. I watched several of their videos and even read the book Millionaire Mission to get the full background. This also meant no out-of-state travel, as I was saving and paying down the credit cards and one last loan down to zero. I will point out I was able to do a good chunk of that without the fabulous raise that would have come with that job that I wanted. I kept myself grounded by reading a couple of books by Alissa Quart that explained the somewhat disturbing world of the United States. Compared to most of the working-class folks out there, I am living like a prince.
I explored new versions of humanity through various science fiction books including two series that are set in the far future and a dystopian one where Love or more specifically romantic love is considered a disease. I went back in time to 15th-century China where a woman lived her life the best she could while learning medicine along the way. A behind the scenes look at the TV show Downton Abbey brought me closer to our timeframe by showing me how the great houses were used to film parts of the series. In more modern times, I read two different celebrity memoirs, exploring their lives from two extremely different angles. I kept my travel bug alive while reading about the journey of taking a biking trip from the west coast of Canada down to the border of Mexico. Would I take such a trip on a bike? Nope. Was it fun to read? Obviously!
Rounding out my reading adventures are the two books that walked me through the amazing histories of money and buildings. Money is a concept we invented. Paper money was created far earlier than we had been told. The idea has spread to the digital world and beyond and it will break your brain a little. In addition, learning about the great builders and how tall buildings came to be was a fascinating topic to explore.
While my fiction choices this year (and most years) do have a science-fiction leaning, my generalist nature does not allow me to have a singular type of book to read at any given time. I hope this makes me a more interesting person.
In between my reading, writing, and arithmetic (lol), I explored some new churches in the area and also some state parks. All the state parks in my state are paid for, so you just drive up and start hiking. I usually discover a cool park about 3 weeks before the cold weather arrives. I really need to work on that.
How was 2025 for you? Did you accomplish everything you wanted? Any exciting goals for 2026?
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