2011 was great for me. I was able to accomplish many of the goals I wanted, even some of them which I thought were a bit out of my hands.

The process of measuring how good or bad I did in a year is not something that I have been doing my entire life. This is actually the second year that I do it after reading an extraordinary post by Chris Guillebeau

What went well:

• Traveled for about 60 days visiting 5 cities: Vienna, Miami, Washington DC, New York and Mexico City
• Hired our first employee in SWS
• IBS is doing much better after I reduced my red meat consumption
• Improved my skills on Ruby On Rails and Vim
• Increased my monthly income a 7%
• Read 12 books (The 4 Hour Body, The Thank You Economy, The concept of anxiety, The hidden link between adrenaline and stress, The Power of eye contact, Poke the box, Increment your financial IQ, Thrilled to death, Anything you want, Make her chase you, The Magic of Reality)
• Met one of my heroes: Tim Ferris
• Saw one of my favorite bands Live: Dream Theater
• Got an apartment

What didn’t go as expected:

• I wanted to start a business that is not technology related but didn’t find the inspiration/time/money
• I didn’t find the time to get involved in an open source project that I was invited to participate with the jQuery team.
• I didn’t exercise regularly
• I didn’t learn as much Japanese as I wanted
• I didn’t write on a constant basis

What went wrong:

• Started having some problems with my back
• Very low energy in the last months of the year
• Got robbed
• Had a very unproductive month when my main machine got broken

Being able to perceive how things went through the year makes me happy because I feel successful and helps me define what are the things that I’m doing right, how I can implement a bit of that in the things that didn’t go as well as expected and also focus on fixing the things that went completely wrong.

First things first: “Well done me! You had a wonderful year and improved so much, keep the good work.”

Now that I’ve congratulated myself I can think on how to get better at the goals that didn’t go as expected and the things that went wrong. On 2012 I will focus on the health related issues. I think I can recover my energy and feel healthier through the first quarter so I can use that extra energy and sharpness for the other goals that I didn’t manage to finish and the new ones that I’m going to set.

Having finished so many goals let’s me dream big and plan for better things but I also have to be realistic and realize that no matter how productive I try to be, there won’t be enough time for all the goals in the new list. I will try to manage my time better but it’s ok if some of the things don’t turn out completely as expected.

I still have to work on the 2012 plan but there are already a few big personal projects that will go in that list. Doing this annual review gives me closure and lets me use the last days of the year to plan accordingly.

Merry christmas and happy new year!