Happy new year! Because I don’t do a very good job sharing what’s going on in my life, I’m taking a moment to document my 2018.
Because you are reading this, you are part of my support team. Thank you! 🙏
I’ve organized 2018’s highlights into these seven broad categories:
- Health & Fitness
- Family
- Travel
- Education
- Work
- Friends
- Writing
Feel free to skip around between sections. So much happened in 2018. Let’s go!
Health & Fitness
In the health & fitness category, 2018 had its victories and set backs. The overall mission here is to live a long, healthy life; healthy body and healthy mind. And to have more than enough energy for everything else. Considering how much time I sit at desks and conference rooms, health and fitness is a constant focus.
2018 Health & Fitness Highlights
- Car accident in March. Lower back jacked up. ‼️
- Got into weightlifting for the first time. Without specific goals, I worked up to 4 pull-ups and 95 lbs. bench press. 💪
- Registered for the Conqur LA Challenge. Three races in a single season: Santa Monica Classic 10K (September) , Pasadena Half Marathon (January 2019), LA Marathon (March 2019).🏃🏃🏃
- Finished Santa Monica Classic 10K. 🏃
- Eliminated pizza and beer from diet. 🚫🍕🍺
- Donated blood once
- Still capable of keeping up with and carrying the twins!👨👦👦
2019 Health & Fitness Goals
- Set SMART goals for weigh lighting and learn compound lifts 💪
- Finish LA Marathon strong and maintain running habit afterwards 🏃
- Maintain anti-junk-food habits 🛑🍺🍩🍕
- Register for a triathlon 🏊♂️🚴♂️🏃
- Donate blood at every opportunity
Family
I am who I am because of the support of my family. Family time competes for attention like everything else. Being a great dad is a big part of it, but so is being a great husband, son, brother, uncle.
2018 Family Highlights
- Bought a new family car to make it easier to get around. Twins on board!
- Threw a birthday bash for twins 2nd birthday 🎂
- Disneyland on Christmas Day! 🎄
- Family trips to San Diego, Oahu, Palm Springs. ✈️
- Started a weekly date night habit for my wife and I to carve out more time to reconnect.🥂
- Visited with my parents approx. 6 times. Making time for the twins to know their grandparents is very important to us.
2019 Family Goals
- Have at least 10 positive interactions with each of the twins every day 👍
- Keep up the weekly date night habit 🥂
- Go back to Disneyland 🏰
Travel
Travel is important for growth and unwinding. The twins always light up after our trips. It’s caused by the change of environment.
2018 Travel Highlights
- Explored Atlanta and New Orleans
- Explored the island of Oahu, Hawaii
- Three visits to San Diego, CA
- Quick trip to Palm Springs, CA
- Weekend trip to Las Vegas, NV for the DEFCON Hacker Conference.
2019 Travel Goals
- Travel somewhere outside the US (bucket list)
- Explore the island of Kauai, Hawaii
- Go back to DEFCON
Education
In 2018 I’ve invested in my education with conferences and with books. These conferences changed how I think about health, fitness, and fatherhood.
2018 Education Highlights
- Attended Menfluential Conference in Feb. 2018.
- Read 19 books out of the 45 I bought. I have some catch up to do!📚
- Attended Men of Character virtual conference.
2019 Education Goals
- Wake up at 6am every day and read at least 20 pages from a book. 📚
- Re-read 5 books. 📚
Work
I don’t a very good job explaining my work to friends and family. I’ve been part of Symantec’s Security Technology & Response (STAR) team for 7 years now.
2018 Work Highlights
- Learned a ton about Hive SQL syntax from querying Symantec’s Authoritative Data Lake. An extremely useful skill.
- Promoted to Sr. Manager
- Shipped a new engine in the Norton SafeWeb product.
- Kept the STAR Intern Program strong and hired talented engineers who are smarter than me.
2019 Work Goals
- Continue delivering new features to Norton SafeWeb WebExtension with high quality and high effectiveness.
- Keep the STAR intern program in Culver City going strong and continue helping bringing in talented folks.
Friends
Staying connected with friends is a weak spot for me with everything else going on and because I intentionally avoid most social media.
2018 Friends Highlights
- Served as best man in one of my oldest friends’s wedding. Congrats newlyweds James and Olivia!
- Hosted two of our best friends elaborate engagement proposal at our home. She said yes! Congrats Susan and Eric!
- Met a bunch of cool people on the STEEM Blockchain.
- Spend more time with friends.
- Make at least one social call per week. 📞
Writing ✍️
Writing is a tool for passing stories and knowledge to my sons, and for making a dent in the universe. In 2018, I doubled down on writing.
2018 Writing Highlights
- Published my most-read blog post to date. 264 people have read it. The Emergence of Superbugs in the Cyber Security Landscape
- Torrey.blog saw double traffic/visitors compared to 2017.
- Published 43 posts on Torrey.blog ✍️
- Published 9 editions of Torrey’s Weekly Report and grew the subscriber list to 43 Symantec employees. ✍️
- Closing out 2018, my daily journal writing ✍️ is consistent.
2019 Writing Goals
- Begin publishing Torrey’s Weekly Report content outside Symantec.
- Continue publishing Torrey’s Weekly Report (internal) with consistency and higher quality.
- Publish one long-form Medium article at least once per quarter. ✍️
- Maintain daily journal writing habit. ✍️
Summary
In summary 2018 was outstanding in all categories. It is extremely challenging to keep everything in balance. Many top performers fail to do so; they burn out, marriages collapse, or worse. I’m grateful everyone being together and healthy. 🙏
I’ll end with some wisdom from Warren Buffet. What you choose not to do is crucial. Make a “not-to-do” list. List 25 things you want to achieve. Circle the top 5. Focus on those 5 things. Avoid the other 20 at all costs, they are your “not-to-do” list 🚫.
What are your goals for 2019? Leave me a comment below.
