Sometimes when you only see friends occasionally (like once a year) you need to tell them the story of your year in short space of time. This is my story for this year.

This was a year in two parts, the first part being all about asking, “Why are we here?” as is, what choices have we made to get into our exact situation we are in and have those been choices we’ve actually made, or ones we fallen into.

A lot of the questioning was driven by the question of why we are struggling financially. What choices have we made that put that kind of strain on us, and is it because we’re following some societal norm we think we need to fulfil? For me that was quite a bleak process to go through.

We watched a documentary on minimalism, had fights about money, questioned what we have and why we have it (like why do we have the particular house we have), questioned what we do and why we do it (like why do we send our kids to the particular school we do), questioned our short term choices (like what actually drives us to buy things in the way we do and when we do, and what allows us to make those often poor choices).

What was interesting is that at the end of it, I am happy with the choices we’ve made. Sure, we make some poor short term choices, but I came out of the process with a sense of peace, as well as a commitment to fight for the absolutely amazing life we do have. It also receive focussed and on the most important things, like really making more time to create memories together.

One very tangible thing we did together was save for a family holiday. We all (kids included) worked together and contributed to a wonderful time at Jamaka.

Alongside this there was a process happening with our largest business customer and they gave Engineer Simplicity and official role in their business structure. Practically there was not any real change to our responsibilities but it did recognise the role we play in their business. For me, this changed my whole mental space.

For various reasons I had felt on the back foot and the official recognition changed my whole mindset in the situation. It felt like a recognition of the work we do and gave me the confidence and freedom to produce even better work. The responsibility also contributed to a greater commitment and ownership of the product that we develop for them.

I do feel that as a team we have produced good work this year and I’m excited about what we will achieve going forward.

The greater level of responsibility did mean that we didn’t spend as much time as we should have moving our own projects forward, but we have very slowly chipped away at our long term business goals and I’ve learnt loads of things through the process and been able to bring a different way of thinking about problems into our everyday work.

I’ve had a contentment in the second part of the year. We’ve been consolidating a few things so I’ve had a focus on stability. It has been good to be peaceful.

I’ve gotten quite into my mountain biking this year and that has been a really good thing for me. Time on the bike has been good for my body and mind. I’ve also made extra time (or stolen time away) to ride with our kids once a week and to ride with Donné once a week. Even though I’ve stolen some time, I’ve still been just as productive.

I think that after the first part of the year I’ve really focussed on being content with the wonderful life we have. I’m still hungry to achieve the goals I have, but there has been a different sense of being content which has been a bit weird for me.

It is almost like I have had this restless sense of push forward, push forward, but this year hasn’t been like that. I feel like I’ve breathed in the mountain air, lifted up my head and looked around to enjoy the view. Even with that I still do worry and ask myself, “If I’m content, will I push hard enough to get where I want to be?”

There is always so much more, but I think that is pretty much it. I’ve had a good year. I’ve questioned my life and tried to be intentional about the choices we make. I’ve had a good year and felt content with our lives. I’m happy with the work I’ve produced. We’ve been very fortunate and the business has done well and been able to support us.

We are blessed and I am truly greatful for what we have and how we get to live our loves. May we use it well in the year ahead.