My yearly review is one of the few things that I really look forward to at the end of the year. This is my third year of doing a personal review. 2014 was an eventful year to say the least. There were some big changes that happened but all in all I felt fairly in control of things. I also turned 30 this year in December which was a big milestone. I thought about all the things that I have done in my life and things I would love to do in the next decade. I will cover those in another post sometime soon.

#Some big changes

At the start of the year, my friends Frank O’Hara and Andrew Antal reached out about a project they were working on, DomReactor. I had some other side projects of my own at that time but was not getting anywhere with them. We met for a few beers and spoke in great detail about their project which was super interesting and fun. They wanted me to come onboard and work on it with them. I thought about it for about a week as I didn’t want to leave my own projects in the middle of nowhere. But a week later, I finally joined the team. The plan was to release the project sometime in the middle of the year but that didn’t happen. More about this later.

The other big thing that happened this year was that Deepti and I found out that we are going to have a baby girl. We have been married for 5 years now and often talked about having kids. We found out two days before our trip to Europe that Deepti was pregnant. I was very nervous and excited at the same time. It was a bit weird. Deepti could not have any cheese and wine while we were in France and Italy so I owe her another trip.

#What went well

This year, I wanted to become more mindful of the things I did everyday. 2013 was a very chaotic year and I wanted to change that in 2014. I got into a great morning ritual which started with getting up really early (around 5 AM every morning). I did slip here and there but for the most part I was pretty consistent with my morning routine.

I also wanted to get healthier this year. I started at 184 pounds and had given myself a goal of reaching 160 pounds by the end of the year. I didn’t make it. Currently I weigh 171.2 lbs but I feel a lot better compared to 2013. Also I was fairly injury free and enjoyed playing squash. I did have some issues with my shoulder in December but that was mostly due to overuse.

Another goal was to stay credit card debt free which I was able to do. I am a huge credit card points hoarder and a big travel hacking fan so I did accrue a lot of credit card points. However, I paid of all my credit cards on time and didn’t carry any balance forward.

We also took a trip to Europe this year which was a lot of fun. We visited Paris, Venice, Rome and Florence in August for two weeks and it was definitely one of the best trips we have ever taken. Paris was by far my favorite part of the trip and I would go there again in a heartbeat.

#What didn’t go well

I could not meet my goal of saving enough money this year and fell short by about $10000. I could have managed my expenses better and that is going to be a focus this year. Also, our rent increased as we moved into a bigger apartment with the baby coming along in April 2015 which also played into it.

I only read 11 books this year. I enjoy reading and would like to read more books in 2015. I need to carve out sometime from my daily schedule for reading and will like to focus on that in the coming year.

I also wanted to get in the habit of writing consistently in 2014 and failed miserably at that. I had given myself a big goal of writing 1000 words everyday which was really ambitious. I would have to come up with a better goal than “1000 words everyday” as it feels a bit too stiff. May be 250 words per day or 1 blog post a week would be a better goal.

We wanted to get DomReactor shipped and open to public use sometime in the middle of the year but we overstepped that deadline by a mile. We did make some great progress and the application is better than ever but we could have shipped it much sooner. We are really close and shipping DomReactor is going to be the biggest focus in the early part of 2015.

#So what’s in store for 2015

2015 is going to be a big year again. We are going to have a baby girl and I just wish that both Deepti and the baby stay healthy. My sister is going to get married in May in India so we are eagerly awaiting for a much needed India trip as well. The main focus at the beginning of the year is to ship DomReactor and get some feedback from actual customers. Obviously there are going to be some unknowns but I am really looking forward to it.

Here’s to a great 2015.

Cheers!!!