Category Archives: Personal

I started keeping a written record on bigger goals in life from the year 2018 – following the example set by Steve Jones and Brent Ozar. This method of keeping track is called ‘Epic Life Quest’. I wrote my first blog post on it in 2017, and then another in early 2019. This is my post for 2020. Below are the goals I set and how or if I met them.

1 Finish off Microsoft Big Data Certification. I am already working my way through it. I will devote every saturday evening to it and hope to get it done.
Wheeee….the certification is gone 🙂 Considering the track record Microsoft has until now with certifications I think it is not longer valid to make them a goal in of itself.
2 Continue with watching pluralsight/pass summit videos and listening to podcasts whenever time permits.
I’ve done well in this area, although I could do better. Pluralsight was hard to dedicate time to. This year, I made a change. I bought a galaxy tab and keep it on my living room table. I have a rather large living room and walk up and down there as part of my fitbit goal in the evenings. I usually listen to podcasts while I walk – this year, am going to turn pluralsight videos on instead. And keep weekend for podcasts. I think this will help me find the necessary time as well as get some good learning in.
3 Complete writing second book I have committed to. 
I went about half way down the road with this, learning about graph data and the feature in SQL Server. But the feature did not evolve to the extent expected and was not book worthy. But I learned a tremendous lot about trees/hierarchies and graphs while working on it. This learning will be very useful for further blog posts/ug talks and so on.
4 Read two pages of a tech book every day evening with tea. I am intentionally keeping this goal very small and doable. This is also based on a few experiences with reading.
I failed miserably here. Not because of the goal but because I set it for mornings and am just not a morning person. Even though I live really close to work, I just get up in time to swallow some breakfast and get ready to get in. Also, am suffering some sleep trouble with mid age feminine stuff and it is really hard to predict a morning very well. So for 2020, there are no early morning goals.
5 Blog @ one post every two weeks – again, scaled down from one post per week and trying to keep it modest and consistent.
I could not keep up any schedule with blogging and most of my blog posts ended up to be community related or personal growth related. I did however, write 3 articles for SQLServerCentral and one for Simple Talk, which left me thrilled. I think if I find a juicy tech topic I will still stick with writing for one of these two sites instead of on my personal blog. It gets me more exposure, lots of interesting questions and some pocket money as well. 
6 I am planning on 4 tech events – SQL Saturdays at Raleigh, neighboring Charlotte, Louisville and then the PASS Summit towards end of the year. 
This happened. And this will be the same goal for 2020 as well. The only difference perhaps is that I plan to submit to speak as well at all events. I am unsure of submitting to PASS Summit or participating in Speaker Idol, which has been a longtime goal. It will depend on how I do health wise as well as how work/job and personal goals pan out. I leave it as a loose goal for now.

On personal front – 
1 I plan to continue with hiking and exploring national parks. I am planning a trip in Spring/early summer with some visiting family members.
I do not think an overseas trip will materialise this year.
Yes, this happened. Visited Colorado/Rocky Mountains as well as Smokies.
2 I plan to continue with healthy eating and exercising goals. 
Yes, Fitbit is happy. My allergies have gone up sky high so eating ‘healthy ‘ is not even an option. Am able to keep up with what I can eat and come home for a hot meal, both of which are blessings.

Goals for 2020 are as below.

1 Have one book ongoing to read. Alternate between a tech book and a book on personal growth. Blog book reviews so that others can benefit. Ideally, the time to read is a good 15 minutes to half an hour on the recliner after returning from work.
2 Listen to Pluralsight/PASS summit videos during evening walks.
3 Submit at least one article to SQLServercentral or SimpleTalk every month.
4 Keep weekends free of tech stuff or social media.Ideally, this is time to do some artwork/cook and clean/read something fun and various activities that help rejuvenate.
5 Keep up physical activity and eating habits.
6 Plan to visit one national park or another country in spring/summer, and 3 week vacation in India with family during the holidays.
7 Attend SQL Saturdays Louisville,St Louis,Raleigh,Charlotte and PASS Summit. My goal is to attend these events regardless of if or not am chosen to speak.

My learning goals include – in-depth Query Store and Xevents, R Programming, some SSIS and SSAS and if time permits some C#/F#.
On the art side – have taken up a rather ambitious cross stitch project and loving every minute of it. Plan to take this to completion.

That is my rather simple goal list. Hope to live through it. Wish everyone a happy new beginning in 2020!

I have always maintained a private bucket list. I have not had the courage to actually put it down in writing – but this year I decided that it is time. My good friend Brent Ozar has been doing this for a few years now, and his list is my inspiration. He has the link to the original post that inspired him too. My goals for the next 15 years are as below. I put it in 3 categories – 2017, this year, 2018 next, and then long term, after.

2017:
1 Complete Microsoft Data Science Program and Diploma in Healthcare Analytics from UCDavis.
2 Stick to blogging goals – one blog post per week, one contribution to sqlservercentral.com per two weeks.
3 Keep up exercise goals of 10,00 steps per day and one yoga workout per week.
4 Speak at local user group as often as I can (my limitations with travel do not allow me to speak at too many sql saturdays or out of town events)
5 Submit to speak at PASS speaker idol event.
6 Hike the Grand Canyon with my sister, we are travelling companions and love to see places together.
7 See two new countries atleast – Mexico with SQL Cruise, one more towards end of the year – remains undecided for now. But two countries it is.
8 Blog on books read so that I can understand the time I devote to reading and range I read in that time.
9 Get home renovation work done – am undecided on if I want to keep this condo or sell it, but either way, I’d have to get work done on it. Best if it got done this year, but involves considerable financial commitment that am not sure I can meet. As of now it looks doable for this year, but may move to next year if I have to reset goals.
10 Increase collection of annotated classics by year end. This is an ongoing goal to build a library for retirement. The only books I buy in print are annotated ones or those with pictures. There are not many of those and my collection is upto 30-40% of what I need already. I keep adding to it @3-4 books a year.
10 Take a course on cartooning and short story writing – both of these are my pet hobbies and never had as much time for them as I’d like – this year would like to atleast take a course on each to deepen my love and interest.
2018:
1  Submit to speak at PASS Summit.
2 Organize SQL Saturday #10 at Louisville (not clear how different this will be yet…).
3 Keep up same goals for exercising.
4 Visit one new country with my sister – am looking at Bali/Indonesia now.
5 Visit one more new country on SQLCruise, hopefully, or on my own. Either way, I do it.
6  Biggie – Pay off my mortgage. Yes, this is important and am not that far away. The only thing that keeps me from it is a bit undecided on how long I can live here with job opportunites being what they are. But I will assume those will be the same and in that case, the house will be ready to be paid off in 2018.
7 Do actual analytics work – by this time I will have a reasonable understanding of R/SAS/Microsoft Data science related skills, and expect it to take me to the next level professionally.

Long term goals:
1 Be a consultant on analytics – right now am looking at healthcare analytics but the area of application may change depending on how my career pans out..but in my 60s I hope to have knowledge and expertise to be a consultant, hopefully without a lot of travel,make the kind of $$$ I want to make and only work the hours I want to.
2 Be respected in SQL/Data community for both knowledge and community work.
3 Attend weddings of my favorite niece and nephew – it has been 25+ years since I attended an indian wedding. It goes back to days when I attended the wedding of a very wealthy classmate/friend, got treated without much respect, and vowed to never set foot in another wedding again. And I have not. But I have two youngsters whose weddings I’d like to attend and break that vow – I will not name them, I do not want them to feel pressure around getting married (which is already enormous in indian culture) – but if they choose to and have a wedding, I’d love to attend and offer my love and blessings.
4 Buy a home by the beach in my native Chennai, where I want to retire. Honestly, this definitely looks like the most difficult one to pull off. Real estate costs a lot of $$$ and homes by the beach are even more expensive. Also for a lot of NRIs this depends on how well the USD holds up against other currencies. But I will put it there and see what fate deals me and what I can do to make this happen.
5 Travel..travel…travel..this list is so enormously long that I don’t know where to start..but I will list the top 12 countries I want to visit in this lifetime.
1 Bali-Indonesia – for the temples, culture, food and scenic beauty – I’ve read about Bali and always wanted to visit, but never found time.
2 Thailand-Singapore-Malaysia – group these together as they are close and can be done in one trip. Singapore – for the sheer inspiration of the world’s safest, successful economy, Thailand and Malaysia – buddhist temples and culture.
3 Tulip/Flower festival – Holland – am a flower buff and very enamored by Holland’s flower festival for years. Am looking at a National Geographic Tour for this but may look at other cheaper options too.
4 Belgium – for Tintin and chocolate. Enough said.
5 Norway – for the wonderful fjords and scenic beauty.
6 UK – cultural connections and so many places to see. I think I’d need a month in London alone.
7 Revisit Italy and Spain with my sister. So love these  two countries – in particular Italy, for the food and the history. I love showing off what I’ve already seen to family members, and she is my first pick to show off :))
8 Australia/New Zealand – no reason to not go, and I have family members there.
9 Costa Rica/Panama Canal – hopefully this will happen soon.
10 Switzerland – scenic beauty and chocolate, again.
11 Austria – Sound of Music Country, not possible to not visit.
12 Antartica – last but not the least, ice laden continent would be absolutely a great item to get off bucket list.

Aside from these places, I’d love to see as many national parks in USA as possible, and and many many places in India – too many to list.  I am getting a national geographic map with pins to put on my wall next year, and hopefully when am done there won’t be too many unpinned places on it. I look forward to updating this list as I go along each year and see where I get with it.

Thank you, Brent Ozar and Steve Jones, for your inspiration.

 

2016 has undoubtedly been a landmark year in my life. To me it marked my first conscious entry into mid age. It was the first year that I really pondered some of the questions that people need to think of as they get older in life – with clarity that I had not enjoyed before. I think that that clarity only comes with age, and at the right time, no matter how hard we try to make it happen earlier. Some of these questions , for me, included –

1 How much longer do I want to work in IT?
2 Am I doing the kind of work that energizes me and makes me feel like I am contributing something real to the world in some way?
3 What do I want out of where I live? (Or in other words, am I happy with connections I have and social life am having?)

I have been pondering these questions for a couple of years now, but it came to a climax towards end of 2015. I was at a new job – a DBA position again. I was making great $$$, the benefits were very good and the place was just a couple of miles from where I lived. But, the job had certain issues that led me to pondering these questions deeper. It got to be a mental struggle that made it very hard for me to go in to work every day with a positive mindset. I looked at my savings, and also talked to some of the many connections I had made with the SQL community. It became clear to me that I needed a sabbatical to ponder some of this – with some part time consulting work to keep my bills up and stay in touch with technology. So, I decided to leave the position to do just that – take a sabbatical with a part time job and ponder what I want to do next.

Although it sounds like a romantic/cool thing to do now – it really did not feel that way. It felt like relief, and the extra time was a true blessing – but there were fears that went with it – fears  that am doing something very radical, that I will run out of money, or fall sick, on and on. But in truth, none of that happened. I spent a good 4 months doing consulting and learning some great new things, catching up on my reading, talking walks ,meditating, and pondering the questions I had set myself to answer. I was led to understanding that a switch to BI and Analytics would be a better option for me, after two decades of production DBA work. I also figured that working in healthcare related analytics would give me the kind of satisfaction I craved – that my work was making a difference, in some small way, to the bigger world and was not just about putting out fires on servers.

By the end of March I found myself a BI position with a healthcare analytics firm, not too far from home. It also involved significant amount of DBA work, which I was glad for, as someone switching lanes. At the end of December am glad to say that I am loving what I do and planning to keep at it as much as I can. I am also blogging and writing articles on analytics, in addition to pursuing an associate degree. So, it all lined up like it was meant to. The year was hard in so many ways – there were some health challenges towards the end of it, and finding time to put into learning is still very hard. But I believe am on the right path and will be guided towards my eventual goal of retiring happy and doing the kind of work I want to be doing.

My goals for 2017 are as below  :
1 Make time for what matters – not let work run my life. By that – eat well, exercise, meditate, take time to blog and learn outside work. The time management is easier said than done but setting the goal is the first step.
2 Understand that time is limited, and retain this understanding on a proactive basis. This is the big difference in thinking from youth to mid age. I believe I have 10-12 years of full time work left. In that time I want to be doing what I enjoy and not give in to fears and insecurities.
3 Take time for connections that matter – for friends, family and people who need me. To me that includes connecting with my family of origin (atleast one trip to India every two years), connecting with #sqlfamily (PASS summit, as many sql saturdays as possible), staying active with local community  – organizing sql saturdays with my partners in crime – John Morehouse,Chris Yates and several loyal volunteers, speaking at local user group and so on.

My suggestions to anyone else in the same place as I am – or getting there –

1 Life is short. If you are stuck in a seriously unhappy job or doing work that does not seem to mean anything – reconsider. Honor your heart’s calling, and take time to find it.
2 If you are over 45 – make a bucket list, and check off items. Make solid plans to get atleast one or two items off the list every year.
3 Learn proactively – very few people I know got ahead by just learning on the job. You need a fantastically good job for that, and granted, there are a few, but not many of us are that lucky. How does one find time? Yes, that is a hard question ,but that should never be left unanswered. Two simple things that I am doing are
1 Listening to pod casts or watch pluralsight videos when I exercise,
2 Blog on one thing I learned every week.

I want to increase this as I go, but am making strides even with this much.

Wish you all health, peace and happiness in 2017!! Thank you for reading.