Epic Life Quest: Leveled Up.

We hit a really cool business goal this week, so I went to update my Epic Life Quest page and realized I’d left out a whole lot of goals. Turns out I’d leveled up when I wasn’t really paying attention! Here’s what I did in level 3:

• Publish 4 new training courses – I’ve done a lot of in-person and online presentations, but for 2013, our company’s setting up a new way of doing it.  Completed 2013.
• Acquire Sas Christian original sketches – I’ve adored Sas’s art for years, and while I still can’t afford the original paintings, I got the chance to buy several of her study sketches. I’m in a race to get rich enough to buy her original work, plus her husband Colin’s awesome sculptures, but the prices keep going up before I can earn enough, hahaha. This year I picked up one of the rare prints of Takes a Lickin’, plus a rough sculpture by her husband Colin.  Completed 2013.
• Rent a house in Cabo, Mexico – At Brent Ozar Unlimited, we all work from home and don’t get the chance to just hang out with each other. We do attend conferences together, but those are more work than play because we all present. To relax and connect, we get together for a week each year, and this year it was Casa Panga in beachfront Cabo. After the company week, my dad & stepmom joined us for a family vacation week too. Completed 2013.
• Ride in an America’s Cup chase boat – I grew up watching sailboat racing and always dreamed of seeing it in person. This world championship race only happens every few years, and hadn’t been in America for most of my adult life. I leapt at the chance to fly to San Francisco and ride a speedboat on the water to watch Oracle win a race. Completed 2013.
• Launched an email training course – For years, I’ve wanted to build an email autoresponder but I had to find the right topic. I launched my 6-Month DBA Training Plan email series, and it succeeded wildly – we’ve got thousands of subscribers learning via email each week. Completed 2013.

In this level, I also returned to Amsterdam & Stockholm, two of my favorite European cities, but I don’t count returning visits as achievements.

Here’s what I’m working on for level 4, and it’s almost done already. This is what I get for not updating the quest more often, hahaha:

• 5 Years Straight as Microsoft MVP – This wasn’t originally a goal for me, but when I got the 5-Year disk for my MVP trophy, I sat back and thought about it. I’m pleasantly surprised every time I get renewed – I  write honestly about what Microsoft is doing right and wrong, and I actually hold my tongue on a lot of stuff (both extreme negative and extreme positive) to be fair to the people around me. Looking back, I actually have had to work to earn this. Completed 2013.
• Dined at one of the world’s 50 best restaurants. During our SQLRally Europe speaking tour, Adam Machanic got us reservations at the two-Michelin-star Restaurant Frantzén, ranked #12 in The World’s 50 Best Restaurants for 2013. Wow. Amazing. Completed 2013.
• Hire our second employee at Brent Ozar Unlimited – Completed 2013 when we hired the hilarious Doug Lane. Our initial goals for the company were to grow by one employee per year for the first few years.
• (Redacted) – I set a 2013 revenue goal for Brent Ozar Unlimited this year, and we made it! I’m not sharing the goal publicly yet, but I’ll circle back in a couple/few years and blog about it like I wrote about the company’s first year. Completed 2013.
• Find ten shirts and five pairs of jeans that make me look good – I speak at a lot of conferences, and I’ve ended up with a closet full of polyester shirts and vendor t-shirts.  They don’t flatter anybody.

When I look back at this list, I’m really happy with how 2013 went. I’d been obsessing over one particular goal – weighing 190 pounds or less for 6 months straight – and I’d been kinda bummed that I hadn’t been able to achieve it. I’ve been hovering at 202-205 for the last few months, which is actually pretty good given that I’ve been traveling a lot. Now, having updated the Epic Life Quest page, I feel a lot better about myself because the rest of my life has been moving right along well. Since there’s just the one task left before leveling up, it really motivates me to head into a clothing store first thing next month.