Dutch Lock Down Day One Hundred Nineteen

[Why Did The Farmer Receive An Award?]

Because they were out standing in their field.

But first the news:

• 100 million trees to be planted in the Netherlands by 2030

I’m working with a Life Coach to be more proactive, rather than reactive, to my career. I love what I do, but until now, have been following the guidance of the department / company / project to form my path rather than taking a step back and considering my opinions / needs / desires.

While it’s worked out mostly fine – it’s time to take the wheel and not only drive, but consider where I’ve been and where I want to go.

Chart a course and follow it.

Mostly.

I realise that anything can happen along the way to shift, delay, or completely derail one’s goals but I haven’t actually done anything like this before.

Wait, that’s not true.

#dance

At some point early in my dance career I realised I would NOT be a ballerina (I started at age fourteen); I needed to get an undergraduate degree in dance to finish training if I wanted to be a professional dancer. I also mapped out my entire dance career, leaving the details to fate.

1. get a BFA in dance
2. dance professionally for ten years
3. get an MFA in dance
4. become a professor at a university

FYI – it all derailed in step three because of anger, but that’s a post for another day.

I started coding at some point along the way because 1. dance doesn’t pay enough and 2. I am a shit waitress / secretary / data entry / cashier / temp worker. And when I retired from dance, I was still enjoying the coding thing so I made it full time and the rest is history.

But I still only got a new job when an opportunity presented itself. I never went out and SEARCHED for the next thing like I did with Packet.

Before now, I *LET* my career evolve and happen TO me.

But now.

As I said, I hired a life coach (Hi, R!) and she’s brilliant – we’ve only actually met once officially, but we’ve already fleshed out the four projects I’m going to do.

1. The Farmer Project : I would like to be OUTSTANDING in my field. Someone you immediately think of when you need someone to give a keynote about open source or bare metal or cloud computing or developer relations or mental health. Or someone you absolutely swoon about when you find out they’re giving the keynote at a conference you’re attending. It’s not that I want to be famous as I want to inspire, encourage, and empower the next generation of non-binary and queer people to join, shape, and revolutionise the tech industry. To that end, there are three projects that support this main project.
2. Phenomenal Technical Aptitude : I want to be an expert in the open source, bare metal, cloud computing, and developer relations fields. And I want to build something AMAZING. You know how people love ROOK for storage cause it just works? Or Zuul for making massive code integration smooth as silk? Or Packet for giving you bare metal access within minutes? I want to help build something that people love because it makes things BETTER.
3. A HouseHold Name : While I would mostly like the work to speak for itself, I also need to be able to brag about myself. And that is SO NOT my forte. This involves a lot of social media and marketing and blog posts and collaboration and open source contributions and networking and development or improvement of supporting skills. And learning how to brag.
4. Wake Up Beauty, It’s Time To Beast : While I’m definitely an expert in coping with mental derailments, I’ve completely let my physical fitness fall to the wayside – especially since #COVID19. It’s time to FOCUS. To that end, I’m meeting with my personal trainer (Hi, I!) on Tuesday to go over goals / plans / measurements / perception vs reality / nutrition / exercise. She’s going to help me kick my ass and maintain my mental resilience. Cause the other projects won’t happen if I’m physically or mentally Not Here ™.

What are your thoughts, Warriors? Have you ever worked with a life coach before? What goals are you working on now? Any cautions you’d like to warn me about? Any praise you’d like to give? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!

As for me, I’m off to GET STARTED!