Retrospective is a word I discovered not too long ago, maybe 4 or 5 years ago.

ret·ro·spec·tive

looking back on or dealing with past events or situations.

I can’t recall exactly when it was the first time I heard it; maybe it was when I was reading about Psychology, I’m not sure. I know the closest similar word I knew at the time was review, such a different meaning.

Review. Retrospective.

Back in December 2014 I came to the realization that I was getting stagnated, I did not know that exactly back then, but I knew something was not right because it felt weird. Most of my personal open source projects were either in decay or totally dead and I wasn’t blogging about the new things I was learning at work. My focus was on something else and I can’t recall what exactly.

The sad part is that I wasn’t trying to become a better professional. It was like that personality I developed during my high school years, which really helped me to stand out in college and the one that eventually allowed me to land the job I always wanted … was gone. It was bizarre.

Was it comfort zone? Most likely.

I’m bringing this up because I want put in perspective what I was before the reboot happened and now, 3 years later.

Becoming better at something should always be your priority, but you don’t know if you are making progress if you don’t record it. This applies to anything you want to do whether is to lose weight, save some money or even improve that fancy piece of software you wrote.

You can’t improve what you can’t measure

I have made a significant progress since 2015. It has been 3 years already and it has been been amazing, personally and professionally I’ve learned a lot: from reading, from human interactions, from colleagues, from doing things I was used to doing (but I forgot how to do them). I think the best things I perfectioned were to become a better listener and to be a no person.

I had the opportunity of reading more than 80 books in 3 years. Not only I was able to catch up and learn about the most recent technologies and paradigms but also learn about Management, Leadership and Personal Growth. What is more important is that my original reading habit is back, that’s the takeaway of the last 3 years if you ask me.

In 2021 I want to reference this exact post and say I made significant improvements as well. I want to say I spoke at multiple conferences (like I used to), I want to say I maintain an open source project I enjoy maintaining and, why not, I want to say I wrote a book about something I’m expert at.

I know for sure I will have a long restrospective in 2021 and I will have a great time writing it.

Let’s do this 2018.

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