New Year, New Goals (2025 Edition)

I love goals, I love the “whooshing” sound they make as they pass me by.

So last year I made a bunch of goals – you can read about them here – and I’m happy to say there has been a dismal failure. The year of 2024, as mentioned on my Dwi’n Rhys roundup, was a bit of a “good smack in the mouth”, as my plans changed post about February, meaning my time was largely booked up on other projects. So of the 6 tasks I had, I achieved a grand total of 1 of them. Let’s look at these.

Get Back into Public Speaking – Failure I didn’t achieve this, with no even remote chance to do it. Although events are beginning to start up again, being so busy meant I didn’t have time to even think about a talk. There was only one event I even remotely thought about applying for, and to be honest as soon as I decided to go to the Cricket World Cup instead, I gave up on this.

Get at least 2 months income of £30 or more not from revenue streams that exist for me (Adsense, Twitch, Plugin Sales or Web Development Work) – Failure (albeit working towards this) I do now have a couple more revenue streams, but they aren’t £30 a month yet. Nevertheless it is a failure, alas.

Look at the Winwar Media Site with Pride – Failure It is still a mess. Hopefully will get this done this year.

Reconnect with the WordPress folk I enjoy spending time with Success! 🎉 We did it! Thanks to WP Leeds returning and (more importantly) MWUG returning – with me as a Co-organiser, I saw a lot more of the WordPress community in 2024, and probably more than every other year. Come to the next one!

Take a catch at cricket – Failure (but succeeded elsewhere) my season was odd with cricket. With health issues and my role in the team changing, I didn’t really feel like I contributed much. Alas, my best chance to take a catch in cricket (a position at slip) I dropped and I never really got an opportunity post that. Nevertheless, I did manage to debut for the first team, which was a nice feeling.

Score 23 in a game of cricket – Failure yeah I had a bad season through a lack of confidence and some health issues. We go again.

So of the 6 goals I had, I had success in one of them! Oh well. It wasn’t that 2024 wasn’t bad, it was good! Just ended up doing something totally different.

What of 2025? Well, here are my goals for this year.

Professional Goals

I’m going to keep this short, as I don’t know how many times I can rewrite it, but get back into public speaking and finally rebuild Winwar Media to my liking are my goals for 2025.

I know I say this every year, but this year there’s a chance to do more public speaking (from February) and a bit of time towards the middle of the year, I should be able to build a new version. So those two are still on my list. I’ll add one more to the list.

Sing about my Work More

So you may be able to read between the lines and gather that – as things stand – work may be a bit quieter this year (change that!), one thing that kind of held me back was that I didn’t sing about my work much.

I’ve thought about this and I want to add a “Case Studies” section on Dwi’n Rhys, as a lot of my work when starting out was White Labelled and NDA’d so I didn’t have the need to talk about it. Now? People come direct, and a couple of case studies would be great on my professional sites. Not least because it’ll mean I don’t have to rewrite it whenever somebody asks to see my portfolio! So whilst I don’t thik I’ll get a lot of work from it, there’s every chance it’ll save me time.

Personal Goals

First a scary goal, but my 34 and a half minute 5k was done towards the end of the year, and my new goal is to run a sub 30 minute 5k. I haven’t got anywhere near my 34:30 in my 5ks since then, but once the weather gets a bit better I’m going to set up Runna to work towards this goal.

Secondly, I’d like to continue my weight loss goal. I’ve got a goal here so don’t want to make it public but nevertheless I wanted to include it, so I’ll let you know when I hit it!

Finally, I’d like to attend a Game Dev meetup. I’m getting more and more into game development, so I’m keen to in 2025 attend one, just to meet a few people and get a few ideas and inspiration for my games.

And Now Something New…

Somebody I’ve followed for years – Jess Rose – posted something wonderful on Bluesky that I’m going to do going forward.

A beautiful soul on Twitter gave me an idea that improved my life: replace new years resolutions with a bingo card of goals you want to try and do over the yearIt's great for goal setting, motivation, it lets you see your progress throughout the year and I give myself a little treat w each bingo🎁

Jess Rose (@jesslynnrose.bsky.social) 2024-12-30T13:38:41.770Z

I included 3 more goals – achieve 3 from my “50 before I’m 50” list – to generate a 9 by 9 card.

Like Jess, I’m also setting myself up with treats as and when I achieve these goals – 3 for when I complete 1 line, 3 bigger ones when I achieve a cross, and 2 mahoosive if I achieve 2 lines and a diagonal. Should I complete the grid I’ll treat myself to a Playstation 5. I’ve generated a bingo card using this Bingo Card Generator, clicked on the link to generate a random bingo card, and included it below.

There are a couple of tough corners, but I think it’s manageable. I think it could be fun to find out! So those are my goals for 2025, let’s see how many I achieve.

I can’t do much worse than 2024.

The Video Games I Fell in Love With in 2024

2024 in video games was…interesting. it felt like it was beginning to be a downturn. The AAA games are just not there and don’t interest me, and I feel like folks are waiting for Grand Theft Auto 6 and the Nintendo Switch 2, so much so this year hasn’t been quite as big as previous years.

With that said, there have been a lot of good games taking advantage of the gap that AAA developers have left. I’ve played a lot of games this year, I’ve also made a couple too. The majority of the games I’ve enjoyed this year have been smaller teams and indie games. I haven’t yet upgraded from the last generation of consoles, as outside of the Switch I haven’t played many modern games.

Here are my favourites for 2024 and these games are well worth your time. Same rules for last year: it must have been released in 2024.

Games I Enjoyed Playing in 2024

As always, this post highlights the games released in 2024. However there are a bunch more games that I first seriously played in 2024 Here are games from previous years I played this year.

  • Pac Man: Championship Edition (NES) is a fun little demake of the Championship Edition version of the classic pill munching game. A high score attack where you have to compete for 5 minutes to get the highest score you can. A great demake with a thumping 8 bit soundtrack and tense gameplay with slightly less assault of the senses than the arcade game, this is great fun.
  • I wish I enjoyed Castlevania: Symphony of the Night* (PSX) more. Oddly, despite the “Metroid” part of “Metroidvania” being one of my favourite games of all time, the “Vania” part I never explored and – I just struggled towards the end. I didn’t hate it, but I missed half the game because the amount of work to get it done was too long. If I played it a few years after Super Metroid it probably would have been one of my favourite games ever, but I just couldn’t get on board with it.
  • Spoiler alert, I have two games of the year this year. This is one of them. Lucy Dreaming (PC) – is a wonderful game. A point and click adventure where you have to find the cause of Lucy’s nightmares, this is a wonderfully British game with lovely nods to a lot of classic games, 80’s culture and Northern Britain. There is quite possibly the best subtle joke I’ve ever done experienced in a video game. I’ve contributed to the Kickstarter for the next game: Heir of the Dog. I played the demo at Play Expo and it’s more of the same. I cannot wait.
  • I finally got to play Street Fighter 6 (PC) and I did enjoy it. Sadly my PC was slightly too weak to handle the game, so it ran pretty slow. Nevertheless I enjoyed what I played of it. When I finally get a PlayStation 5 I’m going to play this game more.
  • Another classic game that I finally managed to play and complete was the excellent Final Fantasy 6 (SNES*). Whilst 7 is one of my favourite games ever I never played the prequel. Wonder no more as I dedicated some time in the summer to play it. This was excellent. A wonderful story that had me crying at the end, this is well worth playing. You can see that the kinks in the game were ironed out in 7.
  • This was a joy. Aquaventure (Atari 2600) was a fun little game that wasn’t released in the lifetime of the Atari 2600, but it has since been found and put out into the wild. And it’s excellent. A game where you have to dive down and collect things from the seabed, this has great progression, a fun gameplay loop and pushes the limit of the 2600. Seriously, considering their issues in the early 1980s, the Atari of today knows their role and is an excellent publisher.
  • Although it contains a bunch of tropes I don’t like with 2D Zelda games, Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (Game Boy Colour), was a good fun little game that I enjoyed playing through and completing. I think I prefer it to Link’s Awakening.
  • A Highland Song (PC) was an interesting story driven game, that kind of didn’t make much sense. Nevertheless it was a fun little game with a few teething problems that ticks along nicely with a great soundtrack and a beautiful look. Once you get the gameplay loop though it’s well worth checking out. You may have to complete this twice.
  • UFO – Swamp Odyssey (Pico-8) was a fun discovery! A fun micro Metroidvania that you can complete in an hour. Would highly recommend you play this game as it won’t take long. Far more atmospheric than it has any right to be.
  • Outer Wilds (Xbox) is the final game I played in 2024 and, it’s okay? I went from enjoying the gameplay loop to getting to the point where I resented it. It remains uncompleted. Will get around to finishing it soon.

Honorable Mentions

There are games that every year just miss out that I play. Here are some games that I enjoyed and played but aren’t in the top 3.

Probably the first game I completed in 2024 Mario vs Donkey Kong (Nintendo Switch*) was a remake of a sequel of a game I really enjoyed: Donkey Kong 94 for the Game Boy. This was more of the same, puzzles in a Donkey Kong style. It does have some extra levels where you have to rescue toys in a “a bit like Lemmings but not” gameplay loop. Fun enough. Pick it up for cheap if you can.

Nintendo World Championship: NES Edition (Nintendo Switch*) again another little game from Nintendo that feels like the Switch is at the end of the console’s life, Nintendo World Championship: NES Edition is a collection of mini games from the classic Nintendo games from the 80s. Fun short speedruns that can see you getting the sword in Zelda, through to completing the entire of Super Mario Bros. Appeals to crusty old fuddy duddies that watch speedruns on YouTube (AGDQ is in a few weeks!). Some baffling games missing though from this collection though: where is Punch-Out!?!

A surprising release was that Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection (Nintendo Switch*) came out. Some excellent fighting games from the mid 90’s to the early 00’s featuring characters from Marvel and Capcom franchises, it ended up in licensing hell with Marvel losing the X-Men. A series that formed the majority of the character roster. This meant weaker or less well known characters got featured, which affected the quality of the games. This is the classic games in one collection, and with rollback netcode, it became rather fun to play online for a bit. Furthermore, the etiquette surrounding online play was there. Not original, but a great way to own some fantastic games, as the original games cost a fortune now.

Finally, my most anticipated game of the year comes here. Thank Goodness You’re Here! (PC) was a fun romp through a Yorkshire town, and it is well worth playing as it has a Python-esque northern humour. Sadly, I played Lucy Dreaming before, whose humour landed more with me, and was a better game. This doesn’t really have much of a challenge, being a slightly more complex walking simulator. But it’s fun enough.

3. Animal Well (PC)

A dark and brooding Metroidvania. Animal Well is my third favourite game of the year. You play a character who has to get eventually home. How you do it is not immediately clear. Short-ish, but incredibly deep, this game is wonderful innovative, as in effect there are multiple levels of depths and you could end up missing loads. Playing it multiple times (and in one case with multiple players) could reveal so much. You get out as much as you put into it, but an average playthrough reveals a beautiful puzzle game. You won’t complete it 100% mind until haseverythinginanimalwellbeenfoundyet.com turns to “yes”, so not one for completionists.

Animel Well is available on Playstation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch and PC.

2. UFO 50 (PC)

Another wonderfully deep game (or games), UFO 50 was a late surge into my game of the year, and would be the one game I’d ask you to pick up to fill in the Crimbo Limbo, as it could be a great local multiplayer game with family. It takes the love and duty of care that “Atari 50 Anniversary” did a few years back and say “what if we did similar, but the company didn’t exist?”. Fifty games crafted with love by indie developers, UFO 50 has some of the most innovative games I’ve played in years. From “What if somebody crossed Bubble Bobble with football” Kick Club, to Mortal: an innovative platform puzzler game, some of these games alone could be game of the year. It’s part of a collection though, and whilst not all games land (just like Atari 50 Anniversary), UFO 50 will keep you busy for a very, very long time.

UFO 50 is only available on PC.

1. Balatro (Nintendo Switch)

Come March, there wasn’t a Game of the Year.

Balatro is a Rougelike deckbuilder that takes the hands of poker and throws them on their heads. Building a deck with jokers, tarot cards & planet cards, the goal is to beat 8 rounds of blinds. You do this by using your deck and building it to your advantage: soon you will be having two pairs scoring more than royal flushes, you need to use the jokers to your advantage to maximize the value of every hand. Over time, you’ll learn by sight on what each card does, but there’s a handy explainer and tutorial.

A super simple gameplay loop with the actual games taking about 20 minutes, it’s incredibly in depth: I’ve not unlocked everything yet and nowhere near. No other game has had me addicted for a while, and everybody I know is addicted. With a video poker machine graphics and a lounge style music, Balatro is a genuinely original game and has deserved all the plaudits it’s received. Well worth checking out.

Balatro is available for Playstation, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, PC, Apple Arcade, Android and iOS

What was your game of the year? Leave some games you enjoyed in the comments!

Previous Years: 20162017201820192022, 2023

New Year, New Goals (2024 Edition)

As I started this blog post, I’m reminded of a Tweet I saw from Remkus from early November.

You see, I remember my list from last year (notice the “goal”? Same as last years goal) and thought “Oh my god, I’ve failed at this, spectacularly”. Upon reflection I…haven’t? There has been a lot of success this year. Albeit not quite in the ways I expected. Nevertheless, I’ve set out to achieve most of the goals.

So I’m beginning this year by looking at these goals and how I did.

  • Improving my Personal Branding – Success (Kinda). I spent the early part of last year rebuilding Dwi’n Rhys, posting more on Instagram and I’m happy with how things are looking now. Sadly I didn’t manage to fix WP Email Capture or Winwar Media. At the time of writing, the latter I’m aiming to do this in the Crimbo Limbo. At the time of writing this sentence I didn’t, instead dedicating myself to a game of Civilization 6.
  • Side Projects to Cover the Mortgage – Dismal Failure. Sadly two ideas I wanted to push out are ideas and didn’t really succeed beyond a bit of traffic: Buy a Fucking Aircon & Dad Joke Ipsum are out there, but to be honest the first one I’m probably going to let lapse. Dad Joke Ipsum is still getting a bit of traffic and probably just need to cover it in Adsense. I have another side project I’ve launched and it’s doing okay. Will be sharing bits about that when I can.
  • Work LessSuccess 🎉. Yep! Largely managed to book most of my Friday afternoons off. Only two projects from clients ate into that time, but they were fairly big projects that I wanted to get finished. One such ate the time in December, and one in May. But overall that’s 2 months in 12, so better than my 75% goal. I did occasionally do quick bits and pieces – so I wasn’t completely absent, but this was achieved!
  • Appear on a Podcast – Success 🎉. I did appear on “…and we have an office dog” podcast. You can listen to it here.
  • Score more than 23 in a match in cricket – Failure – I did well, but I was 10 short, scoring 13 in a match.
  • Play more than 8 matches in cricket – Success 🎉 – I played 9 games in the Thursday league, and 6 matches in the Saturday league. 15 games overall (and that’s not including a couple of friendlies I played).

So overall, a 66% success rate for my goals. Not too shabby!

I got thinking of this year’s goals, and what I want to achieve in 2024. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind start to 2024 already (which is exciting/terrifying). So with that headspace in mind, here’s my goals for 2024.

Professional Goals

A photo of me from WordCamp Glasgow 2020 – my last talk I did. I also need more photos of me doing public speaking as a lot of t-shirts worn at events like this would not fly now. 😬

Get back into public speaking

Now that the majority of the pandemic is behind us (COVID is still a thing folks, please look after yourself), and events are beginning to happen again. So I’d like to get speaking. The WordPress Talks page on my freelance site will be 4 years without any new content. Now that WordPress events are opening up again, hopefully there will be an opportunity for me to speak.

There is the big goal – WordCamp Europe 2024 – but I must admit looking at the dates and my life, there’s a chance I won’t be able to attend 😢. So need to keep my options open. Hopefully will get the opportunity to get up on stage again.

I realise I use the word “hope” a fair bit. But the goal is to do one public speaking event.

Diversify my income away from web development a bit

Similarly to last year’s goal where I pay off the mortgage with side projects – 2023 was a bit of a downturn for my WordPress business, in that there wasn’t quite the level of work as previous years. I was fine, more than fine, but it wasn’t quite as strong as I would have liked.

So this got me thinking – I’ve got a couple of side projects that have a decent level of traffic (think 1k a month) and often the only things on this sites is Adsense. Which is brining in a solid if unspectacular amount. It covers the costs of being there, but could be better.

I had a lot of free time when the world was going to pot during the pandemic, and I made a lot of ideas come into fruition.

My goal is to get at least 2 months income of £30 or more not from revenue streams that exist for me (Adsense, Twitch, Plugin Sales or Web Development Work).

Rebrand Winwar Media

Winwar Media’s website is looking tired man. The site has lacked content for ages and I want to use it as a place where I can sing about some of the side projects I do. It’s the name of my company but it’s very much unloved for a long time, which – similarly to the above – gets a lot of traffic so I want to be able to direct people to the right place through it, be it my freelance stuff, my plugins, or just a few side project sites I release.

I have ideas on what I want to do, and it’s a line on my Side Project Spreadsheet Trello Board (yes, make that language make sense), but I want to be able to look on the new site with pride.

Personal Goals

As well as the professional goals, I’ve some personal goals I’d like to achieve in 2024.

WordCamp Europe 2023 lanyard, because I wasn’t in many photos from the event. But it was ace. And I was there!

Reconnect with the WordPress folk I enjoy spending time with. I’ve two events – PicnicPress and WordCamp Europe 2023, that were very dear to me as I met some people I’ve not seen for a very long time: the WordPress community. The hope is that there’s more events where I can run into them again. Granted the former I put on so hopefully put on more events next year (time willing).

Take a catch at cricket and continue my batting improvements (score 23 in a game) – my last two goals in cricket are to continue improving in the field and batting. I’d like to take a catch at some point (weirdly, nothing seems to come in my direction so I think I had two half chances last year) – but definitely get better at batting and cement my place in Earlestown’s teams.

Like last year, I’ve not got as many personal goals as professional ones, and even those feel a bit weaker and not as big as last year. What do you think? I feel they are achievable though.

Thirty-Nine

Today I turn thirty-nine.

Let me share a little secret with you. I don’t actually write these on the day of my birthday. So allow me to indulge you in a paragraph or two that I wrote a few months back. Promise it won’t become a thing. Trust me, it will hopefully make sense. Or it will be a rambling mess. One or the two.

You will see me

I begin this blog post in a delicate state, a month and 4 days before I turn 39, thinking about this year. We’re a long way through but feel like I want to focus on a few things that I don’t think will change between then and now. I may feel better but I end my 39th trip around the sun – quite unexpectedly – single. Like anybody in not the perfect headspace and delicate because of it, I’m listening to dan le sac vs Scroobius Pip’s “You Will See Me”, probably the greatest breakup song ever. Yep. Nurse. It’s happened again.

Seeing double

I write this paragraph a few weeks later, in a bit more of a reflective and – dare I say – sober mood. Reflecting on my 39th year about the sun. I’m sat in Brussels – I’ve a beer in my hand (okay, maybe not totally sober) – I’m having a wonderful time – and I’m reflecting with a bit on the past year.

I struggled with the beer. Maybe the hangover or maybe the fact it was more hoppy than Bugs Bunny on a pogo stick

Basically the next bunch of paragraphs is my thoughts on the past year, and reflective of the above.

Why have I told you this? Everything you will read below is written on these two days. Some of it was written on 31st January 2023, some written on Februay 16th 2023. Two days in my life that show me at my best and worst headspaces, in the hope that it meets somewhere in the middle. In a coherent moment.

Seeing in the past year

So yes, onto the year. It began with a holiday in Amsterdam as I managed to get abroad for the first time since COVID. I became very familiar with the Dutch capital (no sniggering) as I went to my first streaming conference in TwitchCon in 2022. Alas, that was my only conference as I didn’t make it to my usual jaunt in Brighton SEO because of train strikes. Boo the Tories!

So focussing on my love of travel, I made it to the Netherlands, Germany, Poland and Belgium this year. It was very much a case of rekindling friendships with family and friends that live outside the UK this year, as I really enjoyed my summer vacation (on legit the hottest time of the year – seriously folks buy a fucking aircon) drinking beer, eating wonderful food (especially in Krakow at a family barbecue) and just spending time with friends and loved ones. It is time I valued immensely.

I got told to take the hat off.

I’ve also had two of my dreams thrusted upon me – Wales in a bloody World Cup and a WWE Pay Per View taking place in the UK. In Cardiff, no less! Like a dog who catches a car or a Brexit voter when they get Brexit, both I felt I didn’t how to process it and weren’t sure what to do when I finally got my dreams. In the case of the World Cup there were other issues which I shared here. That and the fact that the golden generation seemed to come to the end meant I don’t look back quite as fondly at the first World Cup I had a vested interest in as I would have liked. Thankfully, the other (WWE’s Clash at the Castle) I have revisited. Despite the fact I was absolutely twatted for most of it, it was as good as I remember. Fuck me that Sheamus vs Gunter match was special, and the Bloodline story arc that has still to conclude 6 months later? Magnifique. Utter chef’s kiss.

Having a car has also meant I’ve gotten out to random day trips, and given me the ability to travel to things a bit. I drove to Play Expo Blackpool, Arcade Club for this year’s Retro Asylum meetup, and North West Computer Museum (amongst others). You can see a theme there. I’ve driven back to watch my beloved Colwyn Bay FC a few times (and the parents, I guess). I’m still not the most confident (I’ve a drive to bloody Cornwall this year, which has me with trepidation), but I’m getting better.

Work wise things have been going well. Most of 2022 I was largely rammed with a few big projects, with the bread-and-butter of a few maintenance clients keeping the till ticking over. I do look at 2023 with a bit of a trepidation at the downturn, particularly in the tech sector, but I’m not hitting the panic button just yet. I sit here and whilst 2022/23 doesn’t match 2021/22 right now, it does match 2020/21 in terms of profit. Which pleases me.

Twitch streams have been on and off thanks to both busy-ness and other reasons surrounding my mental health. However, I actually met some of my viewers this year. That was fun. I’ve stopped the gameshows for a bit when I had a rough patch mentally in August (more on that later). I’ve threatened to bring them back but not done so yet. Been playing with a few more affiliate sites, in the Drive in Cinemas model and also released my first new WordPress plugin in donkeys years – Preload LCP Image.

Seeing the ball

But the highlight of 2022 for me was solving an age old question I’ve written many a year. Let me share a paragraph from last year’s entry…

….I’m also trying to think of things to do to improve or pick up a new hobby. I keep threatening to myself to try golf as there’s a driving range a short drive away from me, so I can see myself picking up a clubs. However I think I (also?) need a hobby to meet people. One of the highlights of aforementioned dating was actually spending time with somebody doing things (mind out of the gutter folks), and I feel I need to spend time with more people to form more relationships, as I fear I am becoming a bit of a hermit – but then again: how the hell does a mid 30’s freelancer make friends during the latter stages of a pandemic? On the plus side last year saw me drink less and eat a lot better, so I’m happy with that.

Me, last year

The next day, my good friend Shane messaged me asking if I’d want to pick up a cricket bat because Earlestown Cricket Club were starting a second team and he was wanting me to be involved.

Spolier alert – I did, and I enjoyed it.

I will freely admit I’m not great or even remotely good at cricket (though I got the compliment “you’re not the worst player I’ve ever seen…”), but being involved has given me something to do on Saturdays rather than just mope about the house. Even if I’m not picked, just being able to go somewhere on a Saturday (or a Thursday, or a Tuesday) and see friendly faces and have a natter has been an excellent tonic and helped me settle into a new town that – before 2020 – was “that weird stop before Newton-le-Willows that I always forget about if I’m getting the train home”.

But then, something kinda happened. A few people noticed that I wasn’t getting out of breath fielding. I still couldn’t hit a barn door with a banjo, but I was able to do a bit better. I write this two nets sessions into the new season and I feel my batting is getting better. My bowling too – whilst not great – I’m confident to get it into the nets most of the time now. I can even roughly tell you where Deep Extra Cover stands.

If you had said that this time last year, I’d have not believed you. I have been consuming cricket content like it is going out of fashion. European Cricket Network? Sign me up. Women’s Commonwealth T20, being guided through it by the excellent if wonderfully shambolic No Balls Podcast? Yes please. A test match? Fuck yes. Give me all of it. Though maybe not if the Test Match is on TalkSPORT. Jesus Christ lads up your game, it’s painful to listen to.

Seeing better in myself

And I think that’s what I’ve been focusing on this message, and more on 2023. Feeling better. Getting better. I had a few knocks during my 38th trip around the sun. Home ownership is not as perfect as I would like as even now it feels more like a house I live in, rather than my home. The afformentioned relationships took their toll on me and also having COVID meant there were times I was extremely low.

I started therapy this year. I started in September after a rough August. It started as a way to get over a few things that had made me utterly miserable. However it’s since evolved into something that helped me cope with the last breakup I mentioned at the top of the post. Identifying what my trigger points are (I’m a social person), what makes me sad (loneliness), and how to avoid it (getting better at being alone). I’ve been learning to make peace with myself to enjoy my own company and not rely on others for happiness. Part of me really likes the quick witted, confident and quite frankly hilarious Rhys that comes out whenever I’m truly happy and at peace at the world. More of him please in 2023.

So that’s my focus for 39. Invest in myself. Be it within therapy or elsewhere. Find my happiness. It’s something I’ve touched on in my New Year Goals for 2023 to improve personal branding. If I can make the similar progress within work and other aspects of my personal life, then you will see me, and that me is at his absolute best.

The moment you’ve been waiting for!

As you all love it so much. Here’s my updated comparison with you know who.

Rhys (With a Spoon)
Rhys (With a Spoon)

Reese Witherspoon
AgeNearly 39 (Up 1)Nearly 47 (Up 1)
Oscars
(Nominated)
0 – No Change
(0 – No Change)
2 – No Change
Books Written1 (No Change)1 (No Change)
Marriages0 (No Change)2 (No Change)
Children0 (No Change)3 (No Change)
WordPress Plugins Written &
On the WordPress Repository
11 (Up 1)0

See y’all next year!

Previous Versions: 303435, 36, 37, 38

New Year, New Goals (2023 Edition)

On why you’ll see more/less of me this year

I’m not one for goal setting, in all honestly. I struggle with maintaining the effort over the course of the year to keep myself on track and often the beauty of being a freelance is to switch focuses incredibly quickly if opportunities arise.

Nevertheless, with everything going on I feel like this year with a recession on the horizon could be one of the tougher years for me, with less money for investment into their sites.

I also feel personally if I could make this year work, then this year could be the year. I’ve said since the business turned 4 years old in August this year I’m beginning to look further than web sites for clients and looking to share my over 15 years of commercial web development. I’ve begun looking at what’s next.

I struggle personally to look at the big picture, opportunities that exist outside of my main focus. So I’ve made a few goals that I’d like to achieve in the next year. Some of those personal, some of those professional. Here are where my focuses are 2023.

Professional Goals

Improving my Personal Branding

My personal branding is a mess. Everything is not the same. In the classic case of the busiest shoemakers have the worst shoes, if you looked at my sites that I use to advertise my wares then you’d think I’m terrible.

I have this blog which is everything, Dwi’n Rhys which is my WordPress freelance site, Winwar Media which is the name of the company, and half a dozen other sites. And don’t get me started on my bloody Twitch Channel branding. Twitch handle one name, Twitter another. It’s all a bit of a mess.

I’m not sure exactly how to bring it all together, but I will aim to. Also the sites need redoing. They’re old. So that’s an idea.

I guess my goal for 2023 is to be in a better position personal branding wise than I am now. At the very least get at least one of my sites that use jQuery Migrate (Winwar Media & WP Email Capture) bloody off of it.

Side Projects to Cover the Mortgage

I’ve a bunch of side projects that have been coming out the wazoo. Domains bought, affiliate links not transferred, Twitter accounts began with gusto but died quickly.

I’d like to pick them up and make them bigger. A few people I know have been rather successful with them, and I’d like to improve them.

Side projects are hard. Like, really hard, and do require focus. Sure you can do 5-9pm but there is life as well and I went freelance to eventually craft out working for myself and give myself more time, but ideally – especially with the way the world is going in 2023 I’d like to grow them.

The goal for my side projects is for it to pay for my mortgage by the end of the year. Christ that is such a lofty goal, but we’ll see how we get on.

Which is related to the following…

Work Less

In Blackpool, on September 30th, I had a realisation.

I was just about to close my laptop from a week in work. I’d made the trip up to the seaside resort from one of my favourite weekends of the year – Play Expo in Blackpool. My calendar was opened, and I noticed something.

I had not done as much as I intended.

Sure, I’ve been busy, incredibly busy, but I had manage to cope. Clients were happy, I was happy, and things were getting done. But, inadvertently, I had only worked four days every week for a month.

It wasn’t planned, of course, but every Friday I was busy. I was either in Cardiff for Clash at the Castle, or London for OMG Center’s launch, or at Play Expo in Blackpool. I was busy doing things, enjoying things, or pushing my business forward.

COVID had been an interesting time, in that I had to hunker down a bit and not do much.

So this got me thinking – how can I do it more?

I’d looked on with a bit of admiration with what my good friend Shane has managed to carve out since going freelance in terms of his work schedule. He had one tip – book your time out for other things.

So, for the foreseeable future in 2023, I’m dropping to 4 and a half days per week.

Friday afternoon, which traditionally isn’t the most productive time anyway, I’m dedicating to side projects, hustles, improving things, or just knocking off early and going for a walk.

My goal is to hopefully have had Friday afternoon largely free for 80% of the year.

Personal Goals

These are more “nice to have” goals within my personal life.

The first is an art form I really enjoy – podcasting. I’d really like to appear on a podcast at some point. Because as a straight white man it’s pretty much the goal isn’t it? Not sure where, not sure how, but I’d really like it as a medium I think it’s great.

The second is a sport that I fell in love with in 2022 – cricket. Last March soon after my birthday I joined my local cricket club (remember last year where I said I needed a hobby? Well I found one). Playing wise I feel I’m better at batting than at bowling, but even then I’m not 100% confident. Last season I played 8 games with a high score of 10. In 2023 I’d like to score 23 in a match (the only mate I knew before playing cricket who played cricket’s high score was 22, so I’d like to beat that), and play more than 8 games in the season.

Finally, I feel like I need another personal goal, but I’m struggling. I am proud of the personal growth I made in 2022, so I’m throwing it open to you 🙂. What should I improve in 2023?