2022 Report
I really love writing these annual reports about my life. They help me reflect, build a better estimation of what I can accomplish during the span of a year, and be a record of time and progress, helping me feel grateful for the opportunities and the effort I put in daily. Let’s go by some categories I consider pillars of a good life.
Health
On April 2021, I started my dieting journey from 150 kg / 330 lbs and made good progress hitting 112 kg / 246 lbs end of 2021. End of 2022, I’m now 88 kg / 194 lbs with a loss of 24 kg / 53 lbs. You might notice the final spike in the annual chart below; that’s me getting Influenza A the last week of the year and putting 5Kgs of water weight. I could have hit 83Kgs 😁, next year it is. My goal is still to get down to 80 kg / 176 lbs and float between 80-85 kg. I’m happy with my progress and wonder where I will land at the end of 2023.
From a dieting perspective, I did stick to my “one big meal a day” intermitting fasting plan. I will keep doing it as long as it works, and I’m happy with it. I’m planning no changes on that front.
In terms of health, a significant milestone was me finishing my first marathon and a second one. According to my Strava stats, I did some sports activity 257 days out of 365 in 2022. That resulted in 3063kms of running!
Running itself ended up being a strategic habit that I used to stack various other routines on top. Healthy eating is definitely one, and another is listening to podcasts and audiobooks. To reinforce my commitment to running and build a more substantial knowledge base to build my running workouts, I have recently obtained a Power Running Coach certification from Stryd. Expect some future blog posts about power-based running ;)
Business
Last year was when I joined Microsoft as the Azure Application Development Sales Lead for the Middle East and Africa. I have enjoyed the role, learned a ton about sales management, and made terrific friends. Just a couple of months in, I got a pretty nice award for driving change in the organization. It’s nice to be recognized for one’s efforts and impact in such a short time. In the middle of 2022, I have given the opportunity to switch gears a little and put more emphasis on the technical side, the dark side 😁 I’m currently holding the Azure Application Innovation Technical Lead for the Middle East and Africa role. I’m helping our customers to get the most out of Azure and empowering our internal Cloud Solution Architecture team to do the same.
Giving Back
In 2022, I delivered 17 community sessions as a volunteer speaker. Contributing back to technology and software communities is one way to give back. Another habit I got back this year was the Movember month. As part of their fundraising, I have committed and run 300 km in November. Moreover, I have joined the NYRR Team for Kids to raise funds and hopefully run the New York Marathon in 2023. Feel free to contribute by visiting here.
Growth
Growth comes from various angles. I focus on pushing myself out of my comfort zone to ensure I get into a growth mindset organically. However, it helps to put some structural education as well. The first win for 2022 comes from finishing my Master’s in Organizational Leadership. I have enjoyed every minute of the program and learned so much going through tons of research papers. It was fun and definitely changed my perspective on how to run an organization. The topic of leadership was always of high interest to me. Leadership plays a crucial role in personal and business settings driving the desired outcomes and focusing on people. Therefore I decided to continue my studies in Leadership with a Ph.D. As you can imagine, it will take a couple of years to finish a Ph.D. It will be an exciting challenge and fun diving further into the Leadership literature.
Future Look
One long year is sometimes too long to lock in commitments. I prefer to set up guiding principles and make progress on all the pillars listed above.
In terms of health, I have a couple of marathons planned. It would be great to lose a little more weight, but I will take it as a win if I stay in stasis. Running the marathons that I have planned has a fair amount of luck needed as well. Sometimes an accidental injury or sickness can derail everything. If I can run at least one more marathon, that’s a win! My goal is to run all and increase my speed as well.
On the business side, I just want to perfect my game and improve the transfer of the know-how I gathered during my startup years with a scalable distribution model landing an increased impact. Unfortunately, it would be challenging and, at times, impossible to share all the details related to this pillar as there is a lot related to internal business matters at Microsoft.
On the giving back front, my primary focus will be the NYRR Team for Kids. I’m sure I will keep contributing to the communities as a speaker at various events as well.
It looks like it has been a decent year with some good progress on various fronts. I’m looking forward to see what has 2023 in store.
Here is my traditional new year’s gift for you 😊. A wallpaper I shot at home 😉
I wish you all a happy 2023! See you soon!