Timeline

My timeline

The purpose of this page is to give you a timeline of the sort of things I was thinking about year by year.

This can be useful if you are keen to read about specific topics, for example, I may have been going through a certain set of things in a certain year, and so would have written more on those topics at those times. For example, in the year that I became a manager, I was very preoccupied with thoughts on (a) how to secure a promotion and then (b) how to adjust to leadership.

Major events:

• Mid MBA – I started my MBA in March 2014, so by 2015, I have completed Stage 1, and am into Stage 2.
• Personal development – the personal development part of the MBA is beginning to grow on me, and I am becoming more self-aware.
• I start recording my thoughts as of January 1st, and ‘The Nous’ is born, although I haven’t thought of the name yet.
• I become a Manager half way through the year, taking over what was then a dysfunctional team.
• I am busy contending with becoming a Manager, turning round a team, finding my voice and my authority.
• My daughter is born.
• I resolve to try and get fit and lose some weight in January, and lose 12 kilos by April, which somehow mysteriously makes its way back on by the end of the year….

Major events:

• I am consolidating my journaling habits and working out how it works.
• I have dragged myself through Stage 2 of the MBA and am on with Stage 3 and the all-important dissertation.
• I am doing a lot of research, and learning a huge amount about relationship management, which becomes a key focus of mine from this point on.
• As of the end of 2015, I have taken over a wider team, and am now in a travelling role, meaning I travel every week for the next few years.
• I have 2 children now, and so am becoming interested in the extended aspects of parenthood and child learning.

Major events:

• I am finding my voice as a manager, and growing into the role.
• I have reshaped my team and invested a huge amount of time and effort in understanding all the elements of performance management, both good and bad.
• I am due to complete my MBA, but am so wrapped up in the dissertation that I extend the deadline to make sure I get the job done right.
• My son is 6 and moving to a new school, whilst we as parents are becoming increasingly concerned with choices like 7+ exams and the long-term effects that they might have on his future.
• In August, I hit my heaviest weight ever, as a result of too much travelling and a disgraceful diet, and resolve to do something about it, which means I lose some weight initially, but don’t quite crack it for a few years yet….
• I decide on the name ‘The Nous that Jack Built’, but it will take over a year to buy the domain name, and longer to build a website…

Major events:

• I complete my MBA early in the year, and ultimately graduate in September with a distinction.
• I am now an established Manager, and am writing regular pieces around performance management and learning, which I am publishing periodically on LinkedIn. 
• I spend some time in mental freefall, having completed the MBA and needing some time to decompress. 
• My son is 7 and my daughter 3, and I am increasingly fascinated by the role we play as parents in educating and bringing up a child, and the comparisons between parenthood and management.
• I have upgraded my exercise routine from simply running during work trips to regular workouts in the gym, and feel the fitness benefit, even if not always the weight benefit!
• Late in the year, I buy the domain names for my website, having settled on the name, but it will take me almost 2 years to do anything about actually building it!

Major events:

• Having got over the completion of the MBA, I am looking for new challenges, and turn my mind more seriously to writing.
• I am finding my voice as a writer, and receiving feedback from friends that I write well, which means I am growing in confidence, and beginning to believe in myself. 
• I am still publishing regularly, if not often, and hearing some feedback from colleagues that they enjoy reading my pieces, which spurs me on.
• I have written the majority of a book on finding a healthy way of life, centred around weight loss inspired by a personal development, self-coaching approach. 
• I write my first novel, ‘Girls is best’, and circulate it to a number of friends to read. I am stunned by how few people do – there is a lesson there.
• In November, I start a coaching qualification back at Henley, to become a professionally-certified Coach. This changes how I look at many things, particularly around learning and development, both of the self and others.
• At work, I am now a well-established leader, and feel that it is time to take on a new challenge, which results in my taking on leading a full sales team.

Major events:

• I am starting to become irritated by my own lack of ability to get things done – I have an iPad full of half-written stories. I begin to focus on becoming a completer-finisher.
• As part of the coaching process, in a practice session as Coachee, I promise to myself that I will build my website, and I finally pull the trigger on buying hosting, and start building.
• Continuing on from last year, I am interested in looking at new roles and actively start the process of finding my next gig, whilst developing myself as a sales leader.
• I (finally) build and launch 2 websites, one for the mind (you’re reading it!) and one for the body (23 Kilos Down), and start promoting these to the world.
• I start writing a new book, Lose no happy day, inspired by the death of my Grandmother just before the lockdown begins.
• COVID and lockdown happen to us all, and life is somehow never quite the same again.
• Lockdown is good for my weight though… I lose more than 10 kilos and hit my lowest weight since 2015!

Major life events:

• Become King?
• Publish my 1st book?
• Who knows?!