So, already time to check in on my 2014 goals…

Certification
Status: No exams taken but I am planning on taking one next week.

Projects
Status: So far, so good here. Still no way to measure this though.

Healthcare SQL VC:
Status: First meeting isn’t until April. Plenty of work to do and I really thought we’d be further along.

SQL Events/Training:
Status: No problems here.

Learn something new:
Status: I’ve spent most of my time with R but will move on to something else soon.

Blog:
Status: So-so here – 5 posts total. No technical posts so far.

Technical Books:
Status: On track, I’m on my second one now.

Review Yearly Goals:
Status: This post qualifies, right?

In the words of Gus Fring “Well? Get back to work!”

Time to look back on 2013 and ahead to 2014 before its 2015…

2013

Overall: 2013 was my second full year as a consultant. I am enjoying my decision even more than I expected. Like most years, I didn’t get everything accomplished that I wanted to in 2013.
Result: B

Certification
Finally got the 2008 certification wrapped up by taking the last exam the week of the deadline. Nothing like waiting until the last minute, but on the plus side there was some progress toward 2012.
Result: A

Projects
Completed a SSAS Tabular project with Power View and Power Pivot. This project was definitely a highlight of the year.
Result: A

Healthcare SQL VC:
This continues to grow slowly and not at the expected pace. We’re still have some trouble getting speakers. If you’d like to speak please let me know.
Result: C

SQL Events/Training:
The PASS BA Conference in Chicago and the Polish SQL Day 2013 we highlights. International events are something I am going to try to do more often. I didn’t attend the PASS Summit – I think I’m going to make that an every other year event. Also, no SQL Saturday events in 2013. This is the first time that has happened since 2008.
Result: A

Presenting:
Presented a session at the Atlanta Microsoft BI group early in the year, but didn’t do it again in 2013. I’m not sure how much I like presenting and my plan is to start blogging more instead.
Result: B

Learn something new:
The Tabular project allowed me to work with DAX on a daily basis, so there wasn’t any problem getting time to learn this. It’s an interesting language and should only get better over time.
Keeping with the theme from the BA Conference, the statistics course on Coursera was excellent. There are so many useful courses on there.
Result: B

Blog:
Not nearly enough posts in 2013. The goal was 2 per month and there was 13 total. No posts at all after August, so not a good finish to the year at all.
Result: C

2014

Certification
Goal: Finish 2012 and 2014 certifications. Look into other certifications to see if there is anything that would benefit me.

Projects
Goal: This one is hard to measure, but will try to find a way to evaluate.

Healthcare SQL VC:
Goal: Increase attendance to 75 per meeting and have 9 presentations in 2014.

SQL Events/Training:
Goal: Attend as many events as possible, including PASS BA Conference 2014 and PASS Summit 2014. Looking to make it to Europe for an event too.

Learn something new:
Goal: This year R, Hadoop and Tableau look to be the top choices. This may adjust as the year progresses and projects evolve. Not sure how to measure this, but this sounds like somewhere to start.

Oh, and BIML too!

Blog:
Goal: 2 posts per month. In addition, the posts should be more technical, possibly as a series.

Technical Books:
Goal: This is a new goal for 2014. 6 books sounds like a reasonable amount to read.

And yet another goal…
Review Yearly Goals:
Goal: Check back at the end of every quarter to track progress. Unfortunately, this one is usually the first to get skipped but we’ll see what happens.