Add Reflecting on a difficult year

Author: patrickklaeren

_posts/2023-12-01-a-festive-reflection.md

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+title: Reflecting on a difficult year
+permalink: /2023/reflecting-on-a-difficult-year
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+Despite everything I preach, I remain my own worst enemy. I barely communicate and I struggle with consistency, even at the most basic of tasks, such as writing a blog post.
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+It's been well over a year since I last committed a post to this blog. It's unfortunate that the time to put pen to paper (or in my case, words to scren) has been so fleeting that I have all but forgotten about this space I intended document by thoughts, processes and development. I think writing about, and teaching about, programming is very important. It makes you stop. It makes you think. It makes you justify that what you've learnt can be truly be solidified or perpetuated in some form of more consistent medium. It's important I'm back and intend to do so with more regular posts in the upcoming year.
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+In fact, one of my resolutions for the new year is to write more, justify more and be more kind. 2024 will be a great year.
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+One of the elements that has made 2023 a difficult year - aside from all the ongoings in the world around me - are the struggles in how to lead and dare I say: inspire. Or at least hope-to-aspire situations. I am leading a team of 15 developers, some more, some less experienced. Some are completely new to the world of business software and lack the experience to understand what's "right" and what's "best" - the two differ a lot. Some of them do not understand the decisions I make, or where they come from or why I might choose to say things the way I say them. It'll all come in time and I hope that they'll one day think back to those scenarios where they put face to palm and questioned my sanity.
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+It's been a year where I've come to appreciate the "you cannot make everyone happy" idiom a lot more. It's been a year that has taught me to mature. It's been a year that has reignited a fuel that has been dormant for a while. Here's to 2024.