Man, 2016. That year really sticks in my mind. I remember feeling a bit antsy, you know? Like I was just coasting along at work, doing the same old grind, and I hit this wall where I thought, “Is this it? Is this all there is?” It wasn’t a terrible job, not at all, but I just felt like I wasn’t really pushing myself, not growing. It was pretty clear to me that if I wanted something different, I had to actually do something about it.
So, I started by just looking around, honestly. Not at other jobs right away, but at my own work. What was I good at? What did I actually enjoy doing in my day-to-day? More importantly, what did I feel like I was missing? I made a list, and it became pretty obvious that I was stuck in a routine and hadn’t picked up anything new in ages. My skills were getting a bit dusty, and that’s a scary feeling when you think about where things are heading in this world.
Getting My Hands Dirty and Learning New Stuff
First thing I did was try to figure out what was out there. What were people talking about? What new tools or ways of doing things were popping up in my field? I spent a bunch of evenings just reading articles, watching some beginner videos, really just soaking it all in. I wasn’t trying to become an expert overnight, just trying to get a feel for what I needed to learn to stay relevant and, well, interesting to myself.
- I remember spotting a particular software everyone was buzzing about. I’d seen it mentioned a few times but always just shrugged it off. This time, I didn’t.
- I hunted down a free online course, something super basic. It was clunky, and the instructor was a bit dry, but I pushed through.
- Every night, after the kids were in bed, I’d spend an hour, sometimes two, just messing with it. No pressure, just trying to understand how it worked. I broke it a few times, for sure.
It was slow going at first, like trying to learn to ride a bike again. My brain felt rusty. But then, things started to click. I started to see how this new thing could actually help me with my current tasks, make some of the boring parts a lot quicker.
Putting It Into Practice and Making Noise
Once I felt like I had a basic handle on this new skill, I got bolder. I started looking at my actual work tasks and thought, “Could I use this new thing here?” It was a bit risky, maybe, because I wasn’t a master, but I decided to just go for it. Better to try and stumble than to never try at all, right?
I picked a small, low-stakes project at work – something that wasn’t super critical if I totally messed it up. I went to my boss and pitched it. I told him I’d been learning this new tool and thought it could actually save us some time on this particular task. He was skeptical, of course, but he gave me the green light. Said, “Just don’t break anything important.” Fair enough.
I dove into that project headfirst. There were moments I wanted to pull my hair out. Things didn’t work as advertised. I had to go back to those online forums, asking dumb questions, feeling like an idiot. But every time I figured something out, even a tiny bit, it felt like a huge win. I was teaching myself, really. And slowly but surely, I actually finished that project using the new software. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked.
The biggest surprise? It really did cut down the time. My boss was actually impressed. Not like, “You’re a genius!” impressed, but more like, “Huh, that actually worked pretty well,” which for him was high praise. That gave me a massive boost of confidence. I started looking for other places I could apply this new skill, even just to tinker with existing processes.
Connecting with Others and Speaking Up
That little success pushed me to do something else I always dreaded: talk to more people. I started going to some local meetups. Just casual things, mostly. Grabbing a coffee, listening to people chat about what they were doing. I didn’t say much at first, just listened. But then, slowly, I started asking questions, sharing tiny bits of what I was trying. It was hard, really stepping out of my comfort zone like that.
I remember one guy, he worked at a different company, and he was really good with this software. I nervously asked him for some advice on a problem I was hitting. He was super chill, just walked me through a few things. That small interaction made a huge difference. It showed me that people are generally willing to help if you just ask.
Towards the end of 2016, things really started to feel different. My daily tasks felt less like a chore and more like a challenge I could tackle. I wasn’t just doing what I was told; I was actively looking for ways to improve things, using these new skills I had picked up. I even started volunteering for stuff that was a bit outside my usual role, just to get more experience with different tools and processes.
It wasn’t like I got a massive promotion or anything huge that year. But I felt a huge shift inside. I wasn’t stagnant anymore. I was moving, learning, doing. My work life didn’t just passively “boost itself”; I actively grabbed it by the horns and pushed it forward. That feeling, that sense of being in control of my own development, was the real win. It turned a year that started with a dull feeling into one where I felt like I really built something for myself. And that, right there, changed everything for how I looked at my career moving forward.
