A very happy New Year to you all!

I sincerely hope you all had an amazing Christmas with your family, friends and loved ones. I hope you all partied hard on December 31st and have a good year planned for the start of a new decade.

For me, this was my first Christmas and New Year as a dad. My little lad is 6 months old now, so he’s not going to remember any of it! But, it was a time for myself and my wife to reflect on what was the hardest but also happiest 6 months of our lives. In a personal column I’m reviving for 2020 on here I’ll go into what the first few months of parenthood have been like. We did though have a brilliant Christmas with him, some fantastic pictures and videos we’re already looking back on and he was spoiled by both sets of grandparents!

A break from the screen

I’ll be honest, come December I was completely burnt out. Busy at work on the day job as I normally am, but we had so many big moment, life events during 2019 they took their toll. We moved to a much bigger home in April. At any time this is a big effort, but whilst Soph was pregnant this was tougher still. We had plenty of help on the day of the move which was appreciated. But we had to then juggle the NFA Winners Event the day after, as well as planning where all our belongings were going over the weekend as we organised the floors to go down that same weekend. Talk about military precision! To say we were knackered by that Sunday would be an understatement.

We had Spencer on July 2nd, not long after a bereavement in the family. I had my own work targets that I pushed myself very hard on all at the same time, which became difficult once I became a dad. Some of you may have noticed I went very quiet in July!

The long and short of it is by the end of the year I was absolutely on my last legs and was running on fumes come Christmas. I had planned a series of review posts I would have liked to have published before the end of the year, but I was simply out of energy and wanted to spend time away from the screen and social media and spend as much time as I could at home with my family and friends. After all, isn’t that what Christmas is all about?

I think I fell just short of my targets for DGB in 2019, but it was still a very good year nonetheless. With (hopefully) some of the biggest life events out of the way for a while, I plan to put the hammer down in 2020.

Huge 2020 themes

I’ll lay out more detail my plans for DGB coverage in 2020 in future posts, but its already clear that there are going to be some absolutely massive themes that are going to be embedded in UK fenestration this year.

Sustainability will be the biggest one, at least until December. 2020 has already kicked off with major brands from other industries already pushing their sustainabililty and green messages. Our industry isn’t immune from the efforts to become more environmentally friendly and I’ll be pushing the message for progress and change via DGB E.C.O over the coming 12 months.

Brexit is still going to be high on the agenda, but in a different manner. Thanks to a decisive win for Boris Johnson and the Conservatives in December, we know that the UK will definitely be leaving the EU at the end of January. Attentions will then turn however to the prospects of a trade deal with the EU by the end of the year. Can such a major deal be done by the end of the year? Will an extension that that phase be sought? Will the UK leave without a deal? Only time will tell, but I’ll be covering the twists and turns via a soon-t0-be-revamped Brexit and politics section on DGB.

The 2020 FIT Show is going to be the marquee date in the middle of the year for the industry. Just before the end of the year I talked about how the industry must now stop making excused and get behind the only trade show we have. Brexit uncertainty is no longer an excuse and we have to understand that many opportunities are presented to us when thousands of the right people and companies are in attendance in the same place at the same time.

The skills crisis will continue to be a thorn in our sides as an industry, something which I’ll be keeping the DGB eye on throughout the year. But I think that now might be the time to start considering other ways to get our work done. Will we ever be able to turn the crisis around? I’m not sure, but companies cannot afford to wait any longer in the hope that new young, talented hands will come through, so alternative ways to carry out work might be prudent planning.

No New Years resolutions

Its a popular thing to do at this time of year, to set ourselves major new life goals to achieve over the next 12 months. However more often than not they are huge, unrealistic changes that people set themselves and often fail, compounding the sense of failure. I don’t think it helps, so rather than make any huge changes, I think some smaller, more manageable tweaks are better.

For example, I’ll try and avoid the beer a bit more during the year. Hangovers are getting harder to recover from as I get older, add a small child that needs attention at all times in the mix and its even worse! I’m going to try and eat better, avoiding takeaways when we don’t need them. Thats not to say to not have them altogether, but I did get very lazy towards the end of the year, so a few less taps on Just Eat will do me and my wallet some good. Also, bed by 10pm. I’ll be back at work in a few days and the little man wakes up at 5:30am/6am most mornings, so I need much more sleep. No more going to bed at midnight and only having a few hours sleep!

If I can get into a better habit on all those fronts no doubt I’ll begin to feel better. Also, we have booked our first family holiday for a couple of weeks at the end of January. Somewhere hot and far away, so some sun, sea and escape from the UK winter won’t be a bad thing either!

I’ll wrap it up here for now, as there is plenty of time to set out my 2020 stall in the coming couple of weeks. I want to wish you all a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2020, and hope that this new decade brings you success in all you do.

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