You learn a lot when teaching someone else, whether that be writing articles or books or actually teaching a class. But, at least for me, I find I am spending so much time on these activities, that I am not growing myself enough in other areas. I realize that I need to just invest some time in myself -- to learn new things and advance my skills. When I look at what some of my SQL friends are doing, I am just amazed. They are writing articles and books, speaking at user groups and conferences, and keeping their skills on the cutting edge. Do they ever sleep?

So, for the forseable future, I am going to try to spend as much time learning just for myself as I do writing and preparing presentations. I am also going to try to write and speak about some more advanced topics.

I just finished reading Grant Fritchey's book "SQL Server 2008 Query Performance Tuning Distilled" (5 stars!), and started "Smart Business Intelligence Solutions with Microsoft SQL Server 2008" from Lynn Langit. Grant's book validated a lot of what I already knew, cleared up some mysteries, and taught me some new things. The BI book is a whole new world for me.

So, as we move to a new year, make a committment to improve your SQL Server skills or learn a new skill. That's what I'll be doing!