Automattic holds a monthly internal town hall where everyone gets together, shares their work, asks questions of our CEO, and occasionally participates in team building exercises. Yesterday we held the November installment, which was packed full of excitement.

Led by Akshay Kapur, head of our coaching team, we performed a brief exercise called “Share What You Cherish.” We were all asked to bring an item that we cherish for inspiration to the town hall. As a sentimental person, I chose to bring some pictures of my kids. Above all else, I cherish the memories and experiences we’ve shared, and this felt right.

Part 1

During the exercise, we were asked to reflect on how we could cherish ourselves, our work, and our peers with the same sense of pride that we feel for our items. I did some internal digging and came up with the following:

Myself

I should cherish who I am and love myself with the same depth and care that I tend to apply to everyone around me. I put a great deal of energy into taking care of others—ensuring that everyone is happy, healthy, and has the things they want in front of them. Side note – this has led to mistakes in my life, large and small. Ultimately, I need to redirect some of that energy inward and care for myself by cherishing who I am.

My work

The good news here is that I very much cherish my work already. While some of the individual tasks I work on every day can be less than thrilling, I always approach them with an understanding of how they add up to a better product for our customers, and a better world for us all. And I adore our products. Using WordPress is one of my happy places, and helping build it is one of my proudest accomplishments.

How can I expand on this a bit? I definitely need to use WordPress as a blog more often. Don’t get too technical with it—just write words. So here I am.

My peers & colleagues

There are two things here—one philosophical and one practical. I am a born leader. Though I often shy away from using those skills formally, it’s unavoidable that I present as a leader, and my peers and co-workers look to me for that. I should raise my hand more often.

As for the practical thing? I’m a bit of a code-review dud sometimes. It’s not that I don’t believe in the process—I do. It’s more that I love to ship fast and break things, and sometimes code review can get in the way of that philosophy. I need to force myself to be more comfortable and respect my team’s efforts by putting my own effort and leadership into giving appropriate feedback. This is my commitment to do better.

Part 2

Akshay also asked us to reflect on what we cherish this year, and what we will cherish next year.

This year, I have cherished a closer relationship with my sons. 2025 has been the hardest year ever for our family, with some things being broken apart—but from this, stronger bonds have been built between my kids and me. I cherish those bonds.

Next year I look to further strengthen those bonds with my children, and rebuild some strained bonds with the rest of my extended family, from whom I have strayed too far.