2021 a year in review

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Leading up to the new year I'm usually in a retrospective mood. I look back at what I achieved, failed and everything inbetween.

Unfortunately, I tested postive with Corona right after Christmas and it threw all my plans out the window. For 4-5 days (I lost count!) I was weak, drenched with sweat from a fever, with no intentions of doing anything.

Thankfully, I've gone through the worst of it all and I'm on the otherside recovering. Hopefully, all I need is another 1-2 days of rest and I can get back to being my productive self.

Since I've gained some energy back, I thought it would be nice to try and be proactive and write a retrospective post at least. The goal isn't to highlight just my failures, but to help me realise what I've learned and how I can grow from the experience. Also, to celebrate my successes as well.

List of failures and the lessons learned

I'm not highlighting my shortcomings because I'm a negative person, failure is the greatest teaching tool, reflecting and learning from them will help me grow as an individual.

Writing

For starters, I failed right here in this personal space for blogging. In a previous post back in the summertime I wrote,

"But I want to make sure that I'm consistent. That's why I'm going to attempt to commit to writing one post a week. It could be about anything. From life updates to personal interests, there will be no continuity, I just want to write because I know the entire process will be good for me."

Clearly I didn't see this through.

It was an ambitious task and it would have been nice if I was able to achieve it, but I had piled on too many tasks on myself that I realised that I had to let something go.

Which leads me to my next failure

Prioritising

Every year I seem to make this mistake and I never learn from it. Rather than prioriting what project to work on, I take on several simultaneously and burn out trying to juggle it all.

However, after being inspired by the 'avoid at at all cost' list, I decided to finally follow the advice and put everything to one side until the projects that I deemed to be a priority were completed.

I'm not going to lie, I still faulter occasionally, but I'm far better at prioritising now than I was a few years back. I'm hoping I can keep this way of thinking up and further refine the skill of prioritisation.

Work/Life Balance

I'm what you would call a 'Type A' personality. Competitive, always in a hurry and constantly working. When it comes to the work/life balance, I lean more towards the working side, but it's something I'm constantly aware of.

I've been living with my partner for 3 years now and I want to make sure that I give her the attention that she deserves. That means stopping work when I'm suppose to, making time for us, as well as putting her needs before mine when it's appropriate.

Unfortunately, my 'Type A' personality gets the better of me and the work/life balance goes out the window. This is something that I can't change overnight, but will have to constantly remind myself about.

I'm learning a lot about myself, but I need to make sure that I make time for the people that I care about as well.

Not hitting any goals

At the start of every year I would write down a list of goals that I would like to achieve by the end of the year. This is something that I would check on a daily basis to make sure that I'm aligned with my goals.

However, every year I fall short with reaching my ambititious goals and I feel down on not completing all of them.

I read a great book last year called, "Chop Wood Carry Water" and it was full of wisdom, most of it resonated with my way of thinking.

There was a section about goals that caught my attention,

Goals actually allow you to shirk responsibility. But a mission? Only the person in the mirror can stop you from living that out.

Today, our parents and coaches do all sorts of things to shelter kids from the consequences of their choices, and rarely inspire them with a mission.

I believe a mission is something you can do right where you are, anywhere, using only what you have. You do not need anyone’s permission.

So, what is your mission John? It is much deeper than a goal, and it is okay to borrow one from others and then refine it as you go. But your mission will act as your internal navigation system. Without a mission, you will flounder through life and very easily end up with your ladder on the ‘oh sh**’ building.”

“Many people keep climbing and climbing, only to get to the end of their life and the top of the ladder, and realize their ladder has been on the wrong building. Without a mission, it is easy to lose perspective on what truly matters. A mission will make you think beyond the moment, which is greatly important because the only thing that is significant about the moment is who you become in the process, and the impact you have on others.

This got me thinking about my yearly goals, if they're necessary at all. This year, rather than spending time writing a list of goals that I would like to achieve, I want to embrace this mindset of a mission and remind myself why I'm doing what I'm doing.

What went well

This year wasn't all doom and gloom, some good came out of it.

Changed careers

At the end of 2020 Corona hit hard and it affected many businesses. Mine was no different. I made the tough decision to leave my business partners and to start all over again.

I took sometime off to contemplate and work on myself and figure out what I actually wanted to do with my time. Three months into 2021 I was able to land a role as a UX/UI designer for a digital agency.

Being self-employed for God knows how long and then to pack it all up and join the working force was weird at first, but I've settled into my new role and I'm flourishing.

I'm enjoying where I am right now and I glad I made the decision to start all over again. In fact, I constantly remind myself that pivoting in life is often a good thing and something I should do more often.

Bought a house

With the career change came monetary gains, which allowed us to invest in our first house. We became home owners. We've yet to move into the house since we finalised everything at the end of the year, it looks like 2022 is going to be packed full of change.

It's exciting times and I hope we'll be able to call this a house a home sooner rather than later.

There will be ups and downs to the move as well as the settling in, but we're in a good place and I hope things will get better.

Taught myself how to code

At the end of the 2020 when I was going through a career change and took time off to develop myself, I used that time to teach myself how to code.

Even after landing a job as a designer in tech, that didn't stop me from developing my coding skills. The entire year of 2021 I was working on my own projects and developing my craft.

I've learned a lot and I'm pleased with my progress. I would love to spend more time learning, but work/life gets in the way at times. This is where I have the battles of prioritising, but as I mentioned earlier, it's something that I'm working on.

Plans for the future

I've learned a great amount of myself this year, but I still have a long way to go. As long as I keep to my healthy habits, be open minded and adapt to my environment, I'm sure I will be in a good place.

I really enjoyed the book 'Chop Wood Carry Water', so I thought I'd end on an extract that I would like to try and and live out for this new year and the rest of my life,

“The only thing that is truly significant about today, or any other day, is who you become in the process. Each of us are building our own house. Sometimes you might think you are building for your school, your family, your company, or your team, but you are always building your own house… I hope you build wisely.”