January: Lockdown and Learning

Never Stop Learning Because Life Never Stops Teaching

Kirill Korshikov

In January I completed a course on Product Management, and whilst coming to the realisation that this was the path I wanted to take, I remembered the love I have for learning.

February: Friends

Anything is possible when you have the right people there to support you

Misty Copeland

Things were becoming uncertain in my workplace and I didn’t know what the future had in store for me. I felt I had no stability and when it became tough, my friends were always there and I appreciate them greatly.

March: Tough times

We Don’t Grow When Things Are Easy; We Grow When We Face Challenges

Anonymous

Now the writing was on the wall, and I had to accept my fate. But I became more, as a person, and little did I know at this time it was going to be a huge defining moment.

Apr: Change

Stuff + time = change

Me

I always say that change is our one true inevitability, now I was clearly on the next chapter. But I embraced it and proceeded to think and plan for my next steps. I believe success comes from welcoming all change that arises.

May: The Unknown

Through the Unknown, we'll Find the New

Charles Baudelaire

After leaving my job I found myself in a place of limbo, but in the uncertain is where I thrive. I felt I had the freedom to think as I had never before.

June: Reflection

Reflection... Looking back so the view looking forward is clearer.

Unknown

In June as part of my journey, I realised I had to be more reflective about things. Therefore, I started to recap the past 7 days with my weeknotes. I have kept this up and possibly something I will do for years to come.

July: Big decisions

Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

I was deciding between taking a job offer that would have been the most I have ever been paid or solely focusing on my company, Chuffed Solutions. I chose the latter knowing that even though it meant a very frugal 12 months, it is who I am.

August: Focus

That’s been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity.

Steve Jobs

Now 100% team solo, I had to get to work and get things off the ground. I focused on everything, as no I was the only one responsible for it all.

September: Small victories

Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.

Vincent Van Gogh

By sending proposals constantly every day, eventually, I got to a point where someone responded, and from there I won my first gig. It was a great moment, and don’t think I’ll forget that feeling anytime soon.

October: Goals

What keeps me going is goals

Muhammad Ali

I took my methodology for setting goals for my team when I was an Operations Director, and applied them to myself. I set out 12month goals and broke them down quarterly, from that I could plan in the long term and work in the short.

November: Show up every day

Consistency is key

Unknown

From my 3 month goals, I had set up a routine of daily tasks that worked towards those goals. I called it “Show up every day”. The idea is taking a huge amount of work, defining what is feasible in 3months, and figuring out what can I do for 20mins a day for that time to reach that goal. For me, it was very effective.

December: Continual Improvement

Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.

Mark Twain

As I started to see the fruits of my labour come through from incrementally working towards my goals, it made me realise that perfection is not the goal, getting done what you can get done and being consistent about it is a path to success.

All in all, 2021 has been quite a year.

As for 2022, I don’t set new year’s resolutions as I think they are a recipe for failure. Instead, I chose themes to follow. Mine are:

Reflection:

Making the time to look at what I have achieved and having moments to appreciate it, rather than what I haven’t done.

Experiment:

Try new things to find out who I am truly as a person, those are lessons I find I keep learning from.

Mindfulness:

Spending a lot of time in the past reflecting, and on the future experimenting, leads me to remember to enjoy the moment.