The 2021 Recap - A Year Full Of Wins & Losses

I have lived, cried, failed, and thrived this year.

When I was writing my goals in my personal journal last year, I was really dejected and disappointed in myself. I was absolutely alone, even though my family was around me. In fact, I was feeling the lowest in my life, which forced me to set my goals. Goals, not resolutions. I even published an article about it.

I am pleased to say that I’ve had numerous occasions in the last few months when I’ve thought, “I couldn’t even envision this a year ago.” The result of working on your goals positively affects you in every aspect. It did for me. Of course, I did set ambitious goals for myself, and I have not even achieved 70% of my goals. But again, I did set the bar for myself a little higher for sure.

Sometimes, I do share some of my articles with my friends and colleagues, and they literally think I have perfected the art of managing both my work and hobbies at the same time.

But it’s a long way from being perfect.

Some goals were achieved. Some lessons learnt.

I have written a long list of ambitious and bold goals that I really wish I could have easily achieved. Some of them might look ambitious, and some foolish as well.

1000 followers on my Tech Instagram ✌️

I am a software developer by profession, and I believe Instagram has been one of the best social media apps anyone can have to grow their brand. I have created a developer Instagram page where I document my coding and developer journey as a post. I also post about the books I read.

Fortunately, I crossed the 1000 follower mark on the last day of the year. Please note that I have not invited any of my family or friends to follow this. Every single follower has found my page due to Instagram’s algorithm. Some of them being students, I help them by resolving their software development challenges or answering their queries free of cost. Hence I have succeeded in achieving this goal.

Make $1000 on Medium ✌️

Well, this one was an absolute surprise to me. I never thought you could even monetize your passion. I used to take writing for granted. However, whenever I read stories by Sean Kernan, Tim Denning, and Zulie Rane, I knew I had a long way to go. These guys have their own writing styles and writing voices. Their readers, no matter what they write, will read their pieces, me being one of them.

I have also gotten writing opportunities from some companies, even though I didn’t have substantial followers. Hence, writing on Medium has literally changed my life. I have been blessed with opportunities that a year ago I could only think of. I have made hell a lot more than $1000, more than I could ask for. Hence, this one has been a success.

Get Six-pack abs and have a fit body 👎

When 2021 started, I was determined to have an incredible fit body with six-pack abs. No, I never intended to keep the abs for the full year. It's not possible for me since I love my food but I wanted to test myself and achieve my peak at least for a day.

I exercised for the first four months, but then work increased and so did my reasons for not hitting the gym. As a matter of fact, I even invested in an exercise cycle and a bench with tonnes of weights, but then I had hundreds of excuses. Hence, I could not achieve this.

Get Certified in Cloud ✌️

Since I was a kid, I have always been extremely passionate about technology. This was the reason I chose to become a software developer. However, I never had any certification in technology.

I worked really hard to get certified on Google Cloud and I have also published my journey to get the certification so that others can benefit from it. I was able to achieve this in the first month itself. Of course, I had been preparing for it for the past 6 months. Hence, this one has been a success.

1000 followers on Medium ✌️

When I started this year, I had less than 100 followers on this platform. Writing has been my passion since childhood. Therefore, when I started writing on the platform, I knew the articles would be read on three occasions: people connect to it, people love your writing style, or you are informing people about something new.

To gain readers, you’ve got to earn it. Hence, I made some great writing friends who not only read and supported my articles but also gave constructive feedback on the same. Still, having 1000 readers and friends on Medium is surely a highlight for me. Hence, this goal has been a success.

Setup three additional businesses 👎

Let’s just say, I have made terrible mistakes. Mistakes in believing people whom I thought I could trust, but I have learnt my lessons. An expensive one. A short summary, if I were to give one, is that I set up two businesses, invested money, but failed terribly. My friends who were part of it were the reasons for the failure. I couldn’t muster the energy to work on the third business idea. This goal has been an absolute failure.

Read at least 6 Books ✌️

I used to read a lot of books during my school and college years. However, over the years, the love of books has been greatly reduced due to movies and web series on Netflix and other OTT platforms. Reading a book looked like a commitment to me. This changed in the year 2020 when I subscribed to Medium. My passion for reading was ignited and I started reading one article after the other.

In 2021, I decided to read at least six books, one every two months. I have read 9 books in 2021 and I am so pleased with myself for this. I have become so passionate about books now that I am reading and sharing my thoughts on my Goodreads account, a social-media kind of website for all book lovers. I have set a higher goal for 2022, and for that, I have already purchased some books. This one has been a massive success.

Other goals 🤌

There were some other personal goals. Most of them have been achieved. The ones I couldn’t achieve were a lot closer. However, I have never been this satisfied with myself. A year ago, I would never have imagined that this would happen to me. This was the first time ever in my life that I worked on my goals throughout the year.

Year of Chaos, Scare and Heartbreak

As much as it gave me immense satisfaction in achieving my goals, life has not been kind to me this year.

Chaos & Scare 😑

People died this year due to the pandemic. Some close ones too. This pandemic has taken the lives of some of my neighbours, relatives, and college friend. If you recall the news anywhere in the world, there were mass burials in India in the first half of the year. Hospitals were running short of oxygen cylinders and beds. There was complete chaos all around my country and all countries as well.

My mother was also infected in the second wave. No matter the precautions she took, she was still infected. Indian (or Asian in general) moms usually deal with housemaids, grocery sellers, milkmen, etc. She might have gotten it from anywhere. My family was not vaccinated at the time. My mother’s oxygen level was reduced to 70% when it should be more than 94%.

People were dying around us, especially in hospitals, due to a lack of beds and the unavailability of doctors. I took the big risk of not sending my mother to the hospital. Instead, I arranged an oxygen cylinder with every medicine she needed for her treatment. I was in constant touch with a doctor friend, and I did everything. I couldn’t even arrange for a nurse due to unavailability. I took a 21-day holiday from work and I took care of my mom. My dad is diabetic, and hence, I asked him not to visit my mom when she was isolated. She recovered in 2 weeks.

After some months, my dad had to go for surgery on two separate occasions. Since he is diabetic, both surgeries were unnecessarily complicated. The surgeries were successful.

Heartbreak 💔

The love of my life got married to someone else. I was heartbroken for a while and wrote back-to-back emotional articles about it. 🙅

Enough said.

Guided and Helped people in their Careers

Perhaps my biggest win would be this. I have helped and guided some students and experienced individuals to take up coding or writing as full-time careers. I have referred so many students to my organisation (when they were hiring for fresh graduates) and answered a lot of their queries related to software development careers via Instagram and LinkedIn.

I have also helped at least three people to change their professions. Two of them have become full-time writers, while one is learning to code. Please note that I am not an excellent writer and programmer. But I have shown them the path, given them the resources and guided them throughout. In fact, one of them earns more money from freelance writing than the majority of us on Medium.

Made new friends on Medium

I have heard from professional writers that writing is a cut-throat profession. At least it used to be. However, I have not seen that on this platform. Writers have supported other writers. I received feedback from Sean Kernan last year when I asked him to review my piece. I have also received feedback from my fellow writers. Similarly, I have given feedback whenever I got a chance.

I have even made some great friends here on the platform. Some of them I have interacted with via other platforms as well. I have never tagged them, but today I have to because their stories, their writings, and their feedback are what shaped my writing.

Some of the writers are Indubala Kachhawa, Kristina God, Dr. Preeti Singh, Josephine Crispin, Rishabh Sharma, Ruchi Thalwal, Athena Milios, Synthia Stark, Dr Mehmet Yildiz, Luay Rahil, Neeramitra Reddy, Colleen Millsteed, Dr. Derek Austin 🥳, Jennifer Pitts, Riaz Laskar, Srini, Olivia Anderson, Jessey Anthony, Connie Song, Krishna V Chaudhary and Gayle Kurtzer-Meyers. You guys are incredibly inspiring. Thank you for writing great stories, articles, and poems.

Closing Thoughts

I am still making my goals for the next year. The goals will be ambitious and foolish, just like the past year. Working towards it will only make me realise my potential.

2021 has been an incredibly eventful year for me, but hey, I survived and thrived. Achieved some success. Failed in some goals. I lived a full circle of life with different emotions.

I am just hopeful that the year 2022 will be an extremely eventful year for everyone. I just hope everyone achieves their goals. I also wish to travel this coming year when everything comes back to normalcy. I just hope you guys achieve everything you strive for in this new year.

Wish you a very happy 2022!

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