2021: This is How My Year Was

<A month-by-month wrap up as updated on December 29, 2021>

For the past few months, I’ve had several moments where I’ve thought?I couldn’t even imagine this a year ago. Life can change so, so much in 6 months, a year, and so on.

I’m nowhere ‘big’ or where I want to be, but life is drastically different compared to last year.

A lot of my readers see me as that person who has it all sorted. Who’s producing sufficient content, talks about having multiple income streams, freelance projects, and building a business.

But it’s far away from being ‘sorted’.

Here’s a monthly overview of how 2021 has been for me. Links are mentioned for detailed reading. :)

January

I wrote down bold and embarrassing goals, such as:

• Make $10k a month ?
• Quit my job before I turn 25 ?
• Get 3 income sources ?
• 15,000 followers Medium ?
• Grow my personal brand ?
• Get in a serious relationship with a secure person who loves and respects me ?
• Fix my posture ?
• Maintain my weight between 60–63kgs ?

Yeah, I know some of them were unrealistic.?But if I hadn’t aimed this high, I wouldn’t have put in the kind of work I did.

February

Started working on a?huge?$15,000 freelance contract. The first month’s payout of $1,750 was much more than my corporate job.

The contract was five months long, and it was time to plot against quitting my job.

March

Personally, it was a devastating time.

My grandfather passed away on March 02. He had a long and painful battle for five years, so I’m happy he’s not in pain, but thinking about him brings in tears.

So let’s move on to work.

I could now quit my job. I had enough savings, got several one-time gigs that paid me well, and had five more months with this client who was paying me so well.

But my colleague informed me that resigning before April 1st will make me lose my bonus, so I waited.

++I was also in a conversation with somebody for nearly four months to work together. They offered to pay me a much lower rate than expected.

They ended it over a text. I cried for an entire day and couldn’t get out of bed.

Only if I knew that this was the beginning of many setbacks I’d face.

Oh, and guess what happened next? My entire family got COVID minus my mum and me. I wrote about it on Medium and their VP of Content sent it to 160 million members that week to read as the #1 story in their weekly newsletter :O

April

I had been visualising my resignation for over nine months, but typing my resignation mail took me?four hours.?I didn’t have it in me to press send. I now started thinking of:

• getting broke
• not having enough work
• miserably failing
• not getting another job

But I had to.

By the end of the month,?the giant client who I was banking on ghosted me.?It was a bloody nightmare.

May

I started getting traction on this platform as I produced 20 articles a month in March.?Increasing my output?drastically improved my results.

I was also counting days till my job ended, which felt like forever.

But I got a $500 bonus from this platform for being among the top 1000 writers. And that continued for the coming 3 months that this program lasted.

June

I turned 25.

The highlight of this month was spending time with my family as, after my grandfather’s death, my cousins who I’m extremely close to moved to America.

We’ve spent all our Sundays together for years. The thought of not having them over on weekends felt lonely (it still does… a lot).

July

I started working on my ebook.

I had a LinkedIn post go viral with?over a million views.

I met somebody amazing.

August

I earned way too much money than I imagined. It was overwhelming.

Thinking of when I worked as a recruiter and knew market salaries, it would’ve taken me over a decade of work experience to reach this level.

But it came to me, by putting in less than half the work.

Man, I felt powerful!

I also realised that I’m what I am because of others.?I shamelessly use their success blueprint?and learn from their failures, so I don’t have to go through the same thing.

I decided that whatever I do has to be on the lines of serving others.

September

I had my surgery on the 13th.

Both my anterior cruciate ligaments (ACL) in my knees deteriorated and started affecting my cartilage. I was at a risk of early osteoarthritis.

The surgery completely changed me. I had never experienced this much pain. I was immobile for 4 weeks and was confined to my bed for 6 weeks. It was hell.

I also released a?free ebook?to help people with side hustles and make money online and got over?1500 downloads in 6 weeks.

October

Life inside four walls wasn’t easy.

And then I had a random business idea, which?got executed via a tweet.

November

The random business idea was to help writers become more consistent. The reason was simple — I saw how consistency took me a long way, and how we can do it with little effort.

I called it?Summit 21.

I invited five people and tweeted to attract 10 more.

I got 70 applications (!!!) and selected 40 writers across 20 countries. It was surreal.

December

I launched Summit 21 officially. The thought of it being a success makes me super anxious and makes me think if I’m good enough. At the time of writing this, only three places are left in the course.

I’ve also travelled to 3 cities in 3 weeks for a holiday and then weddings. I ultimately got burnt out and got food poisoning.

I also released a freebie which was another random idea for fun, a 'side hustler checklist', which at the time of typing this has 297 downloads in 48 hours and 24 minutes. You can grab it here.

I'm also ending this month financially insane, as much as or equal to how it was in July (I'm too lazy to have got together the absolutes). So I went out this evening and treated myself to five books. :)

So that’s it for now, folks.

I’m yet to sit and plan for my next year during the last week of December.

I haven’t introspected what will I do better next year, but I know an integral part of it will be taking adequate rest.

While I only?work for four hours a day, I’ve observed that on some days I’m mentally not rested. It’s something I’d like to get better at.

2021 was difficult. It was painful — in my heart and in my body. But I made it.

But in terms of work, money, and my life’s purpose — it was fulfilling. It made me realise that the world is a platter of opportunities if you approach it with the right mindset.

Also that I only feel pure joy when what I do helps others.

So yes,?your entire life can change in a year?if you let it.

The world is a platter of opportunities if you approach it with the right mindset.