Looking back at the year 2018

Lots of things were happening in my professional life over the past 12 months. Some changes. Some successfully accomplished challenges. Lots of struggle. Was it good or bad then? Here are the highlights of my 2018.

• I was a speaker and trainer at 8 events in 2018. Workshops and presentations. Two of the events gathered more than 300 people. One of the events with international speaker lineup and audience (see the recording). Looks like I was at an event every 45 days! This required a lot of effort on my side. Tons of preparation and a bit of stress. All of this in my free time. I work full time, I'm a husband and dad. This sometimes meant that my family had to forgive me for being absent, though at home. Many thanks to them for their support and understanding.
• I wrote 6 articles on content design. Three of them have already been published (1,2,3). I suppose this is the most I have written in a single year. I'm still not satisfied since I created more drafts than I could finish. I hope to turn the rest of the 2018 scribbling into fully blown texts this year. Writing just like presenting is just for fun. Yet another way to prove myself that I still have some free time. :)
• My team grew. A new person joined us in summer. We're much stronger now and a seriously dedicated gang. This was important. It helped all of us achieve a better life balance. It also turned the gears of inspiration and creativity for us. I can't wait for the things we're going to do in 2019.
• I acquired new competencies having completed two leadership courses. One of them a year-long project. The fantastic Value+ training helped me to understand people better. And to communicate better. Also, my library started to grow with books from a new field.
• The uContentowani meetup lost a bit of momentum. :( We had just one meeting. Though with a completely new formula, a workshop instead of a presentation. uContentowani were partners of two large events: the Soap! content conference and WUD Tricity. That was an excellent thing. Thanks to the partnerships three people were able to go to Cracow and take part in the Soap! 2018 conference. Yay!
• I completed one fun, commercial side-project. Not that much this year. Still, it's better than none. Side projects are a great way to practice your skills in a new environment, with new people, and understand new contexts. A unique experience that makes you richer professionally. Let me know if you have something interesting for a content person. ;)
• I had an exceptional chance to mentor amazing people from different parts of the world. Fantastic discussions over the Internet and in person. Tough questions. The burden of responsibility for some career shifting decisions. M, P, M - I'm winking at you now. Thank you for your trust.
• I went to Canada to Design & Content conference. Quite a long trip. But an enriching one. Inclusion appeared to be an informal theme of the event. Which is great. It turns out there are so many shades of inclusion! I met lots of socially forward-thinking people. They showed truly progressive thinking about human beings, society, and products. But that's Canada. The points of view shared by some of the speakers aren't that common in Europe, not to mention Poland. Great event, not that large, with a solid speaker lineup and a strong message.
• I met new, inspiring people at meetups and conferences. I love to talk to people about their work and projects. I just looove to listen to what they think about the digital world. This always makes me buy new books, subscribe to new newsletters, or follow new people on social media. This keeps me motivated to maintain the professional bar raised high.
• I took about 1k (a thousand) screenshots of various apps, websites, and services. Lots of good ideas on the internet. Lots of inspiration. Sometimes bad examples. But also lots of documenting my own work. Loads of good quality, valuable content. In other words, I can't be ashamed of my work. :D
• There's one more thing I worked on in 2018. It's so great that I will share it separately soon.

Heaps of good stuff going on. Lots of excitement but also tiredness. Perhaps there's no need to list the bad things? How will 2019 compare to this?