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My Journey This Year

Written: Wednesday, December 12, 2020 • 🏷️ Tags: Productivity • Self-improvement • Life • Categories: Blogging
⌛ Reading time: 4 minutes

Starting a new year is always a time for reflection and goal-setting. But for one person, the journey of 2020 has been one filled with unexpected twists and turns, leading to a transformative experience. From facing unemployment and financial struggles, to enrolling in a full-stack development program, to rediscovering passions and setting new goals, this person’s story is one of perseverance, growth, and gratitude. Join us as we embark on their journey and follow their goals for 2021 in areas of work, education, creativity, fitness, and more. Get inspired and motivated to make this year your best year yet. Happy New Year!

& My Goals for the New Year

Around this time last year, I walking in downtown Calgary wearing only a dress suit in -30℃ weather, going from building to building, trying to find a service or program that could help me get employed. I had no idea what I was doing with my life.

Then, by sheer luck, someone offhandedly mentioned a program by the name EvolveU. That comment has changed the trajectory of my life.

Although I had originally gone to SAIT for information technology, I wasn’t able to finish the program. I had to take care of the financial burdens of my family and work instead. And I thought that I would never try to code again — it was a difficult field I did not have the luxury of time or money to dive into.

Being so grateful to earn a spot in the full-stack development program, I promised myself that I wasn’t going to squander it. I began to fully commit to self-improvement (https://www.beeminder.com/brennanbrown). I was going to make 2020 my year.

Of course, life had another idea. I was tested and pushed to my limits, like everyone else was. And although things didn’t go exactly how I thought they would, they still went surprisingly well.

I started learning French, playing chess, writing poetry again, taking care of my health, practising meditation, and most important to me — start creating open-source projects for others to use freely.

In 2021, I am aiming to become fluent in French, reach an ELO rating of 1700 in chess, publish a chapbook of my work, and officially start my own company!

Of course, there are so many other things that I wish I could have done, people I was hoping to meet, places I was wanting to go. But I hope that I made the most of what I could with the time I had. And I’m so grateful for everything I have in my life.

For 2021, I strive to do even more and accomplish many things that I’ve been yearning to get done for a long while:

Goals for 2021:

Work

/productivity: Spend five hours a day on my new business.
/distraction: Spend all my of leisure time on analogue activities.
/github: Create a new open source project that will benefit people.
/blogging and /writing: Start writing and publishing more, aiming for two posts per week.
Start writing by hand in my bullet journal once a day.
Start tracking my budget better, buy as little as possible, practice frugality.

Education

/learning: Earn 5 new certificates to help me with my career.
/courses: Complete 20 educational course in the year.
/books: Listen to 20 audiobooks in the year. Take notes on them.
/french and /clozemaster: Consume more French media, read and write in it more frequently, aim for fluency.
Reach an ELO rating of 1700 in chess, read more theory.

Creativity

/photos: Dedicate time to having a street photography session once a week. Start a new photography portfolio.
/poetry: Read and write more poetry, and publish a chapbook.
Learn new songs and fingerpicking on guitar, try my hand at songwriting again.

Fitness

/foodlog: Continue on my diet, practice veganism and sobriety.
/fitness: Continue going on daily walks to reach 10k steps.
/weight: Lose 40 lbs. and reach my goal weight of 140 lbs. Continue logging my weight daily to gain the most insight on the data.
/sleep: Start waking up and going to bed earlier.
/meditation and /prayer: Take meditation and prayer more seriously, study them.
/gratitude: Contemplate what I’m grateful for more deeply each day.