Intention for Posting My 2021 Review

I’m posting this in the hopes that it’ll inspire you to take action.

There, I said it.

I want to offer the same light I would have really appreciated in my own life.

The encouragement to dare to dream, to go boldly and have courage.

I want to show you my struggle, not in high def gory detail, but at least the story as I see it.

Complete with flaws and faults and difficulties, as well as celebration and achievement.

As a close friend once told me..

Share yourself with the world, because you never know when a page from your life might make it into someone’s survival guide.

Gratitude

It’s been a wild ride this year and yet I’ve so much to be grateful for. A pretty intense period with loads of ups and downs, I have so much gratitude for the incredible people who have helped me hang on.

Finding real mentorship has been a game changer, which started in March.

The next month in April I also went away and held space for some people very close to me, enabling them to do deep trauma work in a ceremonious setting.

Just recently I went away with the same group of close friends and joined in, giving up my need for control wasn’t easy and in the end I was honoured to be held by my partner as she led the ceremony.

Watching her hold space for others is one thing, participating is something entirely different!

I’ve created bonds over this past year that I would never have imagined would be in my life this soon, I am determined to bring my vision into being.

I now have a clear pathway to financial freedom I’m working on every day.

I’ve been swinging hard into this blog recently and have a clear direction and social media strategy going forward.

Personal Growth

I’ve had an enormous lesson in asking for help and finding my vulnerability.

A massive blind spot revealed over and over again for me; my biggest barrier to vulnerability and therefore to genuine help is self worth.

I’ve got to believe I deserve to be held and heard.

A rather ironic struggle really.

One I’m working through daily with the help of some incredible people.

Permaculture

This year I discovered permaculture.

The more I look the more excited I get.

I believe it’s a way to heal a lot of big problems and I can’t wait to contribute to an already incredible canvas.

Work and Finance

This is where the majority of my roller coaster has been.

I’ve been humbled, challenged and pushed to grow, coming very close to burn out before managing to lean on the right people (friends and mentors) to help me get back up again.

I’ve recognised my own lack of personal boundaries regarding work and how that impacts other aspects of my life.

I held space for many students as they discovered themselves, an incredible privilege and one tied intimately to my purpose for being on earth.

I struggled momentously with studying a Cert IV, constantly going back and forward between trying to decide whether or not to quit, given that my heart wasn’t in it but it looked like a way to secure a decent income, how little I knew!

I was blessed and humbled by the responsibility of producing a newsletter which hundreds opened and read.

I got to taste project management at a higher level and thus was introduced to systems thinking, my life will never be the same.

I earned more money, though I also worked far more hours across multiple roles and responsibilities.

In the end I lost my job due to unforeseeable circumstances!

And I gained another job just as quickly!

Losing the position was a massive blow given how much of my energy and passion I poured into the place. However after processing the loss and grief of it, I felt infinitely lighter to recognise how I wouldn’t have this Cert IV looming over me. As a result of that lightness I’ve been writing and pouring my heart into stuff that I can control, my own brand, my own blog, my own future, not beholden to anyone except you, the people who I’m determined to help on your own journey!

My focus going forward will be to keep my own business and secondary income front and center, as well as making time for this blog and other exciting projects currently cooking. Meaning I endeavour to keep work at around 20 – 25 hours a week rather than letting it balloon outward and take over the rest of my life.

Producing Content

This has been a huge year of breaking through barriers in this regard.

I gave myself a massive Instagram challenge which basically took more than I had to give, but I did it, producing a video every day for a month.

I published more on this blog in three weeks than in two years prior.

I finally went all in on writing about mental health work for crisis support.

And for a while I had some really high quality ‘story’ habits, posting regularly and learning about different functions and features.

In Love

My roommate confessed her feelings for me this year!

Feelings I’ve known were there all along but which took her an enormous amount of healing and trauma work to be able to acknowledge and admit to.

It’s been humbling to see her grow and I’m floored by her spirit and the capacity she has to blast love into the world. She’s basically a star constantly radiating brilliance and I’m the luckiest person on the planet to care for her.

We’ve fallen into a somewhat traditional state of affairs which the anti-establishment teenage version of Said would probably be mortified to find out, funny how things work that way.

I wake up each day looking forward to a bright future.

Thoughts On 2021’s Goals

So overall not many of the goals I set out to complete got completed. But a lot of good stuff happened nonetheless.

I think that’s the real point.

The goals aren’t set so I achieve them, they’re set so I move.

The trick is to hold goals with grace.

For example I didn’t do as many n-of-1 experiments as I’d like, only 1 of 5 I had originally planned. But doing that one was what led to my taking risks on YouTube and putting myself out there (albeit in a very cringy and embarrassing way!). This is what led to taking risks on Instagram and putting myself out there with a bit more polish and editing (albiet in a very intense way that almost led to total burn out!).

Meanwhile during all of this my partner saw my example and has taken up social media production herself, recently starting a website and brand to deep touch the lives of women who otherwise to help them learn about the possibilities for healing body, mind and spirit.

Each step along the journey has impact and every year comes with more experience in setting goals.

Retirement Goals

I have a clear sense of how much income it’s going to take to live the life of impact that Marissa and I want for ourselves. We’ll need land of our own amongst a number of other assets both financial and otherwise.

If I dare to dream my wildest dream we’ll both be self employed by 2024 giving us just over two years to achieve financial freedom.

I wont go into the details of that here though I’d like to be public about specific numbers at some point in the future, that might be more suitable elsewhere.

Marketing Road Map

Going forward I have a social media strategy I’m excited to execute on. It’ll be the basis of a year long n-of-1 tracking experiment. I will record the marketing strategy, execution and efforts, noting the significant lessons and learnings along the way. Focus will be much more on qualitative than quantitative data (more vibes than numbers), though the goals will be numbers driven just to give me some bumper bars.

This n-of-1 experiment shall be process oriented not outcome oriented, I’ll post about it on Quantified Self Forums as always, focusing on the production of content, basically. I may track different things at different times, I’ll try to keep it a bit losey gosey.

Phase 1 – Blog

• Jan – Apr
• Publish 3 blog posts per week for 4 months

Phase 2 – Video

• May – Jun
• Reduce blog frequency (by unfixed amount)
• Produce 3 short videos per week for 2 months

Phase 3 – Email

• Jul – Sep
• Reduce short video frequency (by unfixed amount)
• Produce 3 high quality, high value emails per week for 3 months

Phase 4 – Combination

• Oct – Dec
• Mix and match based on results to define next steps and plan for the future

Accountability

Posting my personal accountability system online had an enormous impact on my productivity.

In 2022 I’m going to simplify and relaunch it, posting weekly updates to my personal social media stories and saving them. I’ll track the days I stick to accountability as well as the number of content pieces created.

It’s a bit of an odd system to use, feeling as though nobody is watching and posting anyway, nevertheless it’s incredibly motivating to know I’ve made the promises and they’re out there in public view.

Content Production Goals

• 36 blog posts
• 24 short videos
• 36 emails

Life Pathway

The goals above will over the next few decades lead to the following;

• Inspire countless others to improve the level of chatter around mental health not only at home but also at work
• Empower people to recognise, identify and heal hidden trauma by normalising and sharing super simple info of complex stuff (so anyone can benefit from the latest greatest neuroscience breakthroughs)
• Plant massive forests to seed widespread optimism about the direction of humanity, spreading the idea that while we might be unique in our ability to destroy, we are are also unique in our ability to protect and revive
• Educate and inform millions about the real world impact of story and mythos, on a personal level, on a social level, on a global level, arming the world with netizens who are driven to work within current paradigms to merge profit with purpose

Conclusion

Overall, I want everything I do to align with my vision of a better world, starting with the only place I have any power; my own life.

Thank you so much for your attention. If you like the sound of what I’ve shared here you can sign up to learn more about courage in the emails I send each fortnight.

I write about communication and listening skills, mental health, neuroscience, leadership and personal transformation.

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