If I’m to describe what this year means to me, the best way I can sum it up is that it’s a year of small growth in my life. Every day and every year, I am of the mind that we are constantly and consistently growing in some ways, and all you have to do is observe it. As for me, it’s something that I was observing all year round for one reason or another.
At the start of the year, it was because I wanted to jot down particular things that happened in my life. I stopped after a while as I got to a point where I wasn’t doing much to be journaling about.
But even as I stopped journaling, I was still paying attention to myself and the small growths and changes that I was making in my life. And all of that has culminated in my resolutions for the new year.
The Small Growths That Changed Me
I entered 2024 with the express intention of reading more, sorting out my finances, and—for the umptenth time—losing weight.
While I haven’t lost much weight, the first two points are something I’ve been able to accomplish.
For starters, I pushed myself to be reading more books to the point I was able to complete a book and partially a second. And in terms of my finances, I’m at least managing to get by with social assistance. It’s not much, but between the funding there and Medium, I’m able to make ends meet.
And even with weight loss, while it’s not significant, there are some changes coming on the horizons. I have new recipes that I’d like to make, and I have been walking substantially more this year than I did in 2023.
This is what I mean by the small growths that I’ve experienced in my life.
They’re not substantial on the surface, especially since in the end I failed at my resolutions. But they are improvements enough to be noticeable and shouldn’t be discounted.
And these kinds of small growths and acknowledgement of them are important for all of us to be keeping in mind. After all, making it through a year is a reward in and of itself. It’s a pretty big deal. Same can be said about surviving.
Survival is pretty important.
What’s Next? Probably More Small Growth
In terms of what I want to be doing next year, I’ve spent the better part of this month figuring that out. It was to the point that I forgot to renew the domain registration for this very blog and made me scramble around trying to get it sorted.
During the process, I did pause for a moment to even consider whether I should re-register this site or not. After all, the site primarily has become nothing but sponsored content, and most of my written work is published on Medium. I also know I’ve been slacking on re-publishing my content from there onto here as well.
But that still doesn’t take away from the fact that I haven’t personally written much on this website in a while.
But after giving it some time to stew in my mind, I went ahead and brought this site back and realized something.
As much as I neglect writing on my own blog, I also realize how much I miss writing here and in general.
I know this past year doesn’t reflect my current view of this blog, but I want to make some changes to myself and how I approach certain goals of mine. It was something that was taking shape over the latter half of this year.
Once I got on social assistance, I found it easier for me to get into video creation and bringing my articles to life through video. I expanded on my views, added in memes, and tried to make it interesting and exciting to listen to. And this next year I hope to do even more of that now that I have a proper desktop computer to work from.
And I’d like to be doing something similar with my blog too.
Clean it up, improve the home page and overall navigation, and put more effort into putting together some articles on here that I could share on Medium. This is on top of adding more articles to Medium and migrating them over to here as well.
It’s all going to be small growth, but I believe with time that this small growth and change in behaviour will lead to more promise. I know from my own experiences that getting back into Youtube allowed me to meet both a thumbnail artist and a marketing agency that will hopefully improve my video output and quality.
Doubt I’d get something similar with my blog, but I do know that nurturing and caring about a habit will only help it grow and make it more attractive to do over time.
My Resolutions For The New Year
These small growths are like ripples. They go unnoticed for a while, but eventually they make a big enough wave they can make a difference.
The biggest difference is that small growth can lead to bigger changes in one’s life. That or the opportunity to build up to those bigger changes.
Pushing myself to write more will naturally lead me to write more. Over the next year, I could build up enough of a profile that I might be able to offer my writing services and get more writing clients for once.
Youtube can also help me in getting more eyeballs on my content, and my continuous practice of recording myself can lead to possible gigs through that.
All in all, my goal is to continue the small growth in those areas and add a few more things that are tied to them. Those goals being:
- Grow my Patreon into something where I can offer people perks and rely more on it as a source of income for the future.
- Writing more articles to keep honing my writing skills. In particular, I want to focus on some short-form content that I can put up here to ease myself into writing on a regular basis again.
- Weight loss (again, I know). But it would make for good content if I actually stick with it. Plus, with all the new dishes I’d like to make, I can show off the pictures.
- Getting out of my apartment more often and indulge in something new every single month.
The last point is probably the biggest, as I know my life has been mostly isolated. But over the course of this past year, I’ve been making a point of getting myself out a little more. It’s been particularly easier, thanks in part to a game store opening near my apartment complex. I can walk down there and be met by friendly faces and a cozy atmosphere and play some games too.
This sense of community is something I know I desperately need in my life, so getting myself out there more often and trying to experience something a bit different is a good way to force myself to do that.
Wrap Up
As this year is wrapping up, the important thing to remember is to cherish and nurture the small growth experiences in your life. Every single year, we change. We just don’t realize it. So take this time to remind yourself of those small changes and improvements and make a big deal about them.
Because they can lead to new possibilities and more growth in the coming year.
To your growth!
Eric S Burdon