The difference a year makes.

The last time I wrote an article was back in July, and I have to admit, at that point I was beginning to feel somewhat burnt out from the blog. Not only that, but my focus started to shift more towards other things.

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Mostly towards my focus on trying to freelance and build my own company.

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But after a year of consistent grinding, I’m happy to say I’m somewhat satisfied with my progress. And as an attempt to reflect on my year about 2-3 weeks late, here is my year in review.

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Work

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This year I shifted from my primary focus of finding a job, but instead trying to make it in freelancing. And it turns out what people tend to say is pretty true, it's damn hard.

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I see now why people are so reluctant to leave their cozy salary jobs for the comfort and predictability, because freelancing and running your own business is anything but that.

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But I'm happy to report back while it may mean less consistent income in the short term, maybe you end up actually working more than a typical 40 hour week, and maybe you have to wear more hats as someone on their own...

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It's damn fulfilling in every way where a normal job might not be able to scratch that itch.

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There's tons of downsides hardships to it, of course. Everything from chasing down late payments, getting ghosted, figuring out ways to market yourself, figuring out your pricing, etc.

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But also tons up success and wins as well. Everything from achieving your goals and expectations, having clients tell you how much you've made a difference in their business, feeling like I'm good at what I do, and feeling like I'm making a real difference in people's lives.

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I feel like I'm really playing the game of life and it's all on me, for better or for worse.

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It gives me a sense of urgency everyday and gets my ass out of bed to go make some shit happen no matter how I'm feeling.

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I'm grateful to have found this because I think I was looking for it for a long time.

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At the end of last year, I decided I was in a place where I should be taking on as much risk as possible while I can. Just pushing all my chips to the center of the table and betting on myself.

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At best, I am a successful solo entrepreneur and I make a living for myself. At worst, I make mistakes and learn from them along the way.

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Sounds like a win win in my book.

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I create this checklist back in January outlining my goals for the year with benchmarks to hit in the first year. And I’m happy to say, I completed most of them even way before the year was over.

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Huge win for me.

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So for a first year with close to no expectations, I’m happy to say I nailed most of them.

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Maybe these goals don't mean much to others, but I don't know what I'm doing. So to hitting them feels pretty damn good.

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I feel like the more I learn, the more I realize I don’t even know what I don’t know. Which is just all a part of the journey.

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And with the things I’ve achieved, I feel like the sky is the limit now, which makes me feel like I’m already behind.

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Such is life.

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Life

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Life outside of work has been treating me extremely well.

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I have a beautiful girlfriend who loves to do all of the same things as I do. Everything from camping, snowboarding, watching weird movies, and laughing at the same stupid shit that I do.

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I’m lucky and grateful to have her.

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It’s been another year where I’m grateful for the friends and family that I have. I love them and appreciate the support they’ve given me along the way.

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Outside of those things, life hasn't really changed too much. I'm pretty much doing the same things as last year, but internally I feel everything else has changed.

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Last year was my trial and discovery year. 12 months of just trying things and figuring them out as I went. I learned a lot, but now I'm ready to take what worked best for me and enhance it this next year.

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Balance

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As a whole, I’m still trying to find ways to balance it all.

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Some days I work myself to the bone to the point where my brain feels like a pile of mush at the end of the day.

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Some days I don’t do anything and I do whatever I want.

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On the weekends I allow myself to reset before the stressful and busy week begins on Monday. Whether that’s watching 10 hours of football on Sunday, or going to a farmer's market with my girlfriend.

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The balance is mine to find, and I love it.

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Finding the balance of being an independent business owner, an available boyfriend, brother, friend, son, etc., and just a sane human is something I continue to work on every single day.

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And I certainly don’t have it all figured out, but I think I’m on a productive path to creating a life for myself that I’m happy with and I can ride out for as long as I can.

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2025 and Onward

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So to sum it all up, 2024 was great.

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It was a year filled with lessons learned and breakthroughs, as well as tough breaks and failures. And I’m ready to do it all over again, hopefully with more of the former than the latter.

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I’ve made great progress in all of the goals I set out for myself. But that was only the beginning, and now I’ve laid out an even more ambitious set of goals and aspirations for myself.

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I’m certainly going to be writing more blogs this year as well. With my mind being all consumed with things about work and strategy, I missed the weekly opportunities to take a step back and reflect on myself, which I think is super important no matter where you are in life.

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I guess my main takeaway from 2024 would have to be, if you are ever thinking about huge goals or aspirations, give it a year of trying. See what happens.

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1 calendar year of consistent effort is the best litmus test of whether or not you should continue to do something. You will find often times if you truly put in the work in on one thing, you will find improvement with a 99% success rate.

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Some would say a year is quite a long time, but it’s really not. Do yourself some justice, and commit to something for more than a few days or weeks.

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The results will shock you, and encourage you to continue moving forward.