Today is a special day for me. One year ago, officially, I launched this blog with plan, hope, and vision – you can read about this in this post.

Today I’d like to reflect on what I have learned so far, what I achieved, what’s not, and what are my plans for 2022 in terms of the blog.

In the beginning, I’d like to say a big thank you to all of the people who are supporting me (family, mentors, and people on LinkedIn) and visiting this place.

The plan vs reality

The first lesson is about setting goals. In the beginning, I said to myself that I’d like to write 40 blog posts and record 12 interviews in 2021. It was a real plan, on paper, because if the year has 52 weeks I don’t have to write every week. The reality, however, was/is slightly different.

I wrote 34 blog posts and did 5 interviews, pretty close. I had weeks where I didn’t write any words because of many reasons. I had several unexpected events when I had to focus on something different than on my blog and so on, so forth.

If I feel guilty that I neglect the blog and my readers, is it the right approach? Not at all. I’m really proud of what I have done so far and I have kept some kind of consistency. The key message here is that having a plan is really important, but it should also consist of some buffer for things that I cannot predict.

Besides a number of posts and interviews, I had many other ideas but right now I know that there is no chance to do many things at the same time.

Working with beliefs

One of the purposes, why I have started my blog, was also to work with beliefs that I have and examine them in the real world.

The first one is that nobody will read my posts. Of course, this is a huge exaggeration but I was afraid that I would have to put in a lot of effort and there would be no readers at all. What I could say right now – I received a lot of great feedback from you and, on the other hand, that building the audience is a long-term process. I don’t have the exact numbers, how many people visited my blog this year, but it really doesn’t matter for me at this point. I will be really satisfied if, at least one person, benefits from this about what I’m writing here.

Secondly, is the fear of talking to strangers. This point is regarding the interviews. One of the missions of my blog is to share knowledge and experience by inviting experts in some areas of personal development. My worry was if anyone would accept my invitation for the interview. Again, it was only my unfounded fear. Of course, I got many rejections, but last year showed me that persistence is the key, in this area as well.

And the last one was, that people will criticize me. I think that this is a common fear of people who start doing something that can be commented on by others. We may worry about what people think and say about us and what will happen if someone criticizes us. I realized that there is a really small chance that a worst-case scenario will take place because people do not tend to be our enemies. What is also important here is to be aware of the value of what you are doing. I think this value I gained this year.

I’m the company

When it comes to blog management, there is one truth that I discovered – you are the CEO of that company and if you do nothing, nothing will happen.

Last year showed me that, as a blogger, I need to take multiple roles at the same time including:

• writer (especially in english, which is not my native language)
• programmer (to build website from the scratch)
• SEO specialist
• wordpress guy
• marketer (for example, to promote blog on social media)

If you have the luck that you can delegate it to others, great. However, I think, that gaining that skill is a very interesting journey. What I’d like to say – I really like this! In addition to that – everything you can learn from the Internet.

Being consistent

Earlier I mentioned the fear that nobody will read my blog. I think that blog is the best thing that can teach you how to be consistent.

When you start, it might be very frustrating that you dedicate your time and energy to publishing something and you don’t have a huge response (for me it was also the case). However, this is a totally normal situation. After one year I know that “success” (whatever it means) doesn’t happen overnight. Keep writing, have some plan, do small actions as regularly as possible and somewhere in the future, you will see the result.

Plans for 2022

Right now I should present what I plan to do in the upcoming year, my exact goals, for example, how many readers I’d like to have, how many articles, and so on. But, for 2022, instead of making plans, I’d like to focus on priorities.

My first priority is to keep the blog alive. It means to publish on regular basis articles about personal development. Also, I’d like to invite other authors to have a contribution to my blog posts. Is it possible? I have no idea but I will try.

Secondly, post more and also, on a regular basis, on LinkedIn, which is my main social media platform to promote my blog. It is also a place where I can connect with many interesting and inspirational people.

And the last priority is related to another form of sharing knowledge. Writing is important but podcasts and video interviews are the forms that people more and more used to watch. To do that I will still look for guests and I plan to record solo podcasts.

This is my shortlist which, I believe, will help me to offer interesting materials to help in your development.

I wish you all the best in 2022 and of course lovely Christmas time.