2021 was a pivotal year for me. A year where I really settled into my life (it only took me 29 years!) It started off as a regular year but then somehow I found myself working my dream job in media for the Tokyo Olympics, creating content on TikTok to a whopping 20k followers, exploring my creative spark writing a novel, ticking off a lot of fun adventures securing a promotion and becoming financially educated and secure.
But somehow something changed. I was growing rapidly and happily creating content everyday. My work/life balance was better than it had ever been, I was going out regularly to events I love and able to do so much, but then the inevitable pressure came. I was going home and immediately climbing in bed, I would not spend time in any room other than my bedroom which became cluttered and cluttered life leads to a cluttered head. My anxiety to open up my blog or TikTok became overwhelming, a day of not posting turned into a week, turned into a month. I had people not just asking but actively wanting more content and that’s what I always dreamed to achieve. I didn’t find it hard to create, ideas were flowing but I found it hard to just open up anything for fear of the unknown after time.
People said ‘just do it’ but it’s never that easy, I’ve never been one for ‘new year new me’ so it is not the fact we’re entering a new year now that is making me focus, its that even outside of posting people have been interested and seen my potential. I was approved to be a brand rep for the beautiful Daffodils and Dangles and even briefly chatting to the other brand reps made me fall in love again with why I do this.
So i’m back, raring to go and so excited for not just where 2022 will take me but to release all my adventures from the back end of 2021 that I never got round to posting yet carried on documenting anyway because I hoped one day to be the motivation to someone else that I so desperately needed.
Life isn’t perfect, nor are any of us, so don’t put pressure on yourself to be, if you need time off take it, you’ll naturally always be drawn back to those things that you love and that’s what is important.
How 2021 developed me.
I worked my dream job at the Olympics. I got promoted to a broadcast engineer. I direct consistently for the UK’s only live beauty channel fusing my personal and professional passions. I stepped in front of the camera and presented a live tv show. I got my finances in order and made great progress with not only saving but splitting savings into different pots and making my money work for me (happy to do a post on this). I became a brand rep. I did more in the last year (in a pandemic) than I did for 5 years of my mid twenties – Life really does start at 30 for me.
… and for the less glamorous but nevertheless needed developments.
I had a few vegan (and even vegetarian) mistakes, but something that would’ve made me cry or lash out a few years ago I just shrugged off as none of them were intentional and I realised that’s what matters. I feel incredibly lucky at the amount of Vegan options available now and got to try so many new things in 2021, but 2022 is the year to focus on vegan and cruelty free as more than food and beauty but home products such as washing liquid which can often contain animal fats!
I learnt that anxiety and depression can hit you even when everything’s going right, and people will shrug it off this time and tell you to ‘sort it out’ a lot more as there’s no visible reason. It will hurt, it can make you feel a thousand times worse, like you’re broken or wrong but you aren’t.
Goals (not resolutions) for 2022
It is important for me to set some goals for the year instead of resolutions. Resolutions by the name are resolute, they are that or nothing, which I think already starts with a negative vibe. If you fail once you feel like a failure, whereas if you set goals you only measure your progress instead of a pass/fail type system. So a few of my goals are things like recycle more and stop impulse buying but instead focus more on saving (I did really well at the end of the year with my extreme budget series on TikTok so it won’t be a shock to the system) Also I will try to be more sustainable with fashion, jewellery and beauty.
These may seem a bit overwhelming all at once so I have started by picking a couple of things I can actively work on and develop from there:
Sustainable swap #1 – cat food. You cannot deny the price and convenience of individual sachets but the single waste packs are such a waste so i’m moving to tins and just bulk buying.
Sustainable swap #2 – disposable cups. I’m a nightmare at work for being a coffee fiend but I have a terrible habit of single use cups and although the paper cups get recycled the plastic lids probably don’t so keeping a flask and water bottle at work is a big but simple change for me
So there it is…
2021 was nothing like I expected. I just wanted normality, I didn’t want big, unachievable changes. I wanted to go out and do things, I wanted to be able to buy things for me without worry. I wanted to make myself happy. Although there were some down points, and a sense of sheer overwhelming to carry on with content creation that I love so dearly, overall within myself, 2021 was my year of development. I’m not fixed, but i’m not broken, and if i’m making the right decisions along the way that’s all that counts.
OhSoViki 
Thanks for sharing your retrospective — it’s always good to read about how people have grown/overcome/succeeded through a year (particularly 2021 which was a challenge for so many of us). Wishing you all the best in 2022!
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