It is the final countdown. In a few hours we bid goodbye to 2021. As ready as I am for the new year, it feels a bit hard to say goodbye to the year that feels like an old, trusted friend.
To be honest, 2021 was hard. I was not ready for it as I wanted life to go back to the pre-pandemic days. To the life I knew and could predict. But 2021 snuck up behind me when I was not ready for it. It pulled and stretched me to a point that I bent out of my original mold. It reshaped my mind and spirit. It made me brave and taught me to look at life, success, and growth in a new way.
I have always been a planner at heart. In my early twenties, I could have told you what I planned to accomplish, by which year or at what age. Definitely not a risk taker, I like having a plan. I want to understand the risks ahead of time, and have multiple mitigation plans for each risk that I foresee. I have lived most of my life following my planned life, defining success the way the world does – the next title and a higher salary. Progression in life comes in titles, right? If you start at manager, the next has to be senior manager, then director and so on. How else do you know if you are growing?
Then the pandemic hit and it played havoc with my plans. My dad’s close brush with death pushed me to explore my passions that I had put aside to focus on my growth. In a previous post, Stop Crying and Start Writing, I shared how I took a leap of faith to pursue my dream of writing. However, this was not an impulsive leap. The planner in me interviewed several writing coaches before deciding to go with Eric as he had the most well laid out plan and success rate. But the writer in me was unable to foresee the risks as this was not a path I had taken before.
Every hurdle as a writer made me swirl. I struggled with imposter syndrome. Crowdfunding my book made the introvert within me cringe. I wrote and rewrote to find my voice and stay true to the message. Deciding to ask for feedback on social media platforms and having some strangers review my work left me feeling completely vulnerable. I learned to accept feedback gracefully and worked to understand what the reader thought and needed. As a planner, it was hard to acknowledge that I needed more time than in the original publisher contract. Accepting the fact that though I had a coach and a publishing team supporting me, I was 100% accountable for my work kept me up at nights. I quit a job to write, the biggest risk to date. Pursuing a dream rather than a plan taught me the power of grit and perseverance.And the list goes on.
As I look back, I am glad I did not know the hurdles and risks that awaited me on this unknown journey as a writer, because if I did, I would not have embarked on it. I am now a few weeks short of publishing my book and I can say without doubt that I have grown the most this year by pursuing something that was not on my plan or growth strategy. An unexpected outcome of this experience is that I accepted a role that was not on my career plan. I wake up most mornings and pinch myself as this role has unknowingly brought me one step closer to my mission of humanizing our approach to building digital products.
I often read quotes that resonate with me. But then there are moments when I feel I am living the words. As I read this quote from Nelson Mandela this morning, the words could not feel more true. “ I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers fear.”
Dear 2021, Thank you for teaching me to be brave. Thank you for ensuring I cross paths with these amazing folks who made the year so impactful. Eric Koester, thank you for being my writing coach. Kyle Murdoch, thank you for reminding me to not close doors to opportunities. Jason Ferrell, thank you for seeing me in a role that I could not see myself in. Beth Martin, Chui Chui Tan, Frances Dattilo, Gauri Shah, Hari Tagat, Katy Breuer, Michael Lewis, Michelle Saffir, Michelle Voorhies, Sanjay Kumar, Mike Hill – thank you for giving up so much of your personal time to help me write an impactful book. I am truly grateful to each and every one of you.
2022, as you wait around the corner, I am excited and a bit afraid to see what you bring. I hope 2021 prepared me adequately for you. But if not, we can work together on both the small and big stuff. I am excited that in a few weeks, I get to unveil my first book, Empathy and Arrogance: The Paradox of Digital Products, with you. Cheers to old friendships and to new ones!
