The new year is officially here. It’s out with 2022, and in with 2023. At the start of every year, I take time to sit down and reflect on how the previous year went. This involves getting out my trusty journal and favourite ballpoint pen, and doing a deep dive into my successes, my failures, and everything in between. This isn’t random scribbling. It’s asking myself pointed and structured questions with the aim of learning what I can do better moving forward.

It’s amazing, the lessons one learns when one sits down and reflects on them. These lessons are almost never what I think they’re going to be, but that’s part of the fun. So here, I thought I would share the lessons I learned from my deep dive on how 2022 went for me.

Lesson 1: I was a busy bee

The first thing I reflected on is that things got busy—busy in a non-content way. This past year, I had the wonderful opportunity to work on a massive project that I am so grateful to have been a part of. It’s a project that helped a lot of people, and it gave me amazing experience which helped me to grow both personally and professionally.

This growth and busy-ness, however, meant that I wasn’t as free to work on building and maintaining my client portfolio for content writing as I have been in years past. This was an interesting lesson to learn, because it forced me to sit back and confront the reality of how my time was monopolized this past year. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t change a thing. But I did have to find a way to accept that my lack of time spent on writing content was a circumstance that was not within my power to control. As a result, I had to learn to forgive myself, and accept that this wasn’t a failing on my part. It was just a choice I made to focus my time elsewhere.

Lesson 2: I scaled back on outreach

In part because of how busy my year was, and in part because I chose to move in another direction from content writing, I found that I scaled my portfolio back to one client to better manage my workload (whether consciously or unconsciously, I don’t know). I am okay with this. For now, working with one engaged client keeps me dexterous, keeps me in the game, and keeps me very satisfied with the work that I’m doing. This year I was able to truly enjoy the articles I wrote, and I was able to build on this experience. Needless to say, I did not try to offer any pitches to any potential new clients.

Lesson 3: Goodbye Twitter

I am backing away from Twitter… there, I said it. Phew!

It is tempting to claim that the reason for this is because of everything that is happening with this platform lately. While I am watching the Twit-uation unfold with a sense of remote disbelief, it is not actually why I’ve decided to un-Twit myself.

The truth is, I simply don’t enjoy it. The Twitterverse does not suit my personality style. As an introvert, the constant need to be on the platform, creating short, little snippets of thought and engaging at a high-level leaves me with a significant amount of anxiety. It’s not about ROI or lack thereof, about platform or lead conversion. It’s that I just don’t like it. I heard once from literary agent Carly Watters that, at the end of the day, social media should be fun. If you don’t enjoy it, don’t do it. Well, I don’t enjoy Twitter. So I am making the strategic decision for my mental health and well-being to simply walk away and focus on other outlets for being digitally social.

Lesson 4: 2023 will be about me

I have decided that this will be the year that I focus on my own blog and content. With the aforementioned project that I have been engaged in coming to a close, I once again find myself with the prospect of time to spend on content writing. Instead of trying to build back a diverse client portfolio, I’m feeling that 2023 is the year that I’m going to work on my own content. There are several reasons for this which I won’t mention, but one of these reasons that I will allude to is that I’ve got ambitions for my writing that are not content-related.

In addition, I figure that if I’m backing away from Twitter for my mental well-being, and if I’m enjoying working with only one client for the reasons I stated above, then I can only assume that spending time writing things that I want to write about is going to further elevate my mental well-being. I therefore have no other aim except to work on my blog. And I think I’m okay with that. I’ve been writing content for other people for so long. I think now is the time to take a break and write some for myself.

Hello 2023!

I am excited for the new year and what’s in store. I hope that’s not a cliched statement, because it’s true. All this deep diving has given me wonderful clarity for how I want the next 365 days to go. I am excited to discover what the new year will bring.

One of the things I have always said, and one of the more worthwhile pieces of advice I impart to my teenaged son (other than that no one wants to sit next to a lad who doesn’t brush his teeth), is that of the opportunities which come your way that you want to take, take them. But take them seriously. You never know where they are going to lead you. For example, I never knew that, as a teenager, following my friend to something called “air cadets” to watch her graduate from recruit status would lead to me being second in command of the entire squadron five years later, with a glider pilot license to show for it.

I don’t know what writing content for no one but myself in 2023 will bring. I don’t know what leaving Twitter will bring. I don’t even know what will come of having been a part of the massive, incredible non-writing project that I got to experience in 2022.

For now I’m just going to sit back and wait with baited breath to find out.