2021 Year in Review: Year of Recovery

2021 is finally in the books! As many of you can likely relate, it was a good and difficult year but better than 2020.

It’s so very easy to look at the year to come and dream about all the exciting things that will happen and forget about the exciting things that happened in the year before. We don’t value reflection in our culture anymore when it was a big thing of our ancestors, and I think that is a huge misstep because we all too easily forget where we came from.

2021 gave us much time to think and act upon our actions which have a great impact on the surroundings. Businesses started to open after the lockdowns and people got almost back to their work. We have our classes online for spring but thankfully got back to campus for the fall term.

I started working on my Family Business with my Father. After years of delay, we finally started our consultancy - dealing in design & engineering. It was a dream come true for us as we were expected to start it years ago.

I also started to onboard new clients to our digital agency. After years, we finally got to work with new clients and offered not only digital but print and installation services as well. It was a new experience although there were a lot of mistakes that we did and learned from in offering the new services. But it's part of the learning process in any field. And lessons learned from mistakes usually don't happen again. In business, you usually can not learn from books the things that happen in the field and in the market at that specific time. Markets evolve, businesses evolve, fields evolve, you don't know what would happen tomorrow. Every day new tools come out to make your work easy and efficient, you learn new ways of doing the same thing, you meet new clients who want their work different from the work you did for the same type of clients. 

I started a new hobby. It was this year when I finally started a hobby that was more related to my previous field of study. House Plants! Yes! This year I got my heart into this hobby of growing and keeping house plants. I studied plant sciences where my focus was more on crops and not horticultural plants. But now I found love in house plants, indoor or outdoor. I collected and have almost 15 plants just in my room and many more plants outside in the Juliet balcony and small garden.

Onward to 2022

2021 – it has been a recovering year.

I’ve been blessed beyond measure, and I’m excited to see what 2022 holds. I don’t know what tomorrow may bring, and even if everything falls away, I can still rejoice because my hope is in ALLAH and not the fleeting things of this world.

I’ve got a shortlist of things I want to do in 2022, but none are particularly easy!

1. I want to get married. It's been a few years since my family is looking forward to it but our efforts and ALLAH's intentions don't always match and for the Good! ALLAH knows better and does what and when things are good for us. So, hopefully, things go as planned.
2. I should wind up my MBA. I'm expecting to complete my post-graduation without any delay. This would be my 2nd Master's degree after a two-year gap. Studies are not going to stop but I need a break.
3. I want to strengthen my startup into a proper company. There have been almost 5 years since I started a full-service digital agency but it's still in a startup phase. In 2022, I want to make serious efforts in making my company among the top 30, at least in Peshawar. Since I'm offering many services and want my company to be a full-service company. Huge efforts and dedication would be needed as the variety of competitors are more than just a few in a single service.
4. I want to establish another company that is kind of hobby-based. It's already in the works, but it is a goal nonetheless. It’s easy to get stuck in maintenance mode for other endeavours, so I find it necessary to remind yourself of things you want to accomplish so that you actually do them.
5. I want to read at least 5 books in 2022. This year I got to read a few books but it was just skimming & scanning and did not finish them all. Now I want to get really into reading stuff. Here are the books I want to read in 2022.
6. I want to get serious about physical fitness again. In the past, I have joined GYM a few times, started home-based workouts, running and jogging but all were for a short time. I want to get serious about my physical fitness again in the next year. I have plans to join the GYM again and get things together for home workouts. For the past two years, the pandemic has negatively affected our mental and physical health due to confinement to our homes and done nothing but just thoughts of we are doomed. It is very important to get fit again both mentally and physically to live healthily and happily. 

That’s all. I told you it was a shortlist, but neither of those things are easy to do. I’ll have my work cut out for me, and when I achieve them, I’ll work on my next list of goals to achieve!

What has happened for you in 2021? What do you hope for in 2022? I’d love to know!