2013 In Retrospect

2013 is over.

In retrospect, a lot of interesting stuff happened this past year. I took the time to look back and reflect on 2013 and perform a complete 360 self-evaluation. I know we’re almost in February and you may be asking, “Isn’t it too late to talk about 2013?” You may be right, but it’s better late than never, so I’m going to share with you a few things that happened in 2013 in my life as a professional web designer.

A little disclaimer: I don’t believe in New Year’s resolution. Statistically, most of the end of year resolutions are broken by March so there’s no point in making end-of-year resolutions. I’m a huge fan of the “just do it” mentality (props to Justin). I like to have actionable things regardless of the time of year and be accountable for it.

2013 was a very busy year for me. I worked full-time at Bestbuy.com while taking on freelance projects and working on Cympel. My life was bonkers. In May, I quit my job at Bestbuy.com and joined Cympel full-time.

But before I left Best Buy, I redesigned my site completely which as you may know, is not a small task; it requires a lot of hours and dedication, especially when you have an impostor syndrome like I do. It was a fun project and I even wrote an article to share my design process, but I never had the time to edit and post it. (I’ll be redesigning it again soon so this time you’ll learn about my process.)

I quit Best Buy in May and moved to Nebraska to join Straight Shot, an accelerator program for startups. I was in Nebraska for about 6 months. After the program I decided to resign and come back to Minneapolis. Well, the plan was to head to Boston but things are working out, for the time being, in the Twin Cities so I decided to stay another winter. (I know, I’m crazy.)

Overall, 2013 treated me really well. I learned a ton about business (I still have a ways to go) but most importantly I embraced the entrepreneur mindset. And to be honest, once you experience it yourself, it changes the perspective in your career and to some extent, your life. Although it’s not for everyone, it was totally worth it for me. I also learned to believe in myself. Ironically, I was able to identify the impostor syndrome trying to sabotage my well-being and my skills so I would feel unworthy of my work. Through mindfulness, being in the moment, meditating, and understanding my weakness and strengths, I was able to destroy what was trying to destroy me.

The year started strong for me with great opportunities and challenges ahead. I have a feeling it’s going to be a great year.

Bring it on 2014!