2022 Year Review
In December 2021, I scribbled on my whiteboard “2022-Stability”. There were a lot of things I needed to do to translate that into my life, but I knew the first step was to leave my job at the time. Now, it wasn’t that I was not loving the job, there were just a lot of managerial and structural (with a sprinkle of lack of resources) issues that made the job quite unpleasant at the time.
Knowing all of that, did I leave?
Answer: NO
Why you might ask, well, I did not want to leave them stranded plus I had high hopes for the program/organization.
That brings us to the first lesson of the year 2022: When faced with a decision to choose between an organization and your career, choose yourself and your career. I feel like globally, this was a lesson we all learned.
I eventually chose myself and resigned in February without any other offer in hand or sight. Here the second lesson emerges: Trust God unequivocally
I took the first two weeks after to rest and maybe this is another lesson: Sometimes, rest provides you with the clarity you need. Then, I intensified my job search. I got found by my current organization through LinkedIn (Optimize your LinkedIn — Do the work to get yourself visibility) and got my offer in April. If there is any advice I have from this period, it will be to keep learning and trust God. My current job has so far been my biggest win of the year 2022 and I am grateful for it.
While I was going through my year with its peculiarities, I consumed a lot of good media. Life was a bit fast-paced to sit down with books so I spent my time on Stanford Graduate School of Business’s YouTube and read Tim Ferris and The Hustle newsletter religiously. For podcasts, ISWIS (FK and Jola are very hilarious people I am rooting for so much) and a couple of episodes from The Colin and Samir Show. On spirituality, I listened to Pastor Apostle Selman and my home church Celebration Church International. I struggled to find TV shows I enjoyed this year but of course, I enjoyed Love is Blind (P.S.:SK and Bartise are the real villains of this season). If there is any lesson from my media consumption, it will be: Feed your mind and soul with what grows it positively and Listening to people at the top is a shortcut to knowing what skills you need to help your growth.
This year, like all previous years, I am grateful for friends and family. I also saw a lot of my friends reach different levels of growth and this warmed my heart so much! cannot begin to emphasize how much having people in your life who love you is important. Find your people and water the relationship. Be there for them and always let them know you love them.
As a Christian, and particularly a Nigerian Christian, New Year’s Eve is usually spent in Church and the message on 2022’s eve was to pursue excellence. Throughout the year, I heard different dimensions of that same message and that was what I gave my year to. For me, this translated to me equipping myself with tools and skills that will make me a great manager and also lead a team of excellent people. I started and finished 11 online courses and gave my all to every task on the job (For context, my team trained over 1000+ people in partnership with companies like Meta, UNDP, and Deutsche Welle Akademide amongst others). The results were evident in the feedback I got from my team members and my manager. The lesson here is: Continually pursue excellence and do not leave any learning to chance.
At some point this year, my mum told me this: “Anyone that comes to you for help, leaves with joy”. It really meant a lot to me because I have always told God that I want to be blessed to be a blessing. I was able to give more this year and I am super grateful for that.
This year, I have learned a lot, laughed, and cried, but one lesson that remained consistent was: Bet on yourself, you are worth it and God has given you the strength to go through anything.
Before 2016, at the end of the year, I would write letters to friends/family who were a huge part of my life. 2016 was a very rough year for me so I stopped. I will be picking that up again this year. I think it is a very good end-of-year tradition to have. Do you have any end-of-year traditions?
