As we bid farewell to 2021 and welcome in 2022 here's a reflection on 2021 - ‘A year filled with hope, delivered so much'
Towards the end of 2020 I was on a work call with a colleague talking about website analytics and some issues we had on one of our sites, after we finished troubleshooting the problem the topic of the convo changed onto stocks and shares. The company we worked for had just received an offer of $10bn from a US company and the shares were up 25% on the day. I mentioned to my colleague that I had done reasonably well that year buying some shares just after the March covid crash and already had sold them making a 3x (of course I sold out too early, but nevertheless I had made a decent profit). My colleague told me how he had been trading FX & Crypto and was making strong gains by making 50 or so trades a week with a reasonable win percentage. After the call he promised to send me all the video series he had paid a substantial amount for and I could learn how to trade too. During December lockdown, over Xmas holidays I banged out the videos 1 by 1 (there were around 100 in total) so that by Jan 2021 I would be ready to start.
The videos were long and technical, so I decided to see if any friends would like to join me in learning how to trade too. After a little persuasion my best friend Rob decided he would look at some of the videos. The idea to get a friend involved was for moral support but also to see if we could gain an advantage by using our different strength and outlooks to build strategies together.
After a period of 3/4 weeks Rob mentioned that he knew someone who was an expert at trading and had been involved in crypto for a while, do I want to be introduced and have a Facebook chat with him? My first response was “No”, I didn’t want someone I didn’t know giving me “trading tips” and clouding my judgement on a topic that could cause me financial discomfort. However a few days later a Facebook messenger group was made by Rob and the rest is history.
Rob introduced me to someone who is a complete master of his trade, a seasoned expert, battle hardened by 3 cycles of crypto trading. It turned out to be the second best intro I’ve ever had the pleasure of being part of and has had a huge impact on the major highs of 2021. This introduction, which has now turned into a friendship will go down as a key moment of 2021 and potentially the decade.
2021 started with high excitement but ended with a bang. In December 2021 I married my soulmate, my best friend and my travel partner.
The lead up to our wedding was tough. Omicron poked its ugly head in the UK at the end of November, after a dumb attempt to stop travel from Africa by the UK govt, days after the variant was already spreading throughout the country. Linds and I were busy contemplating if the wedding would be allowed to go ahead. This created huge anxiety amongst our family and friends. The week before the wedding was the hardest. We had 174 scheduled guests but ended up having 25 of them drop out due to covid related issues - each time I heard the phone ring I thought “here’s another person dropping out, we’ve got such a big hall and we’re going to have nobody there”.
The day of the wedding all the anxiety disappeared and I entered into the best state of mind I can ever remember. I was ready for it all, I couldn’t wait to marry my bride, I couldn’t wait to deliver my 10 min grooms speech, I couldn’t wait to be a married man!
My brother in law spent the day getting ready with me and said multiple times, “ I can’t believe how relaxed and chilled you are”. It was true, I was just ready to have to best day of my life and thankfully we did!
2022 - A year that looks good on paper
I have 3 goals for 2022;
Improve my cardiovascular fitness. When I was in my early 20s I could quite easily run a sub 25min 5KM, I was playing 5 aside football twice a week and was full of energy. In recent years I’ve been going to the gym a lot but mostly only to weight train and my cardio has taken a big hit. When I run 5kms I do them slowly and mostly struggle till the end. I want to take running much more seriously and post some more respectable times in the low 20s this year (watch out for them on liketu).
Resume Spanish lessons and complete A1 & A2 Spanish with the hope to start B1 in 2023.
Write and share more about the topics I’m most interested in, such as Tech, travel & lifestyle and gaming.
**Crypto goals **
Introduce friends to hive dapps and help them buy their first crypto.
4x my portfolio. I think this could be realistic if the so called “bull market” continues into mid/late 2022.
Increase my passive income by holding more HBD and writing better quality posts.
2021 was an epic year for me personally. 2022 has a lot to live up to if it’s going to come close to what 2021 brought me and my new family. By the end of 2022 I’ll be happiest if…
- Covid becomes a term less used and joins the common cold family.
- Friends and family visit us in Gibraltar.
- Linds & I have continued success in our Jobs…a promotion towards the end of the year should be on the cards.
- Continued success for all hive family, with Liketu becoming the biggest social dapp on all chains!
- My friends and family have a healthy and succesful year.
All the best,
Els