Writing this personal review on how my year went is kind of emotional. I have always procrastinated writing or avoided it the previous years, thinking I was no match to others writing theirs. I am a lot courageous now, and I am grateful for how the journey so far has been for me in 2021. Choosing the title with the word kaizen was something I learned from from his "Future Proof Yourself" talk earlier in the year on Zero To Mastery (ZTM). Andrei Neagoie What is kaizen? For me, a simple explanation of what kaizen means is the continuous slight incremental improvement I have witnessed in 2021. Kaizen is a Sino-Japanese word. Work This year, I began the year jobless, and it was a tough one, and my mental health wasn't all that great. I persevered and made a promise that I would make it no matter how little my win came.
Here are some of my highlights that filled my face with a smile. I became an author with and participated as a technical editor during the content creation hackathon in partnership with and . Hackmamba Auth0 Cloudinary Got a job as a full-stack developer in an ed-tech company in Lagos. Got a badge from my participation in the HarperDB hackathon for my job board application. Taught a group of enthusiastic web developers as a web development instructor even when I doubted myself if I could do it. I did pretty well for the 7 months I partook in the exercise. Made a couple of six figures in NGN from content creation. I became happy, and it stabilised my finances. The next target is 7 figures and higher in NGN. On October 1, 2021, I received an email that I got in to be AWS CB (Community Builder) which came as a shock because I had forgotten I ever applied for the program. Next was congratulatory email on becoming a blogging fellow. 2022 will be filled with me writing a lot. HackerNoon Networking and connecting with people virtually made me calmer and relieved as I have worked most of the year from home. Even though I promised myself I would speak at tech conferences this year, fear and imposter syndrome always kicked in 😜. Next thing you guessed right, I will say next time I send my proposal to speak. But finally, I gave a talk in December 2021 on Clubhouse. Speaking engagement The not so pleasant ride Remarkable events occurred in 2021 but with a twist of rejections, failure, and ways to improve in 2022. Got rejected for a lot of open roles. About 60+ or more rejections. Some never got back with "unfortunately" 🤐 Received an L in August as I left my full-stack developer role Failed at the last stage of the MEST EIT and didn't get the chance to be in Ghana 😭 Technical writing saved me from my depression, and I hope to get better at it and churn out more content Moving forward Going into 2022, I will be more intentional about what I want to achieve. Try to take fitness more seriously and be stronger Learn the craze and buzz about Web 3.0 Also, I want to learn about the standard practice of DevOps Make more money 💰. I am not shy about stating my intention Conclusion As mentioned in the work section of my review, some events in 2021 made me smile, and I promise to build on that and go harder in 2022 and make more memories that weren't as pleasant in 2021. Things can only get better from now on as this write-up has been on my mind all year, and I finally inked it on the digital space (the internet) 🚀. Finally, 1% improvement every day is what is categorising my 2022. And I believe so much in the kaizen process. If you liked this article, let's connect deeper on | . Twitter LinkedIn Also published on: https://dev.to/terieyenike/2021-kaizen-or-nothing-2c57

HarperDB

Target

Twitter

Data Visualization Using Chart.js and Gatsby

9 Productivity Tools for Non-Technical Professionals in 2022

Portfolio

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Data Visualization

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Heroku

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Javascript

Nominated for 2022 - HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - Frontend

Nominated for 2022 - Remote Work Warrior

Nominated for 2022 - No No No Nodejs

Too Long; Didn't Read

Boost your HackerNoon story @ $159.99! 🚀

2021: Reviewing and Kaizen-ing My Programming and Writing Life

2021: Reviewing and Kaizen-ing My Programming and Writing Life

About Author

Comments

TOPICS

THIS ARTICLE WAS FEATURED IN

Related Stories

5 reasons to consider Next.js for your next projects

Tech Politics, Math, and Career

10 Ways Developers Can Make Money Coding

10 Skills You Need For Your Post-Pandemic Career

10 Companies to Bet the Future of Your Career On

143 Stories To Learn About Career

5 reasons to consider Next.js for your next projects

Tech Politics, Math, and Career

10 Ways Developers Can Make Money Coding

10 Skills You Need For Your Post-Pandemic Career

10 Companies to Bet the Future of Your Career On

143 Stories To Learn About Career

Light-Mode

Classic

Newspaper

Dark-Mode

Neon Noir

Minty

HN StartUps