For the past four years, I’ve continued this tradition, but now I’ve decided to move it to Medium. The reason is simple: unlike personal websites, Medium works more like a social network, with a culture of following and interaction, which allows you to reach more people.

Of course, thanks to APIs, I can still pull these posts to my own website, just like you can see on burakbayram.me. Through social platforms, I’ve also entered this year with a clean and organized web interface.

At this point in the article, I went back and reviewed the last 4 years of blog posts. Honestly, I could almost create a “data graph” out of them. They also show me where I fell short and what I wanted to do but didn’t. For archiving purposes, I’m also adding these past posts to my new site so you can read them:

YEAR 2017 – YEAR 2018 – YEAR 2019 – YEAR 2020

YEAR 2020 Summary

Looking back at the goals I set for 2020, I could easily say: “Most of them couldn’t be achieved because of the circumstances.” But in reality, if I had pushed myself harder and controlled my nafs better, I know I could have done them.

Here’s the 2020 list I had set for myself:

• Prepare 25 new Kariyer Sohbetleri videos.
• Prepare 25 new personal interest videos.
• Start piano lessons. (item 25)
• Gain 34,930 new subscribers. (item 18)
• Travel more. (linked with the next item)
• Prepare 25 new videos for the tubi channel. (items 4,5,7,9,10,11,12,15,17,27)
• Sign up for ceramics classes.
• Sign up for calligraphy classes.
• Prepare 1 Udemy course (WordPress).
• Make 12 new painted mugs.
• Keep track of the books you read.
• Write an automation system for all data.
• Attend 15 useful events.
• Send 100 postcards.
• Find another job you like.
• Complete and finalize Gezgin Harfler.

When I go through them one by one:

• Instead of 25 Kariyer Sohbetleri videos, I managed only 3.
• Instead of 25 personal videos, I made 8.
• Piano and calligraphy classes didn’t happen.
• I only briefly attended ceramics classes before COVID hit.
• Instead of 35k subscribers, I gained 6k.
• I didn’t achieve items 5, 6, and 13.
• I only went camping once and attended a few online events.
• I didn’t create a Udemy set.
• Didn’t paint new mugs.
• Read about 10 books.
• Tried learning React instead of building automations but dropped it midway.
• Items 14, 15, and 16 saw no progress.

It was definitely a strange year. I may sound like I was lazy, but in truth, a lot happened. You know how people say, “If you wrote my life, it would be a novel”? I sometimes feel the same way. But for my past, my present, and my future — I’m grateful.

YEAR 2021 Goals

I feel like I’ve started this year a bit early, because for the past 10 days, I’ve been spending every evening after work on personal projects. I pray this year will be calmer for the world, and more fruitful and fulfilling for me.

Since I enjoy measurable progress, this year I’ll also go with sharp, numeric goals:

• Launch 2 niche YouTube channels and publish at least 12 videos on them.
• Dedicate weekends to discovering new places and prepare 12 new tubi channel videos.
• Create 1 new Udemy course and repurpose the content for other platforms.
• Develop a podcast idea and publish at least 1 series on Spotify.
• Pick up 1 new hobby.
• Read more in every area.
• Build a system to keep finances accountable.

That’s enough for this year, I think. In addition to these, my personal focus is health, because that comes first. I want to take better care of myself, exercise more, keep learning, and avoid anything that distances me from being true to myself. And as always, no matter the situation, I want to keep being grateful.

Allah’s protection be with you. 🙂