Last updated on April 2nd, 2021 at 01:00 am
It’s December 31st, 2016, and while I feel like the same Casey I was 365 days ago, everything’s changed.
There’re now two kids who need me in their lives instead of the toddler flying solo just a year ago. And though I seem to change 9-5s more than some change their underwear (ew), leopards never really change their spots, and the struggle remains real to find the balance I’m desperately seeking, but never seem any closer to finding. It’s not the kind of year where I can pinpoint what I learned—I spent most of it hustling ’til I dropped, and while I saw gains in some places, I’m not convinced the Casey you see today is any different despite all this.
If anything, I guess you could say I’m better prepared. Year after year I’ve looked back, surprised that the year I’d had was somehow busier than the one that came before, but this time it’s different. In 2016, much of that hecticness was by my own hand, and I’m pretty sure that just who I am now. The guy who’d rather turn something in late than create something that conforms.
But that also makes me the guy who’s constantly learning hard lessons from that pressure for perfection. The guy who’s had to part ways with ongoing gigs because they just weren’t doing it for me anymore. I spent more than enough of 2016 feeling like I was doing something wrong, so when things turned around at the year’s end with a post that finally gave me a taste of what success felt like, I tell you—it may have changed my #BloggerLife forever.
It could mean less giveaways in lieu of content that challenges our norms and gives us pause to think. Or fretting less over social and focusing more on storytelling, regardless of what popular thinking says. 2016’s been something else, and while I’m sure many of us would love a mulligan, it is what it is and it’s time to move forward and do something amazing.
So sayonara, 2016, it’s been one helluva time!
But 2017, don’t you worry—I’m coming for you.
I’m coming for a year without projects I can’t be bothered with. A year spent focused working hard to write the best stuff I’ve ever wrote, not just the stuff I’m asked to write.
It might’ve taken me this long to figure it out, but if you’re writing content anything short of timely, useful, or simply freakin’ amazing, you’re just selling yourself short and you’ll never make it quite as far as you really wanna go.
So as I write my new year’s resolutions, the first and foremost is this—to really challenge my boundaries in 2017, and take this site places I never even dreamed it could go. If 2016’s taught me anything, it’s never to limit how big I can dream, because anything’s possible with a lot of work, a lot of patience, and a helluva lot of luck. And here’s hoping that 2017 will give me a healthy helping of them all!
Viva la 2016—May we all have an amazing New Year ahead!
I hope you’re all gearing up for a happy new year. This last year’s admittedly been a long one, with plenty I’m sure we’d do over if given the chance.
But life is in the other direction. Every day’s ripe with new possibilities, and if we don’t do our best to take advantage of what we have every morning we open our eyes, we’ve only ourselves to blame when we proclaim a year as “the worst ever” at the end of December.
But that’s enough from me for now—I think I’ve done enough this year to spend the last few hours of 2016 not writing, so friends, I bid you adieu. May you see this year out even better than you rang it in!
So here’s to 2016—even if it didn’t give you everything you wished for, hopefully it was a year you could learn from to set yourself up for greater success in 2017!
Viva la new year and until the next, I remain…
