Whoa! What a year, huh? I had such high hopes for this year having only just moved to London and finally made my hobby into a career. However, looking back, this year was just crap. ๐ I realise that the end of this year won't magically cause all my problems to disappear. However, it still feels nice to think of this as a time for a reset. ๐ In this article, I will talk about my New Year resolutions.
A carry-over goal from last year. Both physically and mentally, 2020 took a massive toll on me. In particular, losing access to the gym during lockdowns was a shock to my system. ๐ญ However, I realise now that all I can do is adapt to the situation and whatever curveballs life might throw at me. Shout out to my parents for inspiring me! No matter what happens next year, I want to make sure I get enough exercise, eat healthily and take care of myself. ๐ช

I'm nowhere near as fast as I'd like to be at programming - both at work and in my personal projects. :running: Partly, this is because I have so much more to learn. I want to continue to learn as much as I can next year, especially about front-end development and AWS. ๐ค However, there are also many behavioural changes I can work on to improve my efficiency. For example, I need to better focus on what I need to deliver and avoid going off course. Thankfully, I have an incredible team to draw inspiration from and learn from.
I've been trying to learn Spanish for several years on and off. ๐ช๐ธ This year I decided to make it a priority, and I am happy about my progress. I am grateful to my friends, Ruzin and Sharmila, for motivating me, and my teacher Claudia. ๐ My goal is to be able to converse with my Spanish friends by the end of next year. ยกBuena suerte para mi! ๐ค
I previously had a blog at vipinajayakumar.com. It was made using Hugo, a go based static site generator. It worked quite well for blogging, but I didn't feel very confident modifying the website myself. Therefore, this year, I migrated to bluprince13.com. My new website uses the Next.js framework and React.js, which I already know and love. ๐ฅณ I'm also psyched to have added support for MDX which allows embedding JSX within Markdown. ๐ Basically, it means it'd be straightforward for me to add cool new features in my blog articles. I'm pretty happy with the result. Now that the stage is set, I want to write as much as I can in 2021 and improve my writing skills. As you can see in the video below, I also experimented with YouTube this year. ๐ฌ Videos could help me explain stuff that I just can't through writing. However, making videos also takes a lot more effort. I want to make more videos next year and decide whether I want to keep doing it in the long-term.
Career-wise, I'm fairly confident that software development is what I want to dedicate the rest of my life to. Now that's out of the way; I want to focus on finding my life partner. ๐ A new goal for this year. I just hope she exists. ๐
There are other goals I wish I could set for myself, e.g., learn to play the piano. Unfortunately, there simply isn't enough time. ๐ญ This is probably more than enough goals for this year to keep me busy. It'd be awesome if I could achieve some of it. ๐ค Have you decided what your New Year resolutions are?