There's Still Some Time...

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Honestly, it’s been a crazy year. So many things have happened that turned life upside down for a lot of us. Back at the beginning of the year, we were so hopeful and had so many goals laid out for ourselves, and this was because we believed beyond all reasonable doubt that we could achieve them.

But then, the year has been topsy-turvy ever since the very first month. Everything has changed and it keeps changing at a pace we can barely even keep up. The economy has the ability to give one heart attack as it keeps going up and down, insecurity is still at an all-time high and the ever-increasing price of goods and services is just plain scary. Sometimes, it all feels like a horror movie.

But still, despite all these, never forgot my goals. Not just regarding Hive but also regarding my life in general. I had so much to achieve this year and I wasn’t going to let the country take that from me. Each goal was specially designed to help me go further in life and I would stop at nothing in achieving them.

At the start of the year, one of my major goals was to start using original images in my posts. That was not as easy as it sounds, you can believe me. At the time, the phone I was using didn’t have a good camera, so this particular goal meant I would have to get a new phone if I was going to achieve it.

For months after the first day of January, I kept using pictures from copyright-free sites until I eventually bought my new phone. Even at that though, I didn’t start taking the pictures immediately. It took about another month before I started taking pictures and using them. I’m the kind of person that rarely takes pictures, you won’t even see a lot of pictures of me on the phone. But you’ll find so many pictures of the structures I’ve taken. Only a fraction of that ever ends up here.

You might have noticed that for a while now I’ve been recycling pictures, I’ve not taken new pictures in a while and that’s because I’ve not really been going out. It’s only when I get out there that I can be inspired again to take pictures, and I try my best to make sure that each picture I take can be used for a variety of posts.

Thankfully though, I did it! And there has been no turning back for me, I now use other images sparingly and most images I use are mine.

Another goal about Hive I had was building my Hive Power. It’s not been easy but I’ve been somewhat consistent. My plan was to get at least 7500 HP at the end of the year, and so far I’ve only been able to get it to 5000 HP. It’s not been easy. There was a time when I wanted to power up more of my posts to help boost the growth, but the situation of the country kept grabbing me by the neck and giving me this terrible shake. I just couldn’t. As it stands, the battle is not lost yet. Four months is still enough for me to work some miracle and hit that 7500 HP mark.

One of my major offline goals for the year was to publish my novel this year. It started great and in all honesty, I believed that by now the book would be on platforms and already been consumed by readers. However, this is my first time publishing and there’s so much I have to learn. Writing for yourself is one thing, but writing for the world to see is something else and you need to give it that global treatment.

For the past few months, my manuscript has been going back and forth between me and my editors. I keep making changes and tushing it up so that it’ll be as perfect as it can possibly be. You know how great things take time. I’m willing to give this all the time and funding it requires so that it’s going to be a hit when it drops. I’m leaving no stone unturned.

I finished writing the book sometime around March or April, but since then I first had to run my personal edits on the book. Then, I gave it to beta readers who gave me feedback about the progress, and after that, I pushed it to the editors and that’s where we’ve been ever since. However, I still believe that I can do it this year! At the very least, it would be published during Christmas. But I’m going to make sure that it doesn’t cross this year. So yeah, four months should be enough!

So, as you can see, I still have my work cut out for me for the rest of the year. Trying to fit all these into four months is not easy at all, but we’ve been doing great so far. Chasing goals, working, and going to school have become a routine for many of us. We’ve been doing it for so long, we can’t stop now. We still have a long way to go.

I do know that no matter what, I’m in a way better position than I was at the start of the year, and I believe that is chiefly because I chased my goals long and hard. That motive has not died down just yet. I’m still going after them hard, and for that, I believe that I’ll get to it as well by the end of this year so I can have a new set of goals to achieve by 2024. I’ll try my very best not to allow any goals to spill-over into the coming year.

Who knows, I could go on to exceed even my expectations!

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_{Thank you for reading. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below, I would love to know what you’re thinking. Till we meet in the next post.}

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_{This post is inspired by the first topic of the week which is Four Months More. Feel free to take part.}

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_{N.B: All images are mine.}

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