2021 is over and I thought I'd reflect on the past year and where I want to aim for 2022.

So, what happened in 2021?

I got my businesses to break even

The biggest achievement for 2021 was getting my business to break even. And the journey to get there was surprisingly rough.

In retrospect, the uncertainty if I could get my business to profit, hit me harder than I had thought it would. It caused me stress that I was unequipped to handle properly, and I started developing some symptoms like being easily irritated by something minor, low mood, hopelessness, low energy etc. Basically depressive symptoms. I went to doctor and in the end I got some free psychotherapy. Though I'm still in the process of getting a therapist. Still learning not to procrastinate...

This low point was in summer and early autumn, but things started to turn around further into autumn. I joined a networking group from which I've gotten some clients and I started focusing on building my email list and writing more emails – not as much as I would've like, but even that little I did yielded some results and I managed to pull profit on monthly basis from every month of last quarter 2021 which pulled the total profit to the upside.

What I learned from that, is that you don't even have to believe in yourself to succeed, as long as you keep going. Because I had serious doubts I would break even. Somehow even with having poor concentration and low work capacity.

You know, a popular advice is to "just believe in yourself". Well, what if you don't? I guess the solution is to try anyway. Does that mean you have to be bit crazy to do something you don't even believe? Maybe. Though it wasn't that black and white that I didn't believe in myself at all. On an intellectual level I knew I had the potential, though I guess the doubt of not believing was on an emotional level. Emotions are very low resolution though and despite being real, the message they convey might not be true.

What helped turning profit is that mysmall business expenses which takes a lot of pressure off, not having to pull as much clients and sells. It also gives me more control on how much I wanna work, not being forced to work long hours. I did the math and I would get a net income of 1500€ with 3 to 4 clients a day if I worked 4 days a week. 1500€ is actually on the low end income-wise in Finland, but with little expenses, I would live comfortably with that.

Third saving grace is my own frugality. I don't need to turn much profit to sustain myself, because of little expenses. For the time being that me and @rrusina are living in a student apartment, our accommodation expenses are minimal, since most of the already low rent is covered by housing benefit, since our income isn't too high. The biggest expenses then are food and our car (technically it's in her name, but I partake with the expenses since I use it, too). I'm also lucky to have backup capital in the form of investments (mostly crypto) which is another safety net that allows me to be comfortable enough on taking risk with my own business. Though the amount of stress was surprisingly high despite of that. High income need would've probably crushed me with needing to pull more sales.

Stayed physically active despite a stressful year

Another success of mine for 2021 was staying physically active despite I was high on stress. Most of my physical activity was in the form of commute cycling to my business room where I do the massaging. That adds to the frugality since I save some on gas and public transportation. Money wasn't the only reason though, since I know exercise is good for mood and energy, so I went to work with bicycle as much as possible.

Managed to stay disciplined with it since the habit is old: since being a kid I've cycled through summers and winters and all between.

^{Roads are maintained well here, so snow is not a problem.}

One way trip to my workplace is about 17 kilometers, so there and back makes it 34 km, which makes it over 100 km per week for most weeks. If the weather was shit or I had to transport some stuff I did opt for public transportation or car if @rrusina wasn't using it for her own commuting. Oh, I actually got my driving license just in 2021! Forgot how little time I've had it.

Goals for 2022

For my business I would be happy if I can consistently turn profit on monthly basis. For now I don't have specific profit targets. If I can stay on the upside, I'm happy.

Investment-wise, my goal is to start hedging my crypto holdings into stablecoins (mostly HBD), maybe into some stable farms too, as the bull run progresses. I want to take advantage of this bull run and park some profits, unlike in 2017 when I was noob to crypto and had little idea on market cycles. Didn't have much capital back then though, but now that I'm into 5 digits, I want to make sure I secure some profits that I can use to buy back again in a bear market.

I'm expecting the bull run to extend well into this year (it's possible it'll go even into 2023), because past data suggests that the crypto/Bitcoin market cycles are lengthening. And right now we are at a point where the length is only the same as the last cycle. If historical trend keeps repeating, there's still time for the bulls to run. Now this is highly speculative and no one can know for sure, but in my opinion lengthening cycles is the most coherent theory out there and the most likely scenario to play out. Being a contrarian here, I say that the only 4 year cycle was the last one.

Third goal I have is to be more present and engaged in whatever I do. Business-wise it is focusing more on building, instead of focusing on numbers. Numbers in crypto have a tendency to also catch too much of attention. Less attention to short term price action, and more attention to building a strategy for hedging and creating content here, for example. Generally I want to try focus longer on single things, instead of shifting my attention back and forth constantly.