Man, 2019. What a ride that was for my career. People always talk about zodiac signs and stuff, and yeah, I’m a Virgo, so maybe all that attention to detail and grinding away actually paid off that year. Because honestly, it felt like everything I touched just started turning into gold, you know? Not literally, but the wins just kept stacking up.
I remember kicking off 2019 feeling a bit… flat. Not bad, just not really moving. I had a couple of projects ticking along, good solid stuff, but nothing that made me jump out of bed screaming, “Let’s go conquer the world!” My main gig was pretty steady, but I had this itch, this real urge to push for something bigger, something that felt like a proper leap. I was doing a lot of the same old, same old, tweaking here, optimizing there, but I wasn’t seeing any big jumps in my numbers or my influence. It was a grind, for sure, but the kind where you wonder if you’re just running on the spot.
So, I started digging. I mean really digging into what was holding things back. I grabbed all my old project notes, all the data I’d collected, and just spread it all out on my big desk. I spent a whole weekend just staring at spreadsheets, trying to find patterns, trying to find where I was leaving money on the table, or missing opportunities. It wasn’t glamorous, let me tell you. Just me, a lot of coffee, and numbers. I circled stuff, highlighted things, scribbled notes everywhere. What I found was, I was playing it way too safe. Sticking to what worked, yes, but not daring to really break out of that box.
That’s when I decided to shift gears. I pinpointed a couple of areas where I felt I could really make an impact if I just leaned into them harder. One was about reaching out to more potential collaborators, not just waiting for them to find me. The other was about taking a risk on a new tool, something I’d been eyeing but figured was too much of a time sink to learn. But after that weekend, I told myself, “Screw it, no more playing small.”
I started by mapping out every single contact I thought might be a good fit for what I was trying to build. We’re talking hundreds of names. Then, I didn’t just send a generic email. Oh no. I went through each one, researched what they were doing, and crafted a super personalized message. It took forever. I was staying up late, sometimes until 2 or 3 AM, just to get these emails out. My fingers ached from typing, and my eyes felt like sand. A lot of people didn’t reply, of course. That’s just how it goes. But enough did. Those few replies started opening doors. Small doors at first, but doors nonetheless.
Meanwhile, I plunged into learning that new tool. It was a beast, let me tell you. The manuals were dense, the tutorials were confusing, and I felt like my brain was turning into mush. But I committed. Every single morning, before anything else, I spent an hour just messing with it, breaking it, fixing it, trying to understand how it ticked. I watched every video, read every forum post I could find. Slowly, like super slowly, it started making sense. And once it clicked, man, that thing was a game changer.
The first big win came from one of those personalized outreaches. I landed a significant new partnership that expanded my reach like I hadn’t seen before. It wasn’t overnight, mind you. There were weeks of back and forth, proposals, calls, and more calls. But when that contract finally came through, I felt this huge wave of relief and pure excitement. It wasn’t just about the money; it was about proving to myself that pushing past the comfortable was worth it. That one deal alone probably doubled what I was pulling in from that side of the business.
Then, that new tool I learned? It allowed me to streamline an entire process that used to take days down to just a few hours. This freed up so much time that I could take on even more projects. I started applying it to everything. My productivity just shot through the roof. Clients were impressed, deadlines were met with ease, and suddenly I wasn’t just doing good work, I was doing it faster and better than ever before.
By mid-year, things were just snowballing. Another big win came from getting recognized internally at my main job. My manager actually pulled me aside and said they noticed the increased efficiency and the quality of my work. They even mentioned the new strategies I’d been quietly rolling out. That led to a promotion and a really nice raise, which was completely unexpected but so validating. It felt like all those early mornings and late nights were finally getting seen.
The rest of 2019 was a whirlwind. I wrapped up that year with a whole new confidence, a bigger network, a fatter bank account, and a whole bunch of successful projects under my belt. It wasn’t luck, not really. It was just me deciding to stop settling, grabbing hold of what I wanted, and just working my butt off to make it happen. You push, you learn, you grind, and eventually, things just start to click. Sometimes, all you need is to just keep showing up and swinging for the fences, even when you’re tired.
