Why not write a yearly review of 2019?
No Calisthenics, no Mobility, but 100% Kevin. 😀
It’ll be a lot of fun to reread time capsules in 1, 3 or even 10 years.
Originally, I started blogging to write down my thoughts and get them out there. To write them down and structure my thoughts. To build a community of people who appreciate my view and to get critic, too.
And if I can help just one person with that – who am I to ask for more?
2019 was a big change for me plus the birth of my small blog. Although, I strongly believe that it’s easier to raise children than to write a blog.
My three Highlights of 2019
Being courageous enough to start blogging
In the beginning, I was in real fear of getting my thoughts out there. In the vast unfiltered space of the world wide web. Totally open to every kind of critique.
Fortunately, this fear was quickly proven wrong. Instead, I received mostly positive feedback from places I wouldn’t have thought of beforehand.
Starting this blog from scratch was a big one. I knew nothing – even less than John Snow. So – I had to learn WordPress, HTML5, CSS3, JS, SEO, Marketing and a dozen other cryptic things. As soon as fuckin’ possible.
I’ve never learned that much in that short time frame. I never worked that hard to make things happen. And I had a lot of fun while doing so.
It’s a great feeling – I sincerely hope you know that determined, inner drive, too! Like a small spark igniting some tinder, growing slowly bigger, till it reaches the size of an all-consuming bonfire.
Moving to a foreign city
Bye Bye, Bergisch Gladbach. Mach et joot, Cologne. Hey hey, Paderborn!
Fortunately, I’ve never been that close to my hometown. I always wanted to get outside. To see the world and experience things. To take risks and adventures.
Although it felt really strange, moving 200kms away for the first time in my life, it had its upsides.
I’ve never been this close to my family before in my life. I think we took each one of us for granted, living closely beneath each other.
Now I truly look forward to every time we meet. We have real conversations and appreciate each other. Never thought this would happen. #lifesafuckinmiracle
Falling in love with handstands
I’ve never been really into handbalancing and always skipped it when I had the opportunity. I don’t know why I’ve been such moron.
Four months ago I fell in love with seeing the world upside down. And I don’t think that it’s a kind of quick-ending love.
I suck at handstands. And it feels that it’ll be always like that. Handstands can be straight out frustrating sometimes.
But I love what I’m doing and keep getting better compared to me. And that’s what counts, isn’t it?
The three biggest downsides of 2019
I lost old friends
Moving to Paderborn I had to leave many people behind.
That was a harsh experience. But fortunately, I still am in contact with my real friends. The ones that count and that will stick around whatever will happen.
I lost soooo much time starting out my blog
Learning everything from scratch was much work. Especially the failures cost me weeks.
One example is that I tried to fix one PageSpeedInsights message. I wanted to update the version of jQuery my old theme used. The problem was – I had no freakin clue what the heck jQuery could be. So you can imagine that didn’t work well.
jQuery 1 : Kevin 0
Another issue which cost me a whole week was my first logo:
It would be exaggerated to say that I’m not good at designing stuff. I really suck. I don’t know why – but I wanted to design my first logo professionally as a vector graphic with Inkscape. The result was at best mediocre.
In contrast – I created my current logo with Canva in less than 5 minutes.
1000 cups of coffee and immeasurable hours of headache later I can say that these moments are the ones that give me security today.
Your failures are your biggest opportunities they say.
Am I enough?
I’ve asked me this question a lot this year.
- Do I know enough to write about calisthenics?
- Am I truly enough to position myself as an expert?
- What is enough and when are you worth having that reputation?
- Doesn’t everybody and his dog already know about the things I’m writing about?
And in the next thought, you’re going to compare yourself to others and what they achieved.
It took me long to understand that the only one I should compare myself to is old Kevin. Not anyone else – they have different backgrounds, stories, and problems. So why bother?
It is easy said, but really hard to truly think that way. I still struggle with this now from time to time.
Two really cool moments
I got lost in Thailand
I traveled alone around Thailand and Malaysia this march and April.
While I’ve been a night out with a few from my hostel, I lost them at a pool party. How can you lose a tall german guy with long hair wearing a flower necklace?
Was an awesome night anyway. I managed to meet some new Canadian friends and had we had a great night.
When I returned to our hostel the next day, my former party group looked puzzling at me. Think they thought I would’ve drowned in that pool the last night.
I discovered that coding and investing are fun
My bank clerk always preached to me how important it is to fight inflation. Viva la ETF!
She would’ve better spend her time talking to a wall.
I didn’t want to invest my money and kept it locked away. But this year happened a miracle.
I decided to do the Warren Buffet. And I have to admit – it’s fun being the oracle of Paderborn. I would’ve never thought that!
The same happened to me with coding. I always thought coding is for nerds. And maybe that’s true. But nonetheless, it’s fun.
I hate to work with something I don’t understand. So with the decision to start blogging, I HAD to learn web design. Just to make sure I know what I am doing here.
That’s on my 2020 To-Do-List
Blogging, Blogging and more Blogging
The unending grind.
2020 for me shall represent for growth. I wanna grow my blog, expand my personal borders, get more critic, create better content and connect with more people.
One thing I have to work on is social media. I always hated social media and never spend much time there.
But recently I learned it the hard way – it has great capacities. You can engage really well with your readers and other like-minded people (or totally different thinking freaks).
You can engage with your community way better than solely through comments on my blog – Sorry, WordPress! ❤️
Work and Travel Canada
On the 07.04.2019 I take my flight to Vancouver and head right into my work and travel experience.
I always wanted this but never had the courage to do so. I always had no money, no time or (insert random excuse here).
And now it’s time. I’m beyond grateful and really happy. It’ll be a hard time working out while on the road, blogging without set routines and being that far away. But it will be a changing experience. I am sure.
Getting serious in touch with Handstand
My workout goal for 2020 is to nail the freestanding handstand.
This move is a gateway to so much more. And it really fits work and travelling- it can be done anywhere anytime without anything.
Plus – the world looks cool upside down.
I talked way too much about me now!
Writing a post this way, was really fun for me. I didn’t have a plan and tried to be as open as possible without feeling like talking to my psychotherapist.
Have a lot of fun reading this future-me!
But I have talked now way too much about my boring life. A narcissist has to feel this way.
First I wanted to thank you for reading this long post and the interest in my person. Thank you!
As you’ve read – we all got our very own struggles. I think this is often overseen in the age of Instagram. Everybody there seems immaculate. But that’s totally off reality.
I would love to hear of your 2019! What did you struggle with? What experience made your 2019?
Leave me a comment down below if you’re comfortable to share this!
Last but not least I wish every one of you reading this a wonderful 2020! May it be full of experiences and challenge you to be your best self. May you find whatever you are looking for in this miraculous life.
I hope you found well into this year and didn’t get lost at your new years eve party. Let’s make this year great again. Let’s make it count!
Yours, Kevin 🙂
