If I was to theme my year, I’d use the word ‘reconciliation’. I was called to reconcile with former friends, business associates and acquaintances. But most important of them all, I was called to reconcile with God. The journey is ongoing and the story is long, so, I’ll save that for another post.
2018 has been challenging, but fulfilling and rewarding, both personally and professionally. Growth comes with sacrifice and change and I suspect that going into 2019, continued growth will require more sacrifice and change.
If 2017 was about friendship, I feel like 2018 was about family. I spent a lot more time this year with family. Not only did I spend more time with family, I was supported in more ways than I can count. I can’t thank my Mother and Father enough for the the support that they have given and continue to give me. Thank you to all my friends and family who continue to support and encourage me.
I’m 28 and that’s a bit surreal. It means children, marriage; adult things. Not children or marriage for me though; not yet! But children and marriage for my friends; just other adult things for me, for now. I started the year attending a friend’s wedding. I’m ending the year doing that too, attending a wedding. In fact, I’m writing this a few hours before attending the wedding of my good friend. I have one more wedding to attend before the end of the year. 3 weddings in 1 year! That’s more weddings than I’ve attended in the last 5 years! I’m not sure what that means for me, but let’s see.
I know I say this every year, but 2018 has been EduFocal’s best year yet. It has not been without its challenges, and to be honest, our challenges are more internal than they are external, which means that I need to become a better leader for my team and for the company to continue growing. My cousin recommended I read Ego Free Leadership by Brandon Black and Shayne Hughes, I’m only 30% into the book and I’ve already received so much value. There’s so much insight from it that I plan to leverage going into 2019. Suffice to say, 2018 was the year I saw a clear path for EduFocal’s IPO in the near future
This year, I visited 3 countries and 5 cities. Of the 3 countries, 1 was new. The new one being Haiti. The other two are the United Kingdom and the USA. In terms of cities, I visited Port-au-Prince (Haiti), Fort Lauderdale (USA), York (UK), London (UK), Miami (USA), New York (USA) and Miami ( USA). I had a great time in Haiti and hope to visit again in the future.
2018 was the year that, with a serious push and insistence from my girlfriend that I finally got serious about my health and started exercising regularly. The impact of that was me getting sick less and feeling so much better in my body. I’ve fallen off again the latter part of this year, but I plan to continue working on that going into the new year and beyond. It really is true what they say, ‘Health is wealth.’ I also took up a sport this year, tennis! I’ve enjoyed it thoroughly and it’s something I plan to do long term. Playing tennis has also allowed me to make great new friends and deepen existing ones.
The last big highlight of 2018 for me is my Profile interview, which will air on December 16, 2018 with host, Fae Ellington.
For 2019; I plan to double down on what I was already doing in 2018 10x.
Here’s to a great 2019!
Originally published on gordonswaby.com on 2018-11-18 (recovered from the Internet Archive).