It’s time for me to look back at the year 2022 and write a bit about it, so that I can always come back and read the short version of it in the future. You’re free to join to do so.
I missed writing the 2021 year in review due health issues – the same that have been plaguing me throughout 2022. But at least now I can write this article, so things are much better.
I’ll talk about all these in this article, so let’s get started!
Health Issues
In October 2021, some potentially life changing health issues rocked my world – and did it violently and in a very unpleasant way.
As a result, I was forced to take a break from blogging altogether – for a few months. Even today, one year after the crazy event, I am not running at 100%.
This is frustrating and horrible. But things were and are getting better. This is all that matters to me and I have to hope that they will continue to improve.
I don’t think I will ever be capable of doing as much as I did in the past work-wise, nor do I think I should do that anymore.
2022 was the year when I was reminded that health is the most important good that we have and we are 100% responsible for how we handle that.
I’ve been “told” this back in 2014 when I was diagnosed with a fatty liver and completely changed my lifestyle back then, only to slowly get back into the habit of eating unhealthy once again.
Something of a similar nature happened in late 2021 and throughout 2022, but hopefully this time I have my lesson learned and I will stick to the new schedule.
I am not getting any younger and it seems that recovering from anything takes a lot longer.
Moving to a new city
Something that made things a bit more complicated with my health issues was the fact that we moved to a new city.
What an effort it was. Stressful, more expensive than anticipated (WAY more expensive) and slow, with many unexpected obstacles… but in the end, everything turned out just fine.
I am actually enjoying the new city we’re in (better than the old one, I have to admit!).
However, we moved to a new city for one reason only: our son. We want him to get as solid of an education as possible, and we ended up concluding that this is one of the few places where he can get it.
So far, it looks like we have been 100% right and this gives me a huge level of relief and satisfaction. Seeing your son mentioning “the school” as one of the best things in his life – especially when you know you are sacrificing so much for this – keeps you sane and happy.
I find myself at a moment in life where egoism is starting to creep up. I want to do this and that and I know that I can’t have them all – both the new city with its better school AND the things that I want.
But in a world where everybody’s becoming more self centered, I have learned, embraced and fell in love with sacrifice. I don’t want to sound like a martyr – because I am far from that – but what I mean is that there’s just one thing in this world that matters more than the world itself and than my own person. That is my son and his well being.
I want to be able to help him turn into the best possible person he can be and in order to achieve that I am ready to sacrifice my dreams and personal pleasures (I hope only temporarily – hahaha), to spend time with him and teach him everything I think will help him turn into a real man.
The line between this and turning kids into spoiled brats is very thin, I guess… but I am doing my best to be careful. I am doing my best for my son and seeing him grow so nicely makes me happier than any amount of money could.
Travel in 2022
With 2022 being such a hectic and difficult year because of my health issues, travel was minmal.
However, we did manage to get back to Budapest for 2 weeks – and with it being one of the best cities in the world for me, I was genuinely happy.
Apart from that, I’m considering the new city we moved to as travel (because we did take some free time to explore it and the surroundings). We went to the nearby beaches a few times also.
We also visited Bucharest, where my wife’s mother in law lives and took a day off at the nicest water park there, which was again really nice.
But apart from that, travel wasn’t a big thing in 2022 for me, unfortunately. And with everything happening in the world right now – especially the rising prices, I don’t think there will be much travel in 2023 either.
Blogging in 2022
I am earning a living from blogging, so the health problems I mentioned earlier made things extremely difficult.
In terms of income from my blogs, 2022 is probably my worst year ever.
You can’t expect much when you simply can’t put in any work in January or February. Since March to June, I was only able to work around 1.5 hours per day, in 30-minute sessions only.
I managed to increase my time to a maximum of 4 hours now, but things are still very difficult and challenging.
Fortunately, I have had my wife to help me with most of the daily tasks and we were able to keep things afloat – but barely.
In terms of actual income, 2022 was horrible for me. It was at the level of 2015 and had we not had some serious savings put aside for times like this, it would’ve been really, really difficult.
But there is some hope for 2023. Due to my inability to work as much as I did, I had to rethink my business strategy. I am outsourcing almost all the content production right now and trying to optimize the business as much as possible.
So far, the results are positive, but I’ve only really started to do this in August, so it is still too early to say. But I do know I have to simply find something else that works – something else, that doesn’t involve me working 8 hours each day in front of a computer,
But all in all, blogging was pretty bad too in 2022, far away from the growth I was anticipating back in 2021.
Conclusion
I was tempted to say that 2022 was my worst year ever. And while that is true in most areas of my life, there is some optimism now in late December.
But since my son is genuinely happy in the new city and since he’s growing into such a nice man, I prefer to look at these few good things and forget about the others.
However, I still need to be focused. First and most importantly – on my own health. I have to stick to the set schedule and do the right things for me, as that means I’m doing the right things for my family.
This is probably the most important thing for 2023: keep focusing on your health and slowly get back as close to 100% as possible.
I also have to be smart about my business. I simply can’t put in the hours that I used to, which means that I have to delegate. There is no other option here right now. But I have to do it smart – and pray that it works long term.
I personally don’t think that blogging as it was until the end of 2022 will be around for much longer.
I think that traditional blogging can only do extremely well 4-5 years from now, at most. I can only hope that I will be able to adapt, but it won’t be easy. The good things in life are never easy, so let’s go for it!
But please, 2023. Be MUCH better than 2022 was!