I did a similar end of the year recap in December 2017, but it was posted as a short review on my IG account. But then I thought a yearly post like this won’t be a bad idea.
This is primarily for me; counting my blessings and giving thanks to God for and in everything, then maybe something to encourage you to take a personal audit of your life as you move into the new year.
This is basically a recap of the long year 2018; highlights of the great, the not-so-great and the low points of the year. I’ve divided it into different sections for proper journaling and I’m going to start with one of the things I’m quite proud of; the number of books I read.
Books
In 2017, I could only boast of reading two (2) books cover to cover, and one of them was Deep Work by Cal Newport. In many ways, this book helped me to actually slow down and see my life particularly my work life and digital footprint in a clearer perspective. The book made me choose to read more me this year and I am glad that I did.
I read a total of ten (10) books, currently reading 2 and followed 2 newsletters religiously. Drum rolls!!! ??♂
I would love to give a summary of each book, but that will make this post longer than necessary. Here’s a list of all the books:
Completed
- Before You Do – TD Jakes
- Dreaming with God – Bill Johnson (Thanks to my awesome senior friend, Jibola Olude)
- The New Rules for Love, Sex and Dating – Andy Stanley (My babe-turned-fiancee-turned-wife sent this to me)
- HBR: On Managing People (Shout out to Yvonne)
- The Final Quest – Rick Joyner (Jibola Olude)
- The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho (Monica, thanks for loaning me this one. It birthed Curated Memes)
- Children of Blood & Bone – Tomi Adeyemi (Ivy, when should I expect the sequel?)
- HBR: On managing Yourself
- Success is who you are – Sam Adeyemi (Yeside, say thank you to Mummy for me, again)
- The Monk that sold his Ferrari – Robin Sharma (A Zegist friend sent this to me, I think)
Currently Reading
- Love & Respect – Emerson Eggerichs
- 4 Seasons of Marriage – Gary Chapman (In Mayorkun’s voice Mayokun Baby, thank you for recommending this)
Newsletters
- Seth Godin’s Blog
- James Clear’s Newsletter (Teefarie, you’re heaven sent!)
To everyone that gifted me books recommended or added to my reading list, thank you, I’m quite grateful for the intellectual contribution.
P.S My birthday is in a few days time (January 11). Winks
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Sadly, I opted out of theHustle & Joy Inc’s newsletter simply because I find them too wordy and frequent (daily) to keep up. I dislike having many unread emails esp. Newsletters and I have a dedicated Yahoo mail for junks and sign-ups.
In fact, I recommend you be like me, unsubscribe from all those newsletters that you never opened/read that makes you have 7,893 unread messages as well. At least start the new year on a clean slate.
Working Out
Working out to be fit and ultimately have a great body is something a lot of us desire to do and I’m glad to have started that journey July this year. I’ve not been very consistent, had to pause at some point due to work and wedding demands, but it feels great to break the inertia. ??
I’m going back in January, in fact, I need to go back. My feeding pattern after my wedding has increased phenomenally (Thanks to my Wife) and it’s either I see this as an opportunity to carve my body or get carved. ?
People who enjoy the struggles of a gym are the ones who get in good shape. Plus, who we are is defined by the values we are willing to struggle for and I’m going to put in more effort in the new year. Here’s a detailed guide on work-out for beginners I found on the web. You’ll love it.
This part is incomplete without the support and motivation of my gym buddy, Habeeb. Thank you for everything Brother.
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#MrAndMrsOluwarufus
On the 3rd of March, 2018 in the presence of a few friends, I went down on one knee to propose to Temitayo. Before then I’d visited her parents in her absence to hint them about my intended move, and to ensure I’m fully accepted (to avoid stories that touch). We had a close-knitted family introduction to discuss wedding modalities and as they say, the rest is history.
The wedding day went so fast that by evening, I was like I can’t believe we are done and I’m now married. I wished the day was slower and I had more time to savour every moment of the day.
Are there things I wish I could have done better as far as the wedding is concerned? None really. I just advise everyone that’s planning to get married to count the cost (I still have my budget notes) and save the following year’s rent before they spend it all on the wedding ceremony.
To my sister that stayed with me since January, and doubled as our awesome event planner; Fiyinfoluwa, I say thank you.
My wife and I are very grateful to everyone for their love, prayer, wishes, encouragement, gifts, support and for celebrating with us on the 8th of December. Thank you. ?
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2018 is the year of weddings-es and once again, congratulations to my friends that tied the knots in 2018;
- Olawale Akanbi & Mayokun (Nee Oyeyemi)
- Tolu Oluokun & Ifeoluwa (Nee Ajigbon)
- Imole Oluyemi & Helen
- Seyi Ogunjuyigbe & Florence
- Olusanya Samuel & Kemi
- Segun Aderinto & wife
- Dara Oladapo & Wife
- Babatunde Adeuti and Shade
- Olukotun Gideon & Kibie
- Akin Odemakinde & Wife
- and every other person I can’t remember at the time of writing
We wish you a blissful married life once again. We (my wife and I) love you and your home will continue to be in our prayers.
Multiply wisely! ?
‘Dayo Abodunrin, Akinsanya Joseph, Femi Okaseun, Evans, Deji Agbelemoge, Yomi Olatunji, etc., do quick!!! ?
CuratedMemes
The idea of building a site where people can create an account, upload and freely download African memes for use was birthed while I was at the cinema with friends in May. After reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho; a book about following the Universe’s omen, I thought that helping people access funny, emotive African memes might be the next treasure/gem I needed to pursue.
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I released the v1.0 on the June 30th, after ~ 8-10 hours of work and since I’ve made some improvements to the site, view the changelog and features here. I’m working on a bot for curation on Twitter with Olumide and UI improvements with Nathaniel. Thanks for that comprehensive review Reemtos.
So far, there are over 50 memes on the website with 2,391 pageviews. Thanks to everyone that contributed to the website so far. I hope to give this appropriate attention in 2019 and let’s see how it goes.
Gospellyricsng
It’s been a remarkable year for Gospellyricsng, particularly because of the expansion to other African countries that was announced in December 2017. Exactly after one year, we have 369 lyrics and over 100 artistes from South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, and 10 other countries, apart from Nigeria, listed on the website.
Traffic spiked and we crossed 5 million all-time page views mark. From 2014 till date, the website has been visited 6,825,097 times by 2,969,147 people, with 3,289,195 page views alone in this year. That’s almost 50% growth in 365 days Fam!!!
We also announced a shop during the 4th year anniversary which we’ve not given much attention to yet. This is a major revenue area we hope to focus on in the new year. If you have any tips for me, kindly let me know.
To everyone working with me on this; Setemi, Ifeoluwa, Bolu and those I might have forgotten to mention, thank you so much for an amazing year. 2019 will definitely be a lot bigger.
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Cregital
2018 has been an exciting year of noticeable growth at Cregital, especially in terms of projects, management and operations. We had amazing new clients like Transcorp and Causevest and I am glad we ventured into mobile apps eventually, although this is not a major core offering yet.
I also witnessed individual and collective growth in the team, said goodbye to some great colleagues (All the best always @ Tunde, Habeeb, Yeside, Ogeh, Adebsalert etc) and embraced some amazing new souls (Taiwo, ‘Dapo etc). We also had amazing international and local recognitions (bagged a hattrick award sef) and I hope for more in the coming year.
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One of the remarkable highlights of the year from the team is ARK – Acts of Random Kindness. This is an initiative of @cregital to share happiness with as many people as we can and also give back to our community. Cregital and volunteers went out on Dec. 12th to spread happiness, the goal was to touch 5000 lives, but 5,164 people were reached. We also built a kindness app, a PWA to help log and track our acts of random kindness.
2019 will definitely come with its own new challenges and I’m looking forward to the growth it will trigger for myself and the team. More grace to lead to the Head Honcho, Evans in the new year. My bae, Atinuke, keep smashing goals.
Speaking
I had about 3 speaking engagements in the year and one of them was one of my largest audience so far, ~ 1000 Covenant University students. I do hope to honour more invitations in the coming year.
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2019!
I don’t need to tell you 2018 was a great year of honour, peace, joy, happiness, and safety. God has been faithful!
I’m not a big fan of new year resolution, who e epp? But I will be setting goals on various things as I go in the year. You know, there’s a deep joy that comes with getting our prayers answered and setting goals and achieving them.
Here are a few things I hope to do better in the new year:
- Wear more shorts. I’m telling you this is so therapeutic, I discovered during our pre-wedding photoshoot.
- Continue spending quality time playing and building with my life co-founder, Temitayo. I actually ought not to go to war, in my case, write any code or send email, for one year you know? ?
- Take mentorship and mentoring more seriously
- Get more active in the church. I believe going back to music (singing or playing the guitar) is going to stretch me more than resolving to media. We’ll see how that goes.
- Consciously monetize Gospellyricsng, the store especially. We need to make money and expand fah!
- I didn’t read my Bible as anticipated this year, I need to do this better and I’ve started a reading plan with my wife already. Who said we have to wait till January?
- Break 2018’s book reading record, I can do better than 10 books.
- Do I want to learn a new programming language? I’m not very sure about this, the need for this is yet to come up. To every newbie developer out there, if growth only means more programming languages to you, then you need to grow up in 2019. There’s more to life than the newly-released fancyJS library. Read more, improve your communication and social interaction skills, fall in love, travel more, pray more etc.
Just be a better human every day. - Travel and travel more. I learned it’s sweeter when you’re married, it’s time to find out.
- Of course, nurture more meaningful friendships. I had an amazing 2018 because of people like Temi, Okenwa, Charles, Ore, MichaEl, Ozzypaul, Angel, Dami, Chikeorah, Adaora, etc. Thank you if you’re reading this.
- Work out! Work out! Work out!
- And a very important one: make more money!
I can’t wait for all the glad tidings and lessons 2019 has for my family and friends.
Thank you for reading, Happy new year of exponential signs and wonders to you and yours.
Credits: Cover Photo – Dideoluwa, Edits Bolu Akindele. Gracias ??
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