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Martín Vukovic
Martín Vukovic

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My yearly theme for 2021

For a few years now I've been following the idea of a yearly theme instead of the classic new year's resolutions. I've discovered this thanks to the Cortex podcast, and for the last three years I've been using yearly themes with great success.

(You can learn more in The Theme System's webpage, or you can also watch this video made by CGP Grey himself)

For the last two years, I've embraced the "Year of less", which I stole from CGP Grey, and I was really happy with the results. But this year I feel that I have incorporated the Year of less into my routine and my normal life altogether, so it doesn't make much sense to keep using it as a yearly theme anymore. Instead, I decided to try a new theme, the "Year of Visibility"

The Year of Visibility

I chose this theme after two other candidates that didn't just "resonate" with me right now. They were Year of control and Year of investment, but who cares about those losers, let's talk about Visibility!

I feel that Visibility has many possible interpretations and I like the implications of all of them, so the Year of Visibility comes with many faces:

Inward visibility

Gain more visibility about:

  • My health: for a long time I have not paid enough atention to this and I am starting to feel the consequences.
  • How I spend my time, how much productive time I actually have, how much my time is worth, etc.
  • My finances: I don't have a fixed income, and I am not sure about how much I've earned or spent last year.
  • My own internal life: emotional and psychological.

My goal is that by having more visibility about these aspects, I will be able to anticipate possible problems, and also discover hidden ones.

Visibility from the outside

Become more visible, and some examples of this could be:

  • Create new projects or participate in projects that can give me an oportunity to make myself known.
  • Make new contacts, clients, partners, friends, etc.

My goal is to break the isolation in which I have been living... all my life? I'm not going to stop being an introvert, it's not about that, it's about creating more oportunities for people to know me and my work. I have always struggled to get new clients other than by word of mouth and I want to change that.

Visibility of others

Give more visibility to a cause or causes I believe in.
By helping spread awarenes, or volunteering to help something I feel passionate about can help improve the lives of others, and at the same time, find a healthy source of personal satisfaction other than work or play.

Do you have a yearly theme? Why or ahy not?

Top comments (1)

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shivaramanaiyer profile image
Shivaraman Aiyer

Great article Martín. Something I'm gonna read up on more. 👍