Hi Friends,
2021 is almost over and this will also mark the 9th anniversary of The Life's Way and I wanted to have this 2450th blog post as my self-promotion rather than for any brand. I completed 8 Years in Johannesburg on 2nd November 2021 and the best part for this year is that I got my South African driving license. Now I can drive here easily for the next 5 years or so.
Last time I did one report on my 5 Years of Life in Johannesburg and since then what I have achieved till date will be mentioned in this blog post -
My love my blog The Life's Way has crossed 3.4 Million page views and this is my 2450th blog post. I am currently using Samsung Z Flip 3 5G smartphone which is my first foldable device and I am really grateful to Samsung for the same. I am still driving the Honda Civic 1.8 Elegance but I want to move to an SUV soon enough next year. I also bought my first house in Johannesburg, South Africa and am now no longer living in rented accommodation and can buy my own stuff as per my requirements and needs. Lockdown due to Covid-19 gave me enough time to think about my priorities and now I intend to not waste my time on things of no returns like free blog posts for the brands who are not sending me anything or not even calling me to their launch events and not even retweeting the shared blog posts. Why waste time on such brands when you can have fun with limited few brands enough to last your lifetime?
During the last three years, I made trips to Kruger National Park, Garden Route, Northern Cape and many more places which I had not visited earlier too. My Google Maps photos have crossed 39 Million views and places reviews are standing at 214721 views. I have reviewed over 230 places so far and reached the top 10% places reviewer whereas I am the top 1% contributor in terms of photographs on Google Maps. In the next year or so I intend to reach Top 1% in terms of reviews too by taking the count to around 500+ reviews of places. 17092 contribution with 73025 points so far and still on Level 9 in the Let's Guide programme.
My youtube channel crossed 851 subscribers and has now 386k views in total. I have crossed 200 videos and also started posting Shorts on the channel. I am still far from the mandatory 4000 hours and 1000 subscribers to be considered for monetization by Youtube. Though I will continue to post videos on this platform but let's see where this takes us in the longer run. I don't see it reaching 4000 hours unless I switch to the Hindi/Punjabi language and create content in the same. I also plan to bring in some insights into how a person I am and what makes me unique in my own perspective if anyone wants to take inspiration or tips and tricks I followed and learned through the last 41 years of my life.
I have reduced my photography to a much smaller level as I didn't pick up my cameras other than for making Youtube thumbnails or to shoot some products. I mostly used the smartphone camera to cover my travels locally whatsoever and to post on Google Maps too. I am also giving away my Canon 100D to my brother-in-law for his Youtube channel on YOGA and other exercises like Pranayam, Meditation etc which has crossed the monetization stage and can achieve greater heights with a proper DSLR camera. I have thought of clearing my inventory of stuff which I don't want to use myself to reach the hands of people who can enjoy the same.
Keisha's channel was deleted by me due to some restrictions and now I plan to have her channel on my email id only. I will repost all her videos and will check if she wants to create more content in the future of 2022.
I now intend to try out other platforms too with all their new tools like Reels, Stories, IGTV and Live on Instagram. Similarly, I will try out Facebook Live and other tools to post regular content. I completed my 12 books this year in 2021 and am really grateful for the same as for the last few years I was not doing it. I now am putting a good pressure on myself to complete one per month and wants to continue doing the same next year too with 25 books to complete. I put all my reads to track on Goodreads - follow me there and I continue to read on my Amazon Kindle Keyboard which is so far working fine.
When I had Covid this year, I rewatched a lot of Bollywood movies on Youtube and loved seeing them and also I watch all the web series and movies in English and Hindi on the same day of the launch. I have not posted any reviews of those so far but I can do so in the near future as it means a lot of content for my blog posts.
Cheers!!!
