Yesterday marked my 1 year at @messenger and @instagram.

It's been an unreal year, both in my role there and in my personal life. I want to talk about some of my highlights and lowlights:

1/ Within my first week at my job, I told my manager I wanted a promotion as soon as possible. This got me projects and responsibilities that would accelerate me down that path and we checked in on that progress regularly. 10 months later, I got it. https://twitter.com/lilykonings/status/1365786308560388096

2/ As the quarantine settled in, I also decided to pursue a long-time goal of becoming a speaker as a means to overcome my stage fright and social anxiety. I enrolled in @shinebootcamp, gave my first talks, and organized my first conference @liftherwealth. https://twitter.com/lilykonings/status/1314637427584032773?s=20

3/ I also became more active in my community by way of writing, mentoring, and, I guess, Tweeting. In May 2020, I had ~200 followers on Twitter and sent dumb jokes into the ether (below). Today, I interviewed someone who recognized me from my name (hey ). https://twitter.com/lilykonings/status/1256696089689731072

4/ But ALL of those efforts led to a lot of anxiety and work hours. I barely spent time with my husband and prioritized everything ahead of health. At the end of 2020, I completely burnt out and spent my holidays being a hermit. I pulled away from everything I built and rested.

5/ And when I came back, I found I was still exhausted. I was physically rested but my mind was traumatized from torturing myself over my own insane expectations. I quickly realized that rehabilitation needed to be done at the mental level.

6/ Now I'm still working my way back. I try to prioritize 1-2 things instead of 5-10. But for every gain I made last year, I also reaped some sort of drawback (decreased motivation, back pain, lost time with my family, you name it) and these will take longer to recover.

7/ All that is to say, I am ultimately proud of my past year. But I've learned that I need to achieve my dreams without also taking what I already have for granted. I need to be someone I'd be proud of not just tomorrow but also in 10 years.

Thanks for listening