Hello, Most Excellent Steemmates,
I hope you had a good year so far and I wish you all good years to come!
Come December, we tend to try and recap what we've done and we're about to do when we reset our calendars. Probably doing it in your thoughts at least.
Now I find this frame, proposed as a contest by 
For me, personally, this year started a lot of major changes to come.
Failure #1 - I started very low
I remember almost nothing of January and February 2018 and that speaks a lot, doesn't it? I had a few nice emotional moments, a few good photo captures of cute animals in urban environment. I applied for an artistic project and I was rejected a few months later. I participated in a few photo competitions... and that was almost everything I can think of. Far below average productivity.
Small but still a achievement (#1) on emotional level
At least I was able to show my girlfriend some new experience and she was happy with it - like feeding animals in the park from her palm.
We also managed a small trip to a place in the feet of the mountains no more than a hundred kilometers from us. I saw a new waterfall. I was more happy with the close up shot.
What I thought was achievement #2
Making contacts with a travel agency in March and planning a collaboration. I was to be a photo guide on some special tours of theirs. We made a plan for the end of July to visit Meteora in Greece. I was to go on a trip with them for free in May to take a few photos so that we have something to show in advance.
Going down-slope from there - failure #2
Their bus broke just a couple of days before departure in May, they had to replace it with a smaller one so I made it off the list. We started a photo competition campaign and we were to award the winners free trips in July.
We could not gather enough tourists in July and there was no trip. The photo guided tours proved not working at this stage. The travel agent lost some of the reservations money and I decided I will take it upon myself to provide the free trip experience to the winners of that competition, although to a place inside Bulgaria where I was about to have a photo workshop organized.
Achievement #3
In May I had more clients asking for my services than in previous years. I had to decline some of the jobs since my little brother was getting married and I had promised I will not be offended at all to also be his photographer. In fact, I insisted.
I think I might be on the verge of crying a little bit right now. Slightly precipitating...
Achievement #4
I know for some of you it may be a given but I was happy to be able to travel some in the summer. I went to Corfu island with my girlfriend. First time visiting an island - check. Going abroad at least once a year - check.
Achievement #5 and at the same time some failure (#3)
My workshop at Sinemorets on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. It happened. That matters. I did not win any money out of the deal, I actually spent more. Visitors were few, some of them were the winners of the competition mentioned above so I payed for them, I also had to pay to a model... And it all coincided with the dates of another workshop I would have liked to visit myself.
Failure was the fact that my planned conceptual photo shoots did not go well for me. But I think some of the visitors were happy and that was more important.
A very good thing was I actually met and got to know new very nice people. So totally worth it.
Also, lessons learned. Next year will be better.
And some unexpected shots did turn out well...
Achievement #6
At the same time I proposed to Silviya and now we are engaged. Another big change coming next year.
Achievement #7
I learned about this new thing called blockchains and the Steem platform which came to be a thrilling part of my online social interaction. It opened my eyes to the world and also gave me hopes of new ways to get appreciation and rewards for my efforts. Best of all, It triggered a lot of personal and other projects.
Hi, everybody! Getting to know you is among the best achievements.
Failure #4
So far I am unable to spend less time on Steem. It takes too large a portion of my days, usually. Except when I am working in the field somewhere.
Achievement #8
I was again invited to find a team of photographers and assistants for the Aniventure-ComicCon festival in Sofia. We did our job quite well. Partial failure was shooting for less money than what we would feel normal but this is how things usually are in my experience in Bulgaria. We wanted to be there, anyway and we want to be there next time as well.
Achievement #9
A project that I started working on in May turned out pretty inspiring and promising. As of November I announced it through fundition.io - https://fundition.io/#!/@photoanthill/a3kw78kvx
Less than two days ago I returned from a visit to the village it is about. I will be talking about the initiator and main sponsor soon, as well as of the new additions to the team. Yup, we're already growing to a team.
Failure #5
Time management. I do a lot more than before. I sometimes fail to meet deadlines of initiatives I would be proud of taking part in. But there is so much and everything takes time... So I do what I can but it is less than what I want to be able to.
Of course there were goals I did not reach. But also so much more came to me.
Totally unexpected.
Countless other small achievements and failures...
Basically, I view each good photo, each new thing learned, each piece of good text written down as an achievement. Some of those came through interacting here, doing photo competitions left and right, also freewriting, haiku and farmpunk, what have you...
What I would like to underline most of all, though, is...
Each failure is a lesson. It is achievement that you tried. Do not fear failure. Fail better next time!
Yours,
Manol