2021 was my most challenging year yet. Thankfully, I met my challenges with a stoic attitude, and took inspiration from my lessons with Marcus Aurelius and philosophical and spiritual practices to face any discomfort, fear, or hardship with strength and resolve and unyielding persistence. But knowing and understanding full well that I am not a machine, I also had to make priorities to maintain my mental health and to love and care for myself. This meant the attention and energy of my channel turned inwards. I stopped posting content for you guys, and started posting it for myself. My videos and my studies became directed on broadening my own skillsets and bettering and helping myself.

And while I continued to share my journey and progress, my channel and my website took a hit. I lost subscribers, my viewership went down, and I saw more and more criticism of my work online. With all that said, more than a 100,000 people continue to support my channel and tune in every month, and on the whole, my channel grew with 5,000 new subscribers. At the end of the year, I can say my channel has already reached more than 1.1 million people, and that is still an incredible feat to me and something I can only feel grateful for. Let us walk through the accomplishments of 2021, and after that, let’s talk about the plans for 2022!

The Early Year

The beginning of 2021 was dedicated to:

• Surviving the 2021 Netherlands Lockdown
• Getting my drivers license
• Studying to get a new job

I posted fewer videos in the beginning of the year, as I had little inspiration or energy or motivation. I was feeling burnt out and had to prioritise my studies. My work in Customer Service was getting incredibly taxing for me.

Summer

In may, me and my ex had a talk and decided to have a mutual, amicable breakup. Having lived together for more than 4 years and shared 5 years together at the time, this was a rough transition. I decided to move out of the apartment and get a place for myself in Amsterdam.

In may, yes, the same month, I started a new job as a Front End Developer. This was also stressful to me as I had to prove myself in a new company and adjust to a new routine and plenty of personal life changes. At this time, I thought my time as a YouTube content creator was almost over, and I was not sure I was going to be able to manage running my channel or my individual projects anymore. I published a video sharing my changes and struggles.

New Winds

Living alone however, I quickly realized how important it was to have a support group. I realised that my community was my support group. And my work as a content creator helped connect me to the world. I started posting more frequently and made more of an effort to connect with people and with other Creators. This gave me new energy and inspiration to get back on YouTube. That said, instead of posting content to help and support you all, I posted content that was more in line with my own interests and values.

However, I had to face some tough questions on the future direction of my content and what kind of a Creator I wanted to be. I had to think about what kind of content would give me energy. I realized, that as good as my content had been, up to this point, it was not good enough for me anymore. I started broadening my skillsets. I took an online class on psychology with Jordan Peterson. I started studying Carl Jung’s deeper works, the Red Book, Aion, and got deeper into philosophy and spirituality.

Clean Slate

I also decided to take the time to study and look into other systems, like Objective Personality. I thought it would only be fair for me to take a step back from my own thoughts and beliefs and to study these systems with an open mind, and so I let go of my own type label to see if there was any merit to their claims and ideas. However, despite studying their conclusions and ideas in-depth, I did not find Objective Personality or their ideas to possess the value I had hoped. While the system shows promise, I think it still has more work to be done before it can compete with more established models and ideas.

My review series on Objective Personality taught me to become a little less agreeable. This was a lesson for me in becoming more critical and more open to confront my critics and people that disagree with my work. This will help me ensure that there is more edge in my work and that I can make more of a difference in the future, and that I can have less fear of what people will think about me.

I learnt to go my own way and also to become more confident in my own beliefs and what I think.

2021 Total Verdict

• Got a new apartment, ended a relationship, and got a drivers license
• Got a new job as a Front End Developer
• Prioritised myself and my personal development over my channel and community
• Got 1.1 million views on YouTube
• Got 500k views on Erikthor.com
• Got more than 5,000 new subscribers
• Developed an in-depth review on Objective Personality
• Published a self-typing handbook
• Recorded more than 142 videos
• Worked on myself and my own well-being
• Took more time to introspect and reflect on myself, who I am, and my future

2022 Goals

My goals for 2022 are:

• To make my content more interactive by giving you practical exercises and tips you can use in every video
• To hit 50k subscribers and to increase my viewership on YouTube
• To prioritise my blog and more written content more
• To offer more paid services and typing and coaching to my audience
• I’d like to get a new book published in autumn

Early year

I have a series planned with 5 Things You Can Learn From Each Personality Type

I have a secret project

I am planning to do book reviews on popular psychological works, like Jungs Aion, Psychological Type, and more

I am planning collaborations with Cognitive Personality Theory to better understand his work and ideas

I am planning a series on my own multi-system & flow approach to typology

Mid year

If I can get the funding, I am planning some investments into my own channel and content, like a new camera. I would also like a proper vacation somewhere. I haven’t had that in more than three years.

If I can get enough backing, I would like to drop down to a part time position or more part time freelance work. This would give me more time to create content!

My goal for the mid year is a lighter series and more entertainment content or coaching related series to help you master your own personality and mind, sharing some alchemical and spiritual practices that can help you enter into a flow state!

Late year

In the late year, I hope to do more deep dive and in-depth content and series. I will do some book reviews again. I would also like to address some political topics and perhaps look into Cognitive Type and systems that practice typing by body language.

I’d like to release a book this autumn, topic will be explained more later, but I have the basic outline down and feel excited about the idea!

Ofcourse, I always try to consider timing so if I notice that something is needed or heavily requested, I will always try to fit this in and adjust.

I hope you are all in for a great 2022!