Looking back on 2009

Fountain pen pointing to years on paper2009 has been a year of many changes. It’s been a year of accomplishments and joy, as well as the year when a lot didn’t go according to plan, in both personal and business life. I would have wanted to skip the 2009 review and go straight to my 2010 plans. But that would have meant skipping some important steps of the process and make it less effective. So what happened in 2009?

On Words of a Broken Mirror, it’s been a year full of significant posts and essential lessons. I didn’t exactly meet my own plans of posting frequency, but I am extremely pleased with the quality of everything published here, as well as that of the guest posts I have written for other blogs.

2009 was also the year when I went from part time to full time business owner. Mirror Communications kept growing, I continued to work with IT companies and tackled other fields as well. I switched from spending part of my day in a client’s office to working fully on my own. This of course came with some organization and time management issues. It’s still fairly new but I’m getting better at it every day.

In what my PR and Marketing agency is concerned, there’s much work ahead. But I have had the opportunity to try a lot of things together with my clients and the results made us all very happy. We are currently plotting and planning what to do in 2009 :) It hasn’t been an easy ride, but it’s been challenging and inspiring and I am sure it’s been a very good decision, career wise, to start my own business.

In late August, together with two friends of mine, I have launched an online magazine for women, Cenusa de trandafir. It will turn 4 months on Christmas and it already has quite some traffic, good ranks and my personal reasons for happiness and excitement – over 1000 comments already, daily conversations with our readers on Twitter, many guest authors of which some became permanent authors! Compared to our competitors, we’re doing great at building a community around the magazine. The future holds a complete redesign and a lot more work from the entire team :)

I kept planning all year to revive my travel blog. It took me a while, but in November I again started posting frequently on Travel Spells! Better later than never, as the saying goes :)

I also started writing a book in 2009. As I have mentioned before it’s a vampire story. A few close friends (including Joanna Young whom I haven’t thanked enough for all her help and support) have read what I have written and their positive feedback fueled my desire to keep going. I was planning to release the book in December, but things got a bit delayed.

The personal part of 2009 has definitely been a wild ride. Yet I am happy and thankful for everything that has happened! Life sometimes makes us the most wonderful surprises ever!  And based on how I feel in the month of December, I can honestly say 2010 will be an amazing year on all levels :)

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This post has 10 comments

  • Joanna Young

    Alina, meeting you was one of the highlights of my year :-) Thank you for this round up – I know what you mean about wanting to press on to 2010, but it’s valuable to do the reflection too – helps us figure out what to build on or let go of, what to celebrate, and which particular novel we’re definitely going to finish next year x

  • Alina Popescu

    Joanna, you are right, this type of reviews are good to help us decide what to keep and what to just let go of, no matter how hard :) Thanks again for everything, especially for making sure I get to Sardinia! It was really great to meet you and hope to see you again in 2010 :)

  • Barbara Swafford

    Hi Alina,

    You have been a busy gal. If what you’ve accomplished in 2009 is any indication of what’s to come in 2010, a year from now you’ll again be celebrating tons of success.

    May your holiday be happy and bright and 2010 even brighter.
    .-= Barbara Swafford´s last blog ..Happy Holidays To You & Yours =-.

  • Karen Swim

    Alina, I am so glad to see your post filled with smiles and reasons to celebrate. Congratulations on all that you dreamed and achieved and on having a full plate of dreams for 2010. I have no doubt that 2010 will be filled with wonderful surprises too!
    .-= Karen Swim´s last blog ..Why You Should Learn to Fight Fair =-.

  • Daniel Carlan

    Nice, congrats for everything! And hats off for deciding to make it on your own!
    Don’t lose control, and with good time management, 2010 cannot be other than bigger success.
    .-= Daniel Carlan´s last blog ..Ideea de networking =-.

  • Alina Popescu

    Hi Barbara, thank you so much and I hope you and I are right and 2010 gets to be an amazing year! Happy holidays to you and wish you all the best for 2010:)

    Karen, I am glad I managed it :) It’s easier to get caught it what didn’t work then find reasons to celebrate and make plans to make it all better :)

    And yes, I have this feeling that 2010 will be a great year for everyone around me.

    Many hugs to you!

  • Live

    Alina, you are a fiery ball of enthusiasm & positive energy … those who know you and exist around you are lucky indeed. My eyes are anxious to see your vampire story, as I became a fan to such stuff myself, all thanks to the Twilight series ;) if you are a fan of it? I wonder what inspired you to write your story? Happy new year & may it be as special as you.
    .-= Live´s last blog ..Twilight saga =-.

  • Live

    I’ve a fairly new blog & I would like to invite you to read :)
    .-= Live´s last blog ..Twilight saga =-.

  • Loredana

    A full year :) May 2010 be a great year and may your report on it be a very rich one!

  • Alina Popescu

    Daniel, thanks so much for stopping by and for your kind words :) I hope 2010 will be awesome, I will surely do everything I can to give it a push in the direction I want ;)

    Live, thanks for stopping by! I have read the saga, seen the movies, loved the series, the movies are ok too. I love Anne Rice too and a lot of other vampire stories. I am writing mine to give the vampire race some twists, depths and variations I feel are missing. You should check out Alexa’s Lounge for more details on my story.

    Loredana, full indeed! Thanks and the same to you!

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