10 years seems like an awfully long time. Yet it seems like it was yesterday. 10 Years Ago my daughter was 2 years old and I was frantically searching for some kind of work I could do while still staying at home with my child. 10 years ago I made up my mind to become a freelancer. I was scared, yet I knew it was the right thing for me.

Today, I am managing translation CPD courses and working as a freelance marketing translator and editor in my favourite fields: education, tourism, and everything connected with pet foods. I feel real joy because I love what I am doing. I am truly blessed.

I've had different times in my freelance life. Some were good, others not so good. But when I look back I see an exciting story unfolding. I can't wait to see what my life will be like 10 years from now.

Some great things that happened in 2017:

1. It was probably my best year financially so far.
2. I was able to regularly donate some money to an animal shelter and to some other causes I believe in.
3. I saw two parts of Russia I had never seen before.
4. This year I went to my third translation conference.
5. One of my last year's New Year resolutions was the following: I wanted to change my mindset. Whenever I came across new ideas I used to think at once about the reasons they couldn't work. This year, I've been learning to analyze those ideas and see their potential, and then to plan steps in order to implement them, I can say I am getting better at it and I can see the difference in my attitude and in the things I am able to achieve with the new mindset.
6. Being a part-time freelancer, I managed to complete over 130 projects, translating more than 500,000 words in 2017.
7. I held master classes in three different universities in Moscow, Ufa and Vladimir, speaking about the most frequent mistakes startup translators make and how to avoid them. 

One of the things I am not proud of is that I didn't publish as much in my blog as I wanted. But that was because I also wanted to spend time with my family and sleep (occasionally). :-)

Things I would like to do in 2018:

1. Attend a translation conference in Europe.
2. Attend the Translation Forum Russia in Ekaterinburg (I already have a pre-approved topic for my speech there, so it looks like I am definitely going).
3. Earn as much as I earned this year or even more. Definitely not less.
4. Double the number of CPD courses at LinguaContact translation school. By the way, in April we are going to partner with Nancy Matis again! You can already sign up for her translation project management class if you like.
5. Make my own translation course and teach it. I already have the topic in my mind. Working on the content bit by bit.

Dear colleagues, what are your best achievements in 2017 and what are your professional goals for 2018? And thinking about even a bigger picture, where would you like to be 10 years from now? What would you like to achieve? Looking forward to your comments.

Wishing you a very happy New Year!