Hi everyone, I am happy that finally I managed to finish it and participate in this challenge by @anomadsoul and @blocktrades.

Thank you guys for always making this platform more fun!

My 2018: Achievements and Failures - A year of achievements and a big surprise!

Achievements

Environmental Achievements:

The Plastic Bag BAN:

I am part of a Social Group, the Cero Basura en Bocas Group, which means Cero Trash in Bocas.

We are an alliance of environmental organizations and volunteers from the civil society that work together with the little time and resources we have to improve the waste management in our town.

For over a year we were working to make this happens. We managed to present a proposal to the local government to approve the plastic bag ban in our town, with proper marketing and the help of kids from local schools which we integrated in many initiatives, and with the visits to some communities in the archipielago throughout the year, we were able to achieve this.

Despite the fact that in our group we are not more than 4 active people, I consider this an achievement since a lot of sacrifices had to be made, especially when you have a job, family, personal activities. I still managed to dedicate time to this cause.

Here is the post I dedicated to this important goal for our community: The Plastic Bags Ban in Bocas del Toro!

Activist Achievement

I am also part of the Environmental Social Civil Group, a very informal group of people, some of us a bit radical, we get together once in a while to discuss different issues, but what I love the most is when we decide together who to battle against.

A few months ago, a foreigner investor decided to build a wall on the reef to protect her property from the high tides. Can you believe the stupidity? Anyways, I don’t want to specify everything I did during the process of filing a complaint against her, but I do want to say that we won against this environmental crime.

With a bit of social media rants and calling out authorities, we managed to make her put that wall down and fix the area. Now that was a very nice feeling.

I also wrote about this, there is a video in my post we did, please check it out and tell me, don’t you think this human is crazy?

If you don't protect your nature... who will?

There are other battles we have been fighting against, some are lost some we won. But the more the time passes, the more these type of people think twice before doing something stupid. I hope for 2019 things will be better in this aspect.

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Social Responsibility

Saving Coco’s life.

If there is something I consider important and a priority over any other responsibility you have in your professional and also personal life, which is to help an animal in need. You see, in my case, most of the time I encounter a situation with an animal suffering, is very spontaneous and I have to forget what I was going to do, call it go on time to work, attending a meeting, or go back home hungry and tired after a long day, I can’t leave a creature in pain.

During the year I have had the opportunity to help a lot of animals, some of these I write about, others I just keep to myself. But there was one time I decided to do more and it was an amazing fulfillingexperience.

Coco is a dog that now lives happy, healthy with his humble owner Abdiel, who always thank me everytime he sees me in town. Long story short, Coco had a tumor in his genitals that was killing him, and a necrotic tongue which fell off. The chemotherapy was so expensive that I started a fiat and crypto fundraiser, I collected around $500 or more to help with treatments and recuperation, I thought he was not going to make it, but the outcome was beautiful.

Please watch the video I made when you have a time, I am not an expert making videos but this one is my favorite:

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The reason I write about these experiences, besides sharing a bit of what I do, is to also motivate others to do the same in their town, and write about it.

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Sports

Getting my purple belt in Jiu Jitsu.

As some of you already know, the martial art of Jiu Jitsu it’s an important part of my life. I started at 33 years of age and I regret not learning it younger, although for me there is no age to learn something new, still it would have been cool to learn it in my childhood.

I have been training already for 4 years. I got my promotion not too long ago and according to my professor I was already overdue. It would have been nice to be able to compete once more under the blue belt, but it-s time to turn the page in my jiu jitsu life book and continue the journey.

Although the belt only covers 2 inches of your ass, this is an important achievement for me, it means a lot of hours of hard work, sweat, combat on the mats, frustrations, injuries. I am very happy to be where I got so far.

I wrote a post about this achievement here: Purple Belt Promotion

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In the Crypto Space

My Crypto Space achievement

Well, during this horrible bear market that doesn't want to end, I have to say that I am proud for being a true Hodler and not fail like all the weak hands that are allowing the Big Fishes to accumulate enough crypto to keep controlling the world.

Yes, my portfolio is at a loss, but I accomplished to make good moves in my trades, accumulating more in projects I believe in. Don’t forget you don’t lose until you sell. Besides that, I learned how to build my own master nodes, whose rewards I exchange for more fractions of Bitcoin. It’s accumulation time my friends.

I hope I will not have to liquidate anything before the new wave starts, which I believe it will be with the Security Token Offerings (STO) in 2019. I will try to be better prepared.

Attending Steem Fest III

I thought I was not going to be able to make it, but at the end we did. I paid for round trip tickets for me and @evecab, and the lodging option using my miles that I was accumulating during the year. Going to this event, meeting people, learning new things was a very nice achievement and I am very happy we did it.

I guess my new goal would be to attend Steef Fest IV =)

Here is post I did with a lot of pictures I took: STEEM Fest III - faces & moments…

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And the most important:

Fabricating a baby:

The Big Surprise

I really don’t know if I should say that “going to be a dad” is an achievement, since for me an achievement would be ending up being a good dad. So I thought “Getting my wife pregnant” suits it better, even though we were not planning it lol.

Wao, what a hard feeling to describe. Definitely life changing, new responsibilities and goals ahead, but most importantly, the welcoming of a new human to this world that we will love, protect and raise, so he can make this world better.

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Failures

Lack of training:

There is no excuse for not training and exercising your body. Although this year have been a bit difficult for me to keep up.

I have been off the training due to injuries. I spent out of the mats for almost 3 months due to a broken rib I got while doing Jiu Jitsu with one of my friends, and also had to be off doing anything for 2 months due to a lung infection that put me in the hospital for a week.

Then we add work, traveling and social responsibilities, all together made it hard for me to find some time and not being tired.

Still, I I would only consider as an excuse my health issues that put me away from physical activity for 5 months all together. I know I could have done it better, and writing this make feel bad in a way, so in 2019 this wont happen to me!

Lack of Crypto Trading improvement

I made my sister buy for me a few books that I have not even opened and is going to be a year since then.

Even though I know how to place an order, mark my stop loss and read charts, I do not consider myself someone that has enough knowledge and by now I should know better.

With so many news to read, projects to follow, videos to watch, and so little time, it made it hard. But also I had plenty of moments were I could have chose sitting down and study, instead of doing what I was doing.

Not practicing my French.

If I would have been more responsible with organizing my time and agenda better, I could have at least dedicated 2 hours of study per week to my french.

I forgot how to write it, and even though I can still communicate, I am starting to forget vocabulary.

I have to be honest, this one made me feel guilty. I can’t spend another year without practicing.

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Writing about achievements and failures was a good way for me to think about these experiences, as well as remembering good moments of 2018. Something I would have not done is to think deeply about what I consider my failures, so thank you again @anomadsoul for organizing this and of course @blocktrades for sponsoring the initiative.

Let’s see how 2019 treats us!

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Thank You!