Very thoughtful of you to be reflecting before your birthday on the year passed and making plans for your new year. My birthday is just five days away and I will be forty nine, maybe this is something I will learn to do as well, certainly I have a lot to reflect on from this last year of my life...

In terms of YouTube just bite the bullet and start it! I have never had a channel, my son has one that he is monetizing so I can tell you what I learned from observing him and talking to him about it. He has 2.58k subscribers not much, but enough to learn some things. I would say:

1. Just start it, hardest part is to start
2. Have a long backlog of video content before your start posting it on YouTube so that you can have regular video releases even when life gets in the way as it will.
3. Consider shorts as well as that is one of the most popular types of videos, less monetizable but great for going viral.
4. Release at least one video per week, best on a schedule if you can do it daily great, just don't burn out.

Those are probably the main things to consider and it takes about six months to a year to get into monetization, it is not easy on Web2...

Happy Birthday!