2023 Goals & Intentions

1 / 1 / 2312 / 31 / 22

Well here we are again, the beginning of a new year and I’ve got some goals to get. Without further ado, here are my 2023 Goals & Intentions.

So the first thing I do when planning out my goals for a new year is to do an audit on life categories based on the year before. I score them from 1 – 10. 10 means I feel like I accomplished all my goals and feel really good about this life category. 1 means I’m struggling in this life category, or I want to achieve certain things I haven’t yet tackled or it’s important to improve this life category. So here is how I scored my life categories in 2022.

Life Category Audit for 2022

Career – 6

Financial – 9

Health – 6

Fitness – 6

Nutrition – 8

Travel – 5

Home – 9

Spiritual / Stress Management – 6

Couple – 6

Family – 9

Friendships – 6

Leisure / Self-Development – 5

Based on this audit, I know that I’ll want to focus on Travel and Leisure first in 2023. From there I looked at all the categories I ranked as a 6 and then prioritized them just based on a gut feeling of where I wanted to focus. I’ll start with Career, Couple, Friendships, Health, Fitness, and then Spiritual/Stress Management. And then to round out the remainder of my life category focus in 2023 I have Nutrition, Home, Family, and then Financial.

My Intentions for 2023

The next step I do is to decide how I want to feel in different areas of my life. I choose 4-5 words and these become my core desired feelings for the year. I search on Pinterest for “Core Desired Feelings Library” and look through the different images there. When words stick out to me I write them down beside a life category on a blank sheet of paper. From there I circled a few that really resonated with me. And these 4 words stuck out to me this year. Wonder, Connected, Energized, and Enriched.

Wonder – when I was looking at my life categories and scoring how I felt about them in 2022, travel scored the lowest. This makes sense as I was landlocked to Canada for a while and it just wasn’t a priority with young kids. It’ll be a top focus for me in 2023 so I want to feel WONDER wherever I travel next year AND in how I approach my hobbies and self-development.

Energized – When it comes to my health, fitness, stress management, and nutrition I want to feel ENERGIZED. From the ways that I move my body, to what goals I’m tackling to optimize my health to how I’m nourishing my body. This also applies to how I approach my career, how I tackle stress management and my spiritual relationship with God.

Enriched – When it comes to relationships I want to feel ENRICHED by them. From friendships that I’m nurturing to the people, we surround ourselves with. My husband and I sat down and wrote out a value statement about community together. We want to feel safe & ENRICHED by the families we surround ourselves with. They are focused on wellness, curiosity & being heart-led. They are living an active outdoor lifestyle where everyone prioritizes play, feeling connected, and supporting one another.

Connected – When it comes to my family and my husband I want to feel CONNECTED. I want us to always feel present with each other. I value being present & connected through monthly & weekly planning, date nights, daily walks, and family time.

2023 Goals By Life Category

So after I decide on my core desired feelings for the year, I plan out my 2023 goals by life category.

I organize my life category goals in the order that I outlined above. After I look at my goals, I map the ones that are time bound to a calendar and then fill in the gaps based on the short or long-term goals I’ve set for the year. This allows me to see if everything is doable or if I’ve bitten off more than I can chew. Finally, I’ll reverse engineer the larger goals in Asana like I’m project managing a marketing campaign at work 🙂

Travel

Pre-kids, I had set a goal to always take 2 trips a year. I’ve always loved taking one adventure-based trip and one relaxing trip a year. This past year, on a retreat I took in October, we did a values reset program and wrote values statements for different areas of our lives. As I was writing down all the things that were important for travel and couple, I wrote down that I would really value going on a trip with Mike every year. I announced loudly to the group that I didn’t understand why honeymoons are reserved for only after a wedding so I decided Mike and I deserve a honeymoon trip every year. This goal is now built into my couple value statement.

So here are the trips we’re thinking of taking or have already booked:

1 Adventure Trip – we want to go back to Vancouver Island with the babes (traveling with the twins is an adventure) and this time maybe I’ll be able to go surfing in Tofino (which I haven’t done for years!) So traveling with kids and a sport combines two types of adventures.

1 Relaxing Trip – There are a few Web3 events in Lisbon later in the year so I’m thinking of drawing a work trip out and bringing Mike so we can do a relaxing trip in Portugal and then maybe Spain where a girlfriend of mine owns a house.

1 Honeymoon – We’ve got a week booked at a resort in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic at the end of February so we can escape the winter and get some sun therapy. We’re going back to a resort that I’ve already been to. Mike and I actually haven’t been to a resort on our own so I’m excited.

Other than those planned trips there is one work trip that I’m thinking of taking to Austin, Texas for the Consensus convention.

Leisure

In 2022, I created a self-reliance challenge for myself. I loved learning one new self-reliant skill a month so I’m continuing this challenge into 2023. I’ve put it under my leisure life category because it encompasses a few hobbies as well. I’ll share more in a post about the challenge but here are the skills or things I’m thinking of learning this year or continuing to learn.

Meat Brine Curing & Smoking
Change A Tire
Purchase/Set Up a Generator
Gardening
Composting
Plant Identification

Home Evacuation Plan & Run Through
Water Storage
Fire Starting Skill
Root Veggie Storage
Hunting
Knitting a Hat

Self-Development

In addition, to the self-reliance challenge which is also a form of self-development, I’m also challenging myself to a resilience challenge.

Resilience Definition: The capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.

And while I believe myself to be a very resilient person, having endured several tough life moments. I also recognize that I struggled with stress management in the last few years. And while I’m giving myself grace, I thought I could challenge myself to one thing a month to build physical and emotional resilience.

Here are some of the things I’m thinking about doing:

cold water plunges (3 x a week)
Wim Hof breathing (daily)
no sugar (for a month)
no TV (for a month)
reduce phone time by 50%
10 pull-ups (daily)

10 push-ups (daily)
do 1 thing a week that scares me
daily prayer
daily time in silence
weekly friendship dates
15 mins daily sun gazing

I’ll of course share more in a separate post and document both challenges on my Instagram.

Career

I definitely have diversified interests when it comes to earning an income.

In 2022, I started a full-time contract role with a US Web3 marketing agency and product studio. I’m really lucky in the role that I have and I’m hoping to continue my web3 knowledge and marketing skills. I’d also like to explore taking on at least 1 client as a fractional CMO in my “spare time” outside of a 9-5 to diversify my income further.

As a side hustle, I’ve loved building my dōTERRA business for the past 6 years and will continue to build this business. Over the past few years, I’ve had a few business partners and customers churn so I’ve set a goal for myself to rebuild my business to the level that I experienced previously as a Premier and then Silver.

My husband and I also incorporated a business in 2021 but we haven’t gotten it off the ground running yet. We have been looking for the perfect property to make it happen on. We’ll hold off property searching in the winter and resume the search this spring.

As a published author I think I’m ready to publish my next book. An idea that popped into my head this past year was a jointly published book with several authors. I’d like to publish a book all about Autoimmune Thrivers and showcase their stories of diagnosis, healing, and thriving.

Additionally, I’ve always wanted to publish my own planner. I’ve been dreaming up formats and I think I’m ready to bring this project to fruition in 2023.

And last but not least, I’m ready to monetize my writing. So I’m hosting a substack newsletter focused on documenting my resilience and self-reliance challenges.

Couple

I’d like to re-focus on scheduling a weekly date night because it’s important for me to connect with Mike on a consistent basis. I also want to create the space for us to plan our months and weeks in a way where we feel supported and aligned in taking care of our family.

Because I use Asana daily I’ve been experimenting with using it more and more for my personal life. I’ve scheduled several monthly recurring tasks for myself on the 1st of every month. When it comes to Mike and me the tasks include:

Schedule Weekly Date Nights
Schedule Monthly & Weekly Planning Meetings

Friendships

It’s important to me to plan time on a monthly basis to connect with key friendships to kindle connection and mutual support.

When I was building the eBook for my Meta Healing Program I included this image from dōTERRA’s MetaPWR launch materials. These are 5 things we can do to improve our metabolic health. And while I am doing a great job in the healthy eating, daily movement, and smart supplementation areas of my life I know I need to improve upon stress management and healthy connections. So this is where monthly friendship dates play a role.

In addition to improving my metabolic health, it’s a value of mine to feel enriched by the relationships and people around me. So here’s to more consistent friend dates in 2023. I’ve also incorporated into the resilience challenge, one month where I’ll be booking weekly friend dates. However, over the course of the year, I’ll be prioritizing getting one friendship date on the calendar every month.

I’ve also set a monthly recurring task for myself in Asana to “Schedule Monthly Friendship Date” on the 1st of the month.

Health

I took some time this month to reflect on my “health goals” or the things that I’m working on healing in my health or things I’m looking to optimize. I’m conscious of language and how some verbiage can be triggering to some. I’ve been working with a Naturopath, an Ayurveda Practitioner, and a Nutritionist over the past year. I love understanding different modalities and taking tips and tricks from each to take care of myself holistically.

You’ll hear in the wellness industry to avoid language around “fixing” oneself as it then implies that we see our body as broken. I like to think about it as something that we need to oil before it breaks. My body is not broken but it sure is yelling at me. Things are squeaky and need attention.

Here are 7 things I’m looking to heal / optimize / or whatever language is appropriate and doesn’t trigger a wellness practitioner to DM me 😉

Reduce Iron Overload
Rebalance Minerals
Lower Oxidative Stress
Keep Liver Enzymes Low
Rebalance Hormones (Estrogen Dominance & Low Progesterone)
Heal Facial Acne

So many things are interwoven. I received multiple iron transfusions after the birth of the twins in 2020 which led to high liver enzymes which has steamrolled into an iron overload (that I was probably already dealing with pre-pregnancy). After doing multiple tests in 2022 from a DUTCH test to a hair mineral analysis to a full monty blood panel we discovered mineral imbalances, high oxidative stress markers, and a hormone imbalance.

So with smart supplementation, lifestyle changes, and nutrition, I’ll be continuing to support my body in optimizing my health this year. I will share more on this in-depth as I work through the healing.

Fitness

I want to continue to be consistent with at least 4 workouts a week. And potentially upgrade to 5 workouts a week if that feels good for my body. I will continue with weekly yoga classes and daily walks with Mike and the dogs.

I’ve also scheduled a weekly recurring task in Asana to schedule my weekly workouts and book my weekly yoga class on Sunday nights. I already have 4 weekly workouts scheduled in my calendar for 5:30 am 4 days a week but on Sunday I’ll figure out which workout I’m going to do so I don’t have to think about it at 5 am in the morning.

Spiritual / Stress Management

I’ve got a really good stress management toolkit. However, as with most things if I’m not consistent with my tools how I react to external stress takes a toll on me. I rated this category a 6 in 2022 because I struggled to maintain consistency. I prioritized extra sleep in the morning or scrolling Instagram before my morning workouts instead of quiet time for myself. So here are 5 things I’m prioritizing in 2023.

Here are two things I will do on a daily basis:

Morning Meditation
Journaling

And here are two things I will do a few times a week:

Epsom Salts Baths
Infrared Sauna

And here is one thing I’m committed to doing once a week:

Weekly Group Therapy

Nutrition

When it comes to nutrition and food, Mike and I wrote out a shared value statement. We value that at least 90% of our meals are farm-to-table. I love being able to purchase and support local farmers directly. We also value giving our kids treats so they don’t feel restricted in our way of eating. We are really proud of how we nourish our family.

And because of this, I want to work on creating a farm connection event or farm connection community where customers can easily connect with and learn how to support local farmers in a sustainable way for their lifestyles. This might include a map with a clear indication of what products are available locally for purchase, what days farms are open to in-person buying, what farmer’s markets they attend, and when and potentially even a way for consumers to trade volunteer time for produce. Lots to think about here but my wheels are turning on this one.

Home

There is not much more to do to make our house a home. I only have a few items left on the honey-do list. Mike should be happy to read that. The main one I’d really love to have completed this coming year is to have living room built-ins installed.

And I want to finally outsource cleaning our home. For me, having a clean and tidy home is in direct support of my stress management. So I’m going to prioritize that financially this year.

Family

When it comes to our family, we value making memories through seasonal bucket lists. We spend time together eating, learning, playing, adventuring, and in quiet moments together. We grow relationships individually within the family.

So for 2023, we’ll create a winter bucket list to tackle and then a summer one. We’ll also prioritize, at least twice a month, a mommy-son date / daddy-daughter date and then a mommy-daughter date / daddy-son date. This is important to us so that our kids get dedicated time with one parent as our attention is always pulled in different directions constantly when we’re all together.

Financial

Financially we are doing really well so I’d like to focus on at least 6% annual growth in our investments. And then plan for a few projects or purchases that require a sizeable investment like purchasing a generator for the home as a part of the self-reliant challenge. Mike is also working towards his pilot’s license so I want to ensure he has the financial means and support to achieve that.

I have also scheduled a recurring task monthly to review our investments as I could do a much better job at looking at them more frequently.

What are some of your 2023 goals?

2022 Goals & Intentions

1 / 3 / 2212 / 31 / 21

It’s that time of the year for sharing my 2022 goals and intentions for a new year post! I think I have been sharing goal posts on my blog since 2011! I used to link back to each year’s new year’s goal posts. But who’s really interested in going that far back in my goal setting posts!? I’m sure if you’re really that curious you can use the search bar 😉

I totally document my annual goals for myself so I can look back on the year and see what progress I’ve made. Glancing at this post every quarter helps me see if I’m on track. I will also decide to throw a goal out because it no longer resonates with me. And in the process, I hope these types of posts inspire you if you’re into annual goal setting.

I’ve had a very specific way of planning that serves me quite well. I’ll share a little bit around the process in case you want to use this method to plan out your year.

Core Desired Feelings – My Intentions for 2022 Goals

I always start my annual 2022 goal planning by thinking about how I want to feel in key areas of my life. I love looking at images and words on Pinterest and these ones jumped out at me this year.

Here’s a little more about the choice behind each word:

Energized – I want to feel energized in my body and in the things I choose to pursue (whether it’s hobbies, friendships or career choices).
Clarity & Brave – I want clarity over how I’m meant to show up in this world and I want to be brave in all of my actions.
Sexy – I want to feel sexy in my body again. I want to feel sexy in my skin.
Shine – I feel like I’ve been hiding over the past few years and I’m ready to stop hiding.
Bliss – I want to feel bliss in the presence I experience with my family.

Life Category Audit

After I’ve thought about how I want to feel in 2022 I take an honest assessment over different categories in my life. I score each life category from 1 – 10. 1 being zero satisfaction in that life category and 10 being so completely satisfied. This will shape the order that I tackle my 2022 goals in the new year. Here’s my audit.

Career – 9

Side Hustles – 7

House – 5

Nutrition – 9

Fitness – 5

Health – 5

Relationships – 7

Stress Management – 5

Personal Development – 8

Reading – 7

Writing – 7

Podcast – 5

This means when I start to look at specific goals for 2022 in my life I will prioritize the lower scored categories first. I find when I prioritize those it makes it much easier to tackle all other goals in my life.

2022 Goals by Life Category

I’ll try to share in this section, why I scored the categories the way I did and what I’m hoping to accomplish for my 2022 goals. Let’s start with the lower ranked categories and what do I need to start doing or optimize immediately to focus on my well-being and happiness.

House Goals – Score: 5

House as a category scored really low for me because I haven’t felt settled since we arrived back in Ottawa in April. I haven’t felt like our house is a home. We still have many boxes we have yet to unpack as we had planned on renovations before truly getting settled.

When we renovated our house in 2017 we only did the kitchen, living room, flooring and doors throughout the house. At the time we didn’t renovate the bathrooms and they desperately need it. When we moved back home to Ottawa and back into our house in May, we had talked about a major bathroom renovation and creating a new bathroom as an ensuite to our master bedroom. We started renovations in 2021 with our upstairs bathroom since you can only renovate one bathroom at a time while living in the house. We got started in June and we are just finishing it up now in December. This renovation took a little too many months for my liking to get it done. So we’ve hired contractors to renovate the current master bedroom closet, create a master bath ensuite, renovate the existing downstairs bathroom and put in a gear closet for us.

This will allow Mike and I to move from the guest bedroom down to our previous bedroom, have a private master bathroom for ourselves and move the babes from their current nursery into the larger room we are currently in. From there I’ll transform my previous office, turned nursery into a decent guest bedroom for when Mike’s parent’s come to visit. Thankfully this goal is being tackled in the first few months of the year.

Fitness / Movement Goals – Score: 5

My fitness has been off and on again this year. I keep setting a goal of working out 5 – 6 days a week and then something keeps happening mentally to me to thwart it so I’m doing what I do best when I start implementing a new habit and going back to baby steps. I have 2 things that will help me build this habit back into my life.

Starting Small – For January my goal is to workout 3 days / week. In February 4 days / week. In March 5 days / week and then build it up to 6 days / week in April.
I’m also asking my husband, Mike to program my workouts for me. If I have a program to follow I have no excuse for a lack of motivation.

Last but not least, I’m craving an in-person yoga practice again. So I’ve found a beautiful studio in Wakefield that I’ll be attending Sunday morning yoga classes at.

Health Goals – Score: 5

I am struggling with my health. In December of 2020, after requesting routine bloodwork, it was discovered that I have high liver enzymes. I have still yet to see a specialist so I’ve taken matters into my own hands as I normally do when conventional medicine fails me and have built a health care team to try and figure it out. I’ve been on a supplement protocol, getting monthly accupuncture and I saw an ayurveda practitioner for support this fall. I’m looking forward to blood test results in the new year and optimizing from there.

Once my liver enzyme issue has been solved, I’ll be talking a look at my hormone health. Something feels off emotionally and I have a gut feeling it’s related to some potential hormone imbalances that were discovered before we conceived. I haven’t asked for hormone related bloodwork in a while so that will be interesteing to take a look at in the future.

And last but not least, is continually optimizing for living with MS. I’ve been having weird symptoms in my neck every time I look down so that’s my bodies way of telling me things are not currently ok. I’ll take stock of all the things I do for myself or can do for myself and see where I’m lacking and need to implement some habits for my well-being.

Stress Management Goals – Score: 5

Mike has become an extreme early riser. He sets his alarm on weekdays for 4:30am. This means I have an 8:30 pm bedtime to ensure I’m getting my 8 hours of sleep. Once his alarm goes off, I roll over, grab my phone and turn on a meditation. This helps me to slowly wake up before heading to the bathroom for tongue scraping and oil pulling before making my morning lemon water.

With a new sauna in our house and a renovated upstairs bathroom, I have no excuse to not spend time every evening in a delicious bedtime routine. I’ll be alternating having a sauna or an Epsom Salt bath every single night 🙂

Last but not least, I have signed up for a weekly women’s therapy group. I have been having some hard thoughts lately and moments of panic attacks or extreme sadness and I know it’s time to get the help that I’ve sought in the past and know I so desperately in need of right now.

Podcast Goals – Score: 5

My podcast isn’t lighting me up anymore. It started feeling like a chore. So it’s time to hang up the microphone for a while.

Relationships Goals – Score: 7

My relationship with my husband is the strongest it has ever been and yet I miss the days sometimes of just the two of us. We are amazing parenting partners and I love him so dearly so we are choosing to focus on our relationship again by implementing a weekly date night. And it doesn’t have to mean going out every week, it could simply be setting up a picnic in the living room after the babes go to bed and having a heart to heart.

I have some of the most beautiful friendships in my life during this season. And my heart soars after quality time with them. So I’m choosing to plan out to ensure I get monthly friendship dates with a few key people!

Reading Goals – Score: 7

I’ve been reading a lot for work lately. And love immersing myself into “reading” again. I say it in quotation marks because audiobooks have been key for me this year. I’ve set a goal for myself next year to read 1 book a month.

Writing Goals – Score: 7

I truly love this blog. I truly love this outlet of mine. I’ve said over the past few years that 1 – 2 blogs a week feels good for me so that shall continue. I rated this category as a 7 because I feel like I have my next book in me ready to be birthed so I’m starting to think if this is the year, I start mapping out the contents.

Career / Side Hustles Goals

I scored a 9 in my career and a 7 in my side hustles. I’m really happy in my career. I’ve landed as a Marketing Director for a sales development training company and we have some big 2022 goals to accomplish and I’m excited to be a part of the team. However, because I started working full-time again in June of 2021 most of my energy and focus has been put into that role and I had little to no energy in the morning or evenings to dedicate to my side hustles. So I scored myself a 7 because I know I can get focused and do better in a few areas.

Side Hustle Goals – Score: 7

I love my dōTERRA Business. I threw myself into the business during my mat leave but had to take a step back a bit this year due to my health and my energy needs for my full-time role. I’m excited to get refocused and continue to work towards supporting my customers. I have some big goals in terms of actually supporting women (or men) in being able to build a diversified income with this business in 2021.

I lauched Lifestyle Health Audits in my Autoimmune Thriving business last year as well and really enjoyed connecting with individuals who are looking for a health care tour guide. I’m thinking of re-launching my Autoimmune Thriving program next year so I’ll start some market research to see how many people might be interested in joining.

Last but not least, my husband and I incorporated a business earlier this year, we’ve been looking for the right piece of land to start the business but haven’t found the right one. After several offers, and one accepted one that didn’t work out (structural issues in a building on site) we are still searching so that continues to be a priority for us into the new year.

Career Goals – Score: 9

I’d like to set myself up to become a fractional CMO in the future. There are fewer and fewer C level roles at the top of organizations but I’d like to look at what it would look like to offer my marketing skills to several different organizations who couldn’t afford a full-time role in the future but could benefit from part-time senior leadership support.

Personal Development Goals – Score: 8

In 2021, my husband and I focused on becoming more self-reliant. So if you need to throw an easy label on it, we became preppers this year. We’ve always loved our time out in nature but we are creatures of comfort and if the past 2 years have taught me anything it’s that we need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. When we also look at what’s going on in the world and the amount of natural disaster that people are facing we want to ensure we are setting ourselves up for survival no matter what sort of scenario lies ahead.

To continue to expand my knowledge and skill set I’ve set up a monthly self-reliant challenge for myself to learn 1-2 new skills a month. I’ll share a separate blog post on the topic!

Nutrition Goals – Score: 9

Nutrition is pretty good for me. I do want to focus on a few things in my health so I’ll always continuously work to optimize the food that nourishes me. I want to ensure I’m always filling our bodies with nutrient dense meals so my goal in this category is to simply try at least 1 new nutrient dense recipe a week.

In addition, my dōTERRA business team always runs an annual 21 day Healthy Habits Program. It starts February 1st so I’ll be following along for myself! And in June we’ll be running out Essential 30 day Cleanse which I’ll also be participating in.

Well there you have it, all my 2022 goals in one place. Does this method of planning resonate with you? Do you have a similar practice? Want to share some of your 2022 goals with me?

2021 Year In Review

12 / 31 / 215 / 12 / 22

There aren’t too many years in my life that fly by but 2020 and 2021 definitely caught me by surprise in terms of how fast they happened. Is that what happens after you have kids?

I love looking back on the past year and in 2020 I started a tradition of celebrating my accomplishments and sharing some lessons instead of just reviewing what goals I was able to check off a list. So here is my 2021 year in review!

Top 10 Accomplishments from 2021

Became the Marketing Director at Predictable Revenue in June
Moved our family back across the country from Port Alberni to our home in Ottawa
Learned how to hunt (basically on my own – I have a mentor but we only got together to hunt in person in the Spring)
We went camping in the skoolie with our family at Fitzroy Harbour (this is an accomplishment with twins!) and travelled up to our cottage twice
Celebrated the twin’s first birthday
Renovated the upstairs bathroom
Became preppers (in the sense that we have supplies for certain kinds of emergencies)
Learned much more about standard investing and how to invest in cryptocurrencies
Paid off all our debt
Went hiking with the babes on Vancouver Island and around Ottawa

We said goodbye to my grandmother this summer and I’m so grateful that she got to meet our babes twice. That meant the world to me and I’ll always remember her holding them this year.

Top 5 Lessons from 2021

Flexed my resilient skills (yet again) after being laid off while on maternity leave and found an amazing company to land at after my mat leave was over. They are so supportive and live their corporate values. I’ve learned what red flags to look for now in companies that don’t support mothers and how to ensure a company truly supports work/life harmony.
Learned how to write a business plan for a new business we are in the process of setting up (still looking for the right piece of land)
When tackled with a potential health threat for our son Ryland (a tick bit him in October), I’ve learned about what resources are available regarding Lyme disease in Ottawa, Ontario and feel confident that we proactively treated him to ensure it didn’t take hold in his body.
I’m learning how to heal my body when faced with high liver enzymes consistently over the course of a year.
My nervous system needs deep healing and it can’t be fixed by just morning meditation and Epsom salt baths. Taking the steps I need to continue my healing journey over the past two years.

2020 Year In Review

12 / 30 / 205 / 17 / 22

The last week of December always has that fresh start energy around it. Here is my 2020 year in review before putting dreams on paper for the upcoming year.

But before we dive into the year… I saw an amazing post on Instagram last night. It was during a late-night feeding for the twins and it really put things into perspective. The summary of it was to give ourselves a bit more grace around 2020. And not be so hard on ourselves if we weren’t able to achieve everything we had set out to do. So I’m not even going to do a standard overview of my 2020 goals because everything changed this year.

I also got inspired for this post after attending a yoga class on December 30th with Aleysha Derkson. She urged us to journal before our mat practice. One of the questions was to ponder “What lessons did 2020 bring?” The question before this was “What challenges did 2020 bring?” We need to acknowledge the challenges that this year brought us. However, we can also reframe the year and celebrate what we learned. Even if it was from hardship.

So first, I want to celebrate what I accomplished in the current year to acknowledge the blessings. From there I’ll share the lessons from this year.

Top 10 Accomplishments from 2020

We moved our life from Ottawa to Port Alberni. Organizing a cross-country move is no small feat.
I carried the twins in a healthy pregnancy.
I gave birth to 2 beautiful babies (Alora & Ryland).
I tackled a new role as the Marketing Director for the Coulson Group of Companies at the beginning of the year until going on mat leave in July.
My dōTERRA business hit the rank of Silver in November for the first time in a year (every month we actually start from scratch). To hit this rank means I am successfully supporting my current customers and sharing the oils with new customers.
My husband and I traveled back to Ottawa in September to visit family & friends with 6-week old babies during a pandemic.
My husband and I explore Vancouver Island a little bit. We managed to go to Ucluelet in February, and Tofino a few times (with Mike’s parents and the babes). We also camped out in our skoolie at Sproat Lake Provincial Park and Stamp River Provincial Park.
I continued blogging throughout the year, hopefully providing some resources for other new moms.
I consistently taught essential oils classes on Instagram live every Wednesday night from October to December.
I made less checklists this year!

Top 5 Lessons from 2020

You can never stop learning how to be resilient. The postpartum complications I endured taught me once more how much I can endure.
Having twins teaches you a new level of communication needed with your partner. Mike and I have had to learn to express our needs proactively so we don’t fall into resenting each other.
I’m proud of how I stepped into my corporate role this year and made great progress in implementing marketing strategies within only 6 months.
I am learning to love my body after birth. Loving it for what it accomplished this year while rebuilding my strength and embracing the new curves and softness.
My dōTERRA business continued to grow the more I showed up consistently. By sharing how I use the oils on Instagram and teaching live I was able to build my business back up to a leadership level I achieved last year.

And here’s a fun snap shot of my most read blog posts of the year.

My 2020 New Year’s Goals

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I always go all out setting new year’s goals every year. It always lights me up and has gotten me excited for the new year. I’ve been doing it a certain way for so many years that I have it down to a science. I covered my goal-setting process in last year’s posts if you’re curious to read more about the steps.

2019 Monthly Goals & 2019 Category Goals

Another fun thing I did last year was dream a little longer than just 1 year out and set down 10 dreams for 10 years.

This year I still sat down and wrote out all of my accomplishments for 2019 to sit in gratitude. Then I wrote out all my life categories and scored myself on them to see where I might want to focus attention in 2020. I still really love setting goals, but there’s something about this year that is causing me to really take a step back. I’ve written down my focus areas for the year but I’ve really decided to go deep on some and stop trying to do it all in all areas of my life which leads me to let goals go throughout the year.

Top 10 Accomplishments from 2019

Became a yoga teacher
Ran a successful Autoimmune Thriving yoga retreat
Built the Autoimmune Thriving community on Instagram
Rocked my seasonal bucket lists, with cabin weekends, glamping, canoe trips and climbing 2 mountains
Spent quality time with Mike’s family at the cottage and over Christmas Holiday (we see my parent’s pretty much every week so it was nice to see Mike’s family more)
Became the Marketing Director at Coulson Group
Won an award for the Euro Tile & Stone website was the lead on as Digital Marketing Director at TRUEdotDESIGN.
MS continues to stay in remission
My dōTERRA team and customers continue to grow
I had a consistent morning meditation practice

What I’m Giving Up in 2020!

Friendships that are one-sided
Putting life on pause for my dreams
Being in a toxic work environment every day
Spending time worrying about future fear
Co-dependency habits

What Is Your Soul Telling You To Do

Teach people how to take care of themselves differently than they have before

Category Goals for 2020

Career – Core Desired Feeling: RADIANT CONFIDENCE

Thrive in my career as Director of Marketing at Coulson Group
Grow a gold dōTERRA team
Launch an entry-level online course with Autoimmune Thriving around Meal Planning

Finance – Core Desired Feeling: ABUNDANCE

Maintain our family budget

Health – Core Desired Feeling: ELATED

Hikes & Yoga
A Healthy Twin Pregnancy!

Travel – Core Desired Feeling: EXPLORE

Visit Aubrie at her house in Girona, Spain
Explore Vancouver Island on weekends
Travel back to Ottawa for 1 friend’s weddings this year

Home – Core Desired Feeling: COZY

Find, purchase and decorate a new home

Spiritual – Core Desired Feeling: PEACE

Continue my morning meditation practice

Friendships – Core Desired Feeling: TRUST

Build new friendships in Port Alberni

Reading – Core Desired Feeling: CURIOUS

Read 1 book a month

Writing – Core Desired Feeling: EXPRESSED

Write 2 blogs a week
Start writing my 2nd book called Health Lost, Health Found

Leisure – Core Desired Feeling: ADVENTURE

Have fun with seasonal bucket lists