Tomorrow I’ll share my goals for 2015 but it’s always lovely to look back on the year and celebrate the wins, the amazing life I’ve led this year, what I can improve upon or simply acknowledge that I’m not meant to complete a goal and throw it away if necessary. If you’d like to read the original Jan 1, 2014 goal post click here first.
Marketing Career:
In January, I talked about going from Integrated Marketing Manager to an official new title at Kobo. I became Marketing Manager, Books and was tasked with building strategic partnerships that focused on selling eBooks and not just our amazing devices (eReaders & tablets) that we are known for. In the summer I was given a new title as our marketing team became smaller and was tasked with using all content (eBooks – including kid’s books & eMagazines) & our free app as tools to build programs with strategic partners. Although I retain that title I now am working again in an Integrated Marketing Manager role coordinating 2015 planning across all our main geographies and varied departments.
I set a goal to read 2 business-minded books a quarter (8 for the year). I finished The 4-Hour Work Week, Steve Jobs, Decisive, Thrive & The Confidence Code. So I got 5 out of 8. This year I definitely got carried away with my love of self-development genre books and let the business books reading plan slide. I just need to get back into the habit of reading more business books as a part of my non-fiction mix and maybe actually schedule them out in my calendar so I don’t put them aside for chick lit in 2015.
Health & Fitness:
At the beginning of the year, I recognized that I needed to learn how to deal with keeping cortisol levels low and ensure I’m always building in secondary muscle strengthening exercises in my workouts. This year I was simply plagued by injury after injury despite my efforts at rehab & secondary strengthening exercises. However, I’m happy that I managed to fend off any IT band problems that I experienced in 2013. I always stretched and foam rolled after workouts. I was diligent in getting massages & seeing my acupuncturist/chiropractor. However, my body just went through a lot of stress & I put it through a lot of epic adventures in 2014. I started with a bruised rib in January while learning to snowboard, sprained lower lumbar spine in March/April while training for the 2014 obstacle course race season, an impinged infraspinatus & supraspinatus in June (one week before the Toronto Spartan race which I had to defer registration to Ottawa), an ankle injury in Oct after twisting it at X Man Quebec & then running on it injured at Dead End Race & then a broken nose in November from my surfing trip in Nicaragua. Needless to say, my health went through the grindstone this year. Some of my injuries can be explained by my love of trying new things and adventure (Ribs & Nose). Some of them can be explained by putting my body through new intense training for obstacle course races and finally, the slow healing time can potentially be explained by my major health news this year.
I was diagnosed with MS on December 2nd. I have no idea how many of my injuries are related to the disease. The amount of time it takes for me to heal is potentially indicative of the fact that my body is fighting an autoimmune disorder. I may be a bit more klutzy than normal due to the fact that it affects my central nervous system or I could just be blessed with an unlucky year of injury. I’ll never know. The key is that I need to listen to my body and take the time to rest & heal before I attempt more epic adventures in the future.
At the beginning of the year, I also talked about wanting to increase my hip & ankle mobility. I wasn’t able to achieve this during the year and must now focus on strengthening my left ankle as I continue to heal it. I will also never run another race if I’ve injured myself. I have learned that I can sacrifice a race fee vs. being out of commission for 2 months. I also failed at increasing my grip strength this year which I had talked about wanting to get better at. I will focus this winter on ensuring I get this task into my training.
Yoga
I wanted to tackle a 30-Day Challenge at the beginning of the year and I’m proud to say I was really close to almost conquering it. You can read my recap here. I had almost perfect attendance up until the end of the month but I definitely realized the best balance in my life is yoga once or twice a week. Excited to get back into a routine this winter.
Races
If you missed it I wrote an entire post on my 2014 race recaps with links to each race recap I did this year. There was just so much to cover that I didn’t want to make this blog even longer than it was already going to be. I managed to tackle 2 10Ks, 5 trail races & 6 obstacle course races.
Fitness Competition
I had thought about competing in November but after returning from Nicaragua with a broken nose this goal got benched for the year.
Fitness Modelling & Freelance Writing
I had the blessing of being published in Natural Muscle & Max Sports & Fitness this year. Natural Muscle published my article called “My Yoga Ego” with images I shot with Mike Byerly in 2011 and MSF published my article I wrote on pain-free running with 3 yoga stretches & 3 strengthening exercises.
Writing
My goal for the year was to write my first full-length book. I’m working on a self-development book with a working title called Love Lost, Life Found. I’m tackling what I went through in a toxic relationship, how it ended & how I have healed myself over the past 2 + years to learn to love myself again and build a life that I think is pretty spectacular and one that makes me really really happy. The goal is to help other women to never put themselves in the place I was in, how to get out and how to heal after ending any type of relationship. This year I have an amazing framework written out and I can’t wait to finish it and have it edited.
Reading
2014 Books Read
Travel
I had set a goal in 2013 to always do two trips a year. I had an amazing time with my fitness girls on the Transformation Retreat in Mexico this year. But the biggest travel accomplishment of the year was my solo adventure surfing trip in Nicaragua. I’m so glad that I finally grew the balls to do an adventure trip on my own. I had originally posted about wanting to go to India with my friend Kyla. This trip is long & expensive and needs a bit more planning so we’ve postponed it. I do love that I took the plunge and travelled on my own to a third world country though.
Spiritual
I didn’t do so well in this category. I had really wanted to watch online church during Sunday night meal prep but I found myself just catching up on TV shows on my PVR instead. I need to make a conscious choice to feed my soul on Sundays.
I was however successful in keeping up to date with my gratitude journal. Although I wasn’t always writing in it daily. Some days I’d look at my calendar and update a whole bunch of days at once and why they made me happy or something I was grateful for. So I was still taking time to focus on being grateful and thankful for the blessings in my life. I find this habit key to always being thankful and finding the good in your life.
Financial
I’m proud to say I’m credit card debt free and able to pay off the balance every month instead of carrying over a sizeable amount each month. This was a big accomplishment for me!
Romantic Relationship
From the original goals post: “I choose to continue to love my life so much that I will remain open to the right people coming into my life in 2014 whether it be friendship or romantic. It’s a scary statement to say out loud that I want to be in a loving romantic relationship with someone who I can see starting a family with who will say “I choose you ’til you’re old and grey”. I want to be a mother deep down in my soul and I am proud of this fact. So I’m putting it out into the universe because I believe in miracles. I will need to undo certain habits that do nothing to serve me in this aspect of my life. So in 2014 may my journey of self-love and openness and honesty continue.”
I love these words that I wrote at the beginning of the year. I’m really proud of myself and how I opened my heart & protected it at the same time this year. My year of dating in 2014 was interesting, to say the least. I lept head first with an open heart into relationships with exciting faith. My head was filled with pretty words and big promises. I was cheated on and lied to and I’m really not sure why I keep allowing myself to be with this type of person (but have no fear my therapist got to deal with that and not my blog readers!) I learned to really rely on my gut and know that I am more valuable than a bad dating experience. I’ve been saddened that the dating world in Toronto is becoming one of convenience vs. loyalty. I was hurt at the beginning of this year and to be honest I went into a bit of a self-love spiral of confusion. I was asking questions like “why am I not good enough?” vs. making statements of “I am just not the right person for them and they are definitely not the right person for me.” I dated a lot and that’s ok because I chose to keep putting myself out there and meet really interesting people. I then went on to date a lovely guy this summer. We were social media official and he even made it onto the blog. We loved our summer adventures and he was gung ho for my bucket lists but the “something more” was missing and we amicably parted knowing that we weren’t each other forever. I am so proud of that relationship because it was good. It made my heart happy and I stood up for my belief that my forever will knock me off my feet and I will patiently wait for him and not settle. I was also honest with my needs that I want to be a mother to many of the guys I dated. I also evolved this year from crying in someone’s car and telling them how badly I wanted to be a mother (definitely scared that one off and laugh at the experience now) to having open and honest conversations with others to understand if we were in the same life stage. I am now making statements on the fact that relationships really need a 3 month incubation time period. Announcing a new relationship is very much like announcing a pregnancy! I’m continuing to keep my dating life private on social media & my blog so that I can truly value being present in someone’s life as we get to know each other. However, I’m so happy to say that my journey of self-love this year evolved and I was so open & honest with both myself, friends and with dates.
Words
In 2014 I made the statement that I want to “Expand my inner awareness through ease, patience and being blissfully present.”
I can honestly say I lived in 2014 with these words as my guide. I followed my heart as I set goals and completed them with ease. I never felt pressured to finish anything just because it was on the list. If it didn’t feel right it just didn’t get done. I was patient with my heart & my body as I worked through relationships & injuries and I can truly say I was blissfully present in my entire year.
I loved you 2014 and I can’t wait for 2015!
