As I’ve done for the past few years, I love looking back on my year and see how I did on the goals I set on January first of the year before. I set out to achieve goals based on how I want to feel and it’s made goal accomplishment and planning more fun and allowed me to accomplish things with more ease.
So how did the year go?
Career – Lit Up: In 2017, I wanted to feel lit up in my career. I decided to double down and focus on my podcast and building my dōTERRA business. While I still work full-time in the corporate world I hardly talk about it. I was in a good job when I first moved back to Ottawa as a Regional Marketing Manager for an accounting firm but I wasn’t challenged. I learned an immense amount of new management skills and how to collaborate with remote employees and co-workers but desperately needed a change. In 2017, I reached a new rank level in my dōTERRA business as a Silver Leader, the Alpha Female Podcast reached 100 episodes and in November I was headhunted and started a new job as eCommerce Merchandising Manager at Corel. I’m really excited about the products that I’m in charge of selling online for Corel. I get to serve creatives and I love my new team, how smart they are and the vibe in the office, in general, is fantastic. I’m really excited about what the new year will bring! Stay tuned for my goal-setting post for 2018 and where I’m going to take things next year.
Home – Ease: As we create a home from a house I wanted to do so with Ease. I didn’t want to stress out with renovations or setting it up or decorating. We completed almost a full home renovation from January – April in 2017, minus the bathrooms, and it turned out so well! From a complete kitchen renovation to new floors, to new inside doors (including closet doors), to a new upper floor ceiling and insulation fixed structural work in the house. I finally set up my home office, which I’ve been talking about for the past few years, and even started decorating. Mike finished my new desk for me and I’m so excited to finish the setup in 2018. We’ve barely begun decorating and that’s ok. I really like how purposeful we are in decorating. We find things that mean something to both of us and then set it up.
Financial – Brave: My dad sat down in December of 2016 and he showed me how to invest in several equity investments. We were able to grow the investment by 10% which I’m pretty stoked about because my Dad estimated a 7% growth each year. I had set a goal for monthly review to monitor growth and optimize as appropriate but I didn’t even touch my investment account once all year. I think the desired feeling of brave wasn’t really appropriate as I am confident in my beginner investment knowledge but I need to decide on a commitment to consistency in monitoring and continued education around investing. Figuring out a new core desired feeling for this category in the new year to stay more aligned.
Health, Nutrition & Fitness – Vital: I struggled in this department this year. I’ve really lost my mojo around working out. From a health and nutrition standpoint my vitality is great but with my fitness or movement routine suffering this year I’ve put on a bit of weight and my energy has significantly reduced. I know what I need to do to build a routine that supports me, that I love and will bring me back to a standard of fitness that I thrive in. So I’m not going to be hard on myself or lament about excuses. It’s just time to rebuild.
Races – Brave: I wanted to compete in 4 OCRs and 3 Trail Races in 2017. I ended up only racing in 2 Trail Races as I solidified a partnership with Camp Yoga and ended up teaching essential oil workshops at 5 of the Camps this year. I had already signed up for all races which fell on the same weekends as the camps so I had to forfeit my registration for all 4 OCRs and 1 of the Trail Races. This was a little disappointing but at the same time my training has been almost non-existent so I feel more confident going into 2018 with proper planning of business ventures and races and creating a training plan that really supports my return to racing.
Travel – Inspired: My travel this year was beautiful. I had the most amazing trip to Mallorca (Part 1 & Part 2) in May with my bestie, Kyla. What I loved about this trip is we paired adventure (exploring the Island) and rest and relaxation with the yoga retreat portion of the trip!
Later in the year, Mike and I also returned to Alberta and tacked on a BC adventure. We got engaged at the top of a mountain, hiked some amazing trails and spent time relaxing in Air BnBs and trying out new restaurants. It was the perfect mix of adventure and relaxation again. Can you sense a theme for how I like to travel?
Writing & Reading – Inspired: My writing has stayed consistent this year. I’ve been publishing one or two blog posts a week and I have to feel inspired by the post to press publish. There are many weeks that I schedule a topic but don’t feel inspired to write it. When I press delete on the editorial calendar it feels good so I’ll continue this way. I like the cadence of publishing 1 – 2x a week in addition to the show notes for the podcast so this feels good and inspired.
While I haven’t read as much as I’d like this year the books I have devoured have been incredible. I’ve been so busy I’ve been fully slacking on book review posts for some as well! I’ve got a bunch on the go so I’m going to double down at the beginning of 2018 and get them off my “currently reading” list.
The Untethered Soul & Surrender Experiment
The Dark Side of Light Chasers
Spiritual – Connected: I set a goal of starting a morning meditation practice and I love what I’ve created. I get up in the morning and either pour myself a glass of warm lemon water or my coffee and head into my home office, plop down on the meditation cushion I purchased on Kijiji and flip on Insight Timer. I have it set to 5 minutes and use the OM chant as background noise as there is usually something else going on in the house and need to unfocus on what’s going on around me.
From the daily devotional perspective, it still didn’t stick. I have said over the past few years that if I don’t have it on my night table then I won’t pick it up. This year I kept my 5-minute journal on my night table and was so much more successful incorporating it into my daily practice. I really do need visual cues for repetitive daily routine creation.
Relationships – Love: So friendship wise I talked about missing my Toronto friends. I talked about how awkward it’s been trying to make adult friends in Ottawa and I’ve still struggled with this until recently. My new adult friend Erin, recently reached out to me after finding my blog and asked to get together in person. I suggested dinner at Pure Kitchen after a yoga date and then making dinner with her hubby and my fiance and pups I’m excited to invest time in getting to know her better this year. I’ve reached out to another local yoga teacher to go for tea before her Friday classes and the conversation and just her presence was amazing. I’m excited about connection in 2018 and investing in beautiful female relationships.
I also talked about how I loved hiking last year in my goals post and how I wanted to start an activity club on Facebook. My friend Brit and I started “The Trekking Tribe” – we have over 219 female locals to Ottawa members but every time I suggested a hike there was always minimal interest and barely any turnout. So I’m just going to focus on my own hiking or trail running activities, I’ll still post in the group but I don’t have high hopes for finding my tribe there. It just doesn’t seem to be a priority for most.
Romantically, I wrote last year about loving Mike and focusing on date nights. We had so much fun tackling escape rooms together, going out to the movies and even started hanging out with more couples and doing double date nights out at restaurants or making food at each other’s homes. This meant the world to me and Mike and I joke that although we are incredibly devoted introverts it’s really nice to socialize every now and again.
Here’s to taking what served me well into 2018 and building on the beautiful goal setting with soul that has meant the world to me over the past few years.
Stay tuned for my 2018 Goals Post on January 1st.
