Ok here it is! The 2013 recap of my goals for the year. Let’s see what I got done, what I re-prioritized and what I decided was not part of the plan for 2013. Here is my original 2013 goals post but I’ll post each section below to remind me & you of what each goal was.

1. Original Advertising Career Goal: Work towards a promotion within the year at my agency. Once a month I want to make sure I’m educating myself in terms of management techniques whether it’s through reading (see my reading goal and some of the business books I’ve chosen) or taking a course or going to see a speaker. I want to really focus on this area of growth in my career.

EOY UPDATE: So at the beginning of the year I was content in my advertising job. I was happy with my coworkers and my role but of course I always want to strive for better. I was planning on how I could work towards a promotion. I had put several business books on my “to read” list to educate myself. Then the BCBD retreat came along and I challenged myself to dream bigger than I currently was. I challenged myself at the beginning of March to find a dream job in marketing. Which meant making the leap from the agency world to “client side”. The week I got back from the retreat in March I found the job posting for Kobo’s Integrated Marketing Manager on LinkedIn. I jumped, I got excited and I landed in my dream bookworm job. Not many can say they have their dream job. I’m beyond grateful that I achieved this goal within a month of putting it out into the universe.

 

In terms of business books I read to better my career I read the following:

What I recommend: Lean In, The Power of Habit, Onward, I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This and It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be

Which ones I wouldn’t bother with: Freakonomics, Blink, Made to Stick

2. Original Health Goal: Keep and maintain my top 3 priorities to ensure I maintain a low cortisol hormone level. I know that if I get proper water hydration, eat at least 5 meals a day and get 8 hours of sleep a night then I’m golden. Through proper supplementation, exercise and a health action plan I can keep the stress hormone low!

EOY UPDATE: This goal never ends. Sometimes your on point and other days you come up short. I like having this as a goal because I’m always striving for better. I have a massive water jug on my desk at work and I would say 99% of the time it gets filled first thing in the morning and finished by end of the day. One of my coworkers actually calls me H2O. My meals have been on point and I’m usually in bed by 9-10pm when I get up at 5am. My stress hormone is actually higher than normal but my naturopath and I are hypothesizing that it’s due to all the running & exercise I put my body through this year. I can handle that kind of stress! So happy with my healthy journey this year.

3. Original Fitness Goal: Lift weights 5x a week, run 2x a week, spin class at least once a week and hot yoga at least once a week.

EOY UPDATE: Weights & running have been on point all year. I’ve been training consistently and running at least twice a week if not once a week on saturday or sunday. Although I was religious about attending hot yoga at the beginning of 2013, once I changed jobs in April I let that slide and must get back into it in 2014. I have only done a handful of spin classes this year but on an amazing note I will be teaching spin in 2014! Sometimes I just jump right into goals! I started teaching virtual ride spin on Sunday mornings at 10am at Energia Athletics on Dec 22 so I can’t wait to rock this new role all winter/spring. A perfect way for me to get my spin on once a week!

4. Original Fitness Competitions Goal: After taking 2012 off and not doing any fitness competitions I was excited to return to the stage with the help of my amazing sponsors Magnum Nutraceuticals. I planned to compete in the OPA Coburg show on April 20th and the SAF Summer Spectacular on June 22nd.

EOY UPDATE: I had decided to shift my fitness competition goals and not compete in April but have my first competition of the year be the SAF show. This choice was made due to the fact that I was training for Tough Mudder at the same time as the April OPA show and just couldn’t do both. I competed in June and although it was a great show I was not as ripped (as lean) as the other girls and did not place but for me that’s ok. I still rocked the stage and then went back to Toronto to run the Colour Run the next day (see races goal section). I figured I would then compete in November but after having problems trying to lean out healthily through the fall, I had my cortisol levels tested and discovered they are abnormally high. I chose to take the stress of competing off my back and focus on getting ready for photoshoots I had booked instead. I shot with Liana Louzon, Paul Buceta & Mark Bradfield at the end of October and couldn’t have been happier with the results.

5. Original Fitness Modelling Goal: I’ve had the pleasure of shooting with the one and only Paul Buceta for the Ms. Chin Bikini competition back in 2009 and then when I attended the Monica Brant F.E.M camp in 2011. My photo shoot goal for the year is to shoot with Paul Buceta again but for more than a few minutes!

EOY UPDATE: I shot with Paul Buceta, Liana Louzon & Mark Bradfield within one week of each other. I booked Paul for an entire day and was it ever worth it. I’m so so happy with all the photos and how the day went. They were all amazing shoots and I can’t wait to see what comes from the photos! See below a shot that Paul posted on his Instagram during the shoot. Not my normal girl next door look!

6. Original Races Goal: I’ve only ever planned one race a year as I’ve never really been a self proclaimed runner. After running the Warrior Dash in July 2012 I became hooked on obstacle racing! The plan for 2013 was to run in the GoodLife 5K on May 5th, Tough Mudder on May 11th, Met Con Blue on June 15th & Warrior Dash on July 20th!

EOY UPDATE: In May I ran the GoodLife 5K. I tried for a goal of a 25 min race and finished in 26.44. However, my phone tracked a 6K course so who knows. I had fun with friends and had a fun race. In May I also ran my first Tough Mudder and finished in 3 hours and 20 mins. I did not complete 6 obstacles so I am definitely hungry to do this race again next year and beast it. After my fitness competition in June on a Saturday I drove back to Toronto to run Color Me Rad on Sunday! My girls and I ran Warrior Dash in July and I completed Mud Hero on my own in August. I added two races to the 2013 roster on a whim by signing up to run the 10K portion of Night Race in September and spontaneously, I also threw in a massive running goal mid year and signed up, trained for and completed my first half marathon in August in Vancouver – SeaWheeze. I can definitely say running took me by storm in 2013.

7. Original Fitness Talent Goal: I have one very lofty goal that I have to keep confidential due to the nature of it. However, in terms of my fitness writing which I was proud of really establishing over the past few years I know that I want to publish at least 3 articles in health/fitness magazines next year.

EOY UPDATE: I did not focus on pitches as much this year as I could’ve and have no new tearsheets. My last workout in Best Health that I shot in 2011 was in the Summer issue this year. I need to re-focus and come up with a plan of attack for submissions in 2014.

8. Original Reading Goal: I’m attempting the 50 Book Challenge. The rules are simple. Read 50 books in one year. That’s about 1 book a week with a 2 week grace period. I posted the first 25 books on my blog. I’m going to for sure commit to 25 and hope the other 25 just come easily. I just don’t want reading to become a chore.

EOY UPDATE: I made it to 41. I finished book 41 in the last week of December so I’ll post my review in the new year of that book. If you search 50 book challenge in my search bar all the blog posts on what I read this year will show up.

9. Original On Air Experience Goal: Eva Redpath and I have decided to put Mid Month Motivation videos on a permanent hold. I have uploaded my favourite videos from our time filming to my YouTube channel so you can still watch them here. I will be focusing more on my channel in 2013 by posting a weekly YouTube video.

EOY UPDATE: I chose not to spread myself thin this year and put this goal on the backburner. I have high hopes for incorporating more video content into my overall value offering but I fear that would be spreading myself too thin again next year.

10. Original Traveling Goal: I’m off to Los Cabos at the end of February with my dear friend Eva Redpath and her BCBD girls. I cannot wait for the ladies only retreat. I also want to head to Costa Rica in the fall so I’m excited to plan that trip as well. It will be the kind of trip I’m not used to so I’m excited to move out of my traveling comfort zone in the fall.

EOY UPDATE: I am so happy that I was blessed to travel to Los Cabos, Mexico at the end of February. I also took off to Las Vegas in March on a whim. Finally I rounded out my year with an awesome trip to Australia in November with my mom to attend my cousin’s wedding! I was truly travel blessed in 2013!

11. Original Spiritual Goal: Focus on 10 minutes of meditation and a morning daily devotional to set my intention for the day and spend time with God.

EOY UPDATE: I started off the year well with this goal. I’d get up at 4:45am and spend 10 mins on my couch reading a daily devotional and then I’d start making breakfast and head to the gym. This turned into sleep in until 5:00am and do the same ol routine; breakfast, pack gym bag, make coffee and head out the door. I need to figure out when is the best time for me to do this in the new year.

12. Original Financial Goal: I’ve set a monthly savings plan for my RSP, TFSA and a vacation savings account. Last year I successfully paid off my credit card debt so now it’s time to invest properly.

EOY UPDATE: After paying off my credit card debt, I successfully planned for 6 months and invested the amount planned for in my RSP, TFSA and a savings account. This has allowed me the opportunity to travel and to book expensive photoshoots. Now I need to get that credit card debt back down in 2014. Oh the joys of money ebbing and flowing.

13. Original Internal Purpose Goal: After seeing my friend Chivon post this amazing blog post by Kris Carr I am going to learn to teach myself that I will never be perfect. I am going to embrace my imperfections and accept them as I am. I am going to embrace self compassion. I am also going to be proud of my ambition. Truly proud. I am going to understand that my ambition is good. That chasing my ambitions with integrity is good. However, my ambition should never take precedence over the good I already have in my life. In 2013, I will invite love into my life. I won’t look for it, I won’t chase it. I will just allow it to come in.

EOY Update: I reflected on this goal in it’s own blog post which you can read here if you missed it. In summary I was successful in embracing self compassion and self love in my 2013 journey and I couldn’t be in a better place than I am now.

Dear 2013,

I made a statement you’d be my year. I’m so happy and proud that I chose to embrace you. There was still some downs but the majority was up and for that I’m very very grateful for how I planned out my year, attacked my goals and lived my life hard. 🙂