Well hot damn. 2018. WE MADE IT. (I mean this both literally and figuratively).
Hope you had a helluva holiday season full of parties, celebrating, delicious food and beverages, hopefully some time off work to decompress, catch up on sleep and Netflix and spend time with family and friends.
I'm thankful I work for a company that shuts down between Christmas and New Year's. A couple weeks off (+ a few PTO days to ski on the only fresh snow of the season so far) felt wonderful and was exactly what I needed after a very long 2017.
With a new year, always comes this need for change.
To change everything you didn't like about your yourself, your life, your job situation, your relationships, your diet and/or your fitness routine over the last 365 days.
Rather than focusing on what I want to change in 2018, I want to reflect on 2017, and then choose things I'd like to do more of in 2018.
Because each year will always have it's ups and downs, but rather than focus on the downs, let's just do more of the ups. Thankfully, Bay Club feels me on this (click through the photo to view the video).
A lot happened in 2017. To everyone.
But since this is my corner of the internet I guess we're talking about me today. So grab some coffee and a piece of avocado toast. Let's chat.
We traveled the country, and the world. A huge part of our lives is exploring other parts of the world, and more importantly, exploring parts of the world we haven't been to. 2017 brought us to Vietnam (new!), NYC, Boston, Tahoe, LA, Big Sur, Vancouver, Kauai, Telluride (new!), and Las Vegas. In 2018, we're planning on a big trip this fall (it rhymes with schmoney-schmoon).
I hit the one year mark at my job. I work in advertising at a creative agency doing social media. I love it. It's exactly what interests me, I'm able to continue to grow my skill-set, challenge myself working alongside crazy intelligent people, and take part in some pretty awesome experiences. I'm constantly learning and trying new things. We also clearly, have no fun. (Exhibit: A)
I got injured, but learned a lot from it. I have this tendency to be incredibly committed... to pretty much anything I'm passionate about. Fitness being one of those things. I started Kayla Itsines BBG (a 12-week strength program) last summer, and completely threw myself into it. I completed all 12-weeks, and then some. And then I tore my biceps tendon in my shoulder. It took me out of commission and into Physical Therapy for 8 weeks. I went from running marathons to walking. From doing weights to using gravity as my preferred weight of choice. But I let myself heal, I'm baby-ing it, and I rediscovered my love for The Bar Method. I'm also (slowly) getting my speed and endurance back thanks to HIIT sessions at The Bay Club.
WE'RE ENGAGED. Seems the 10th year's the charm folks. On our last night in Tahoe, boyfriend popped the question, and we're fully in the throes of wedding planning. Gettin' hitched later this year and couldn't be more excited to marry him and start our lives together.
So goals for 2018? Pretty simple.
Enjoy every day of every week of every month this year. This is a big year. For me, for boyfriend, for our families. I want to enjoy every part of it. And that's not to say there's some pressure I'm putting on every day to be perfect. But to find something to enjoy about every day this year.
Stay fully present. It's easy to dive into my phone in the evenings to catch up on the day's social media happenings. But my goal is to be more present. Put the phone away. Engage more. Ask people to repeat themselves less.
Keep things in perspective. Ever get wrapped up in the details of... anything? I'll use wedding planning as an example. Getting into a tizzy over something you can't control or something that's so small it doesn't even matter. I want my mindset this year to be to not sweat the small stuff. Because I think as we've all learned over the last year, it's mostly all small stuff.
Be the best version of myself. I want to continue to grow as a person, a fiancee (omg), a daughter, a friend, a colleague and maybe even a pet-owner (!!) this year. I want to recognize areas of improvement, take constructive criticism with grace, and act accordingly. I want to enhance the areas of my personality that bring joy to others (I find myself funny, do you?)
Well there you have it. 2018 I have high expectations for you, but at the same time, I'm okay letting everything just fall into place.
Let's go.