A Review of 2018 and Creating a Theme for 2019

I can’t believe 2018 is already coming to an end! This year seemed to have flown by, but when I look back on all that I’ve experienced and accomplished, it’s quite astounding.

I personally love looking back on my accomplishments from the last year. So much so, that I’ve started doing it on a monthly basis. That way when I look at back at my year, I don’t miss any of the small wins.

At the end of each year I write down all of my accomplishments and compare them with the goals that I set in January. Each year that I’ve been following my passion through this blog, I’ve noticed most of my goals have been achieved and some of them have even been exceeded! I feel so proud (and amazed!) that I’ve been able to accomplish so much!

Ok enough about me,  I want to show YOU how great you are! It’s ok if you didn’t set goals at the beginning of the year you can still take note of your accomplishments:

• Get a piece of paper out and write down everything you are proud of that you did this past year. Big or small, just write it down.
• Now read over that list
• Maybe even share it with a friend or family member
• Now grab a glass of wine and celebrate it! Don’t be ashamed to bask in your own awesomeness! Be proud of yourself – you deserve it.

And if you are feeling extra motivated, now is a great time to create a new list of goals for 2019. Again, they can be big or small and there can be as many as you like – just try to make them realistic, measurable and specific enough that you could come back next year and say yes, I accomplished this!

For example:

Unattainable goal setting: I want to travel more. No. It’s way too broad and how will you know if you achieved this?

Attainable goal setting: I want to travel to 3 new destinations this year. YES. It’s more specific and measurable.

Now if you read my post from last year “Choosing a Theme for 2018” then you know that I focused on living in abundance and surrendering more.

I strongly believe these two words played a big part in my success for 2018:

1. I  let go of a lot of the control I had around my body and was so fortunate to be able to conceive in April of 2018.
2. I  let go of trying to be perfect for my blog and my business, which ultimately led me to be able to successfully launch my Pilates on Demand website.
3. I gave more of my time to people who needed it. Starting a fertility support group and fertility wellness retreat were 2 extremely rewarding experiences. Even though I felt like I didn’t have enough time to do these things, I made time for them and made sacrifices and it served me 10-fold. I can’t begin to tell you how good you can feel from giving so freely.
4. I got organized with my social media and gave myself firm work boundaries. This helped my overall mental health and strengthened my relationships with Mike, Allen and the rest of my family.
5. And lastly, the thing I did this year that took the most courage, but by far most rewarding was being very honest and vulnerable publicly with some of my most personal struggles. By having these hard conversations, I’ve been able to connect with so many of you on a deeper level and have been able to provide support to others going through the same things. Every day that I get a message from a stranger thanking me for my post on Fertility, HA, Body Image, or Mental Health I am reminded that I am doing the right thing and I’ve made a positive impact in someone else’s life.

Needless to say, 2018 has been a pretty amazing and I’m not sure how I am going to top it, but I do plan to!

Which brings me to choosing a new theme for 2019. I feel as though having a new baby is going to dictate a lot of my year this year and I want that to be ok. I don’t want to push against what motherhood brings me to simply make more money, look a certain way, or achieve a whole bunch of goals just for the sake of it.

I want to go with the flow this year. I want to spend time being a mom and developing a relationship with my new baby. I want to work on my work when I’m able to and let it go if I can’t get to it right away. I really want to be 100% present for my family when it’s family time and 100% present for my work when it’s work time.

So again this year I couldn’t choose just one word, but I’ve decided to go with 2 of them again:

1. Flow 

   [verb]

   1. to move along in a stream

2. Nurture 

   [verb] 

   1. to feed and protect:to nurture one’s offspring.

   2. to support and encourage, as during the period of training or development; foster.

I think these two words accurately describe the year I have ahead of me. Both in my personal and business life.

In business  – I need to be more flexible on how things get done and who does them. I need flexibility on how my goals will be achieved because my day-day life will look very different once baby arrives. I also need to continue to nurture my business as it grows and give it the resources it needs to succeed. It is at a very early stage right now where it requires a lot of attention, love and care in order to grow into what I envision it to be. 

In my personal life – I need to be flexible with how I care for my baby and how things are going to progress. I cannot control what my baby is going to be like; I can only control my own reactions and behaviours. Since addressing my mental health issues, I feel as though I will have a more relaxed approach to parenthood than I would have a few years ago. I won’t be so concerned about what my body looks like post-partum, how many calories I am taking in and if my baby is reaching milestones at the appropriate times. Obviously I am not perfect and these thoughts will still come into my mind now and then (the mom-guilt has already began!), but I feel as though I am in a better place now to not let these thoughts take over mind and affect my mood and quality of life.

I will also be in a place of nurturing my new baby and my relationship with Mike (and Allen of course!). This is an extremely important and exciting time in my life and I don’t want to rush through it or feel distracted from it. I am excited to enter this new chapter and I am ready to embrace all of the scary but beautiful changes it will bring.

So now I am turning it over to you. What is your theme going to be for 2019? What word or words do you want to shape your year? I encourage you to write it down somewhere and what you hope to gain by reminding yourself of this word or words throughout the year. And if you’d like to share, please do so in the comments below or on social media  – I always love hearing what you have to say!

Well, I wanted to get this post out before the baby comes because I know that the Holiday Season can get quite busy and baby could arrive any day now. I do plan on releasing another post next week and possibly even the week after but I will wait to see what mother nature says 😉

Until next time,

xoxo