2019 lessons and looking ahead

2019 proved to be a bigger year than I was expecting and I had two big takeaways from this year. In 2019 I started a new job, we bought a house, we got a dog, and I got pregnant (just to name a few things). We definitely had some of these things as goals for the year but things happened a lot faster than expected and I didn’t realize how much it would actually change our lives. That being said, a lot of our other goals and resolutions for the year ended up falling aside. For the past few years my husband and I have made goals for the year including overall goals and specific tangible things (ie. Go camping 5 times). Realistically, there was no way we could have kept up with a lot of the goals, especially the specific ones. Which brings me to my first lesson of the year:

Set goals in the way that makes the most sense for you

I love setting goals, I love making lists, I love crossing things off lists and achieving goals. BUT, I’m also okay letting some go. I’ve realized this year that it’s important to set goals that make sense for you and your lifestyle. I listened to this episode of the A Beautiful Mess podcast and they talked about this as well. The hosts differ on how they view and set goals, and they each talk about approaching them differently and in a way that makes sense for them.

After buying our new house in May our priorities shifted and while we did go camping a couple of times, we spent lots of weekends doing house projects and I’m glad that we did. We’re at a time in our life where there’s a lot going on. I mean, 2019 was big but with a baby on the way I’m under no impression that we’ll be able to plan out a whole year of goals. Instead, this year we set a couple of overarching goals but mainly instead of setting year goals we broke our goals out into months and just focused on January – June. We talked about our priorities for the year which are the house and the baby and chose a goal related to each per month. I think it's so important to have goals to be reaching for but I think it's even more important to make sure they make sense for you and are helping you more than hurting you.

Speaking of 2019 being crazy, the last few months of the year really kicked my butt. I didn't talk about this online at all but we basically got a new (very energetic) puppy, found out I was pregnant, and then found out my husband would be traveling for work every week for three months all within a couple of weeks. That basically meant I was really sick and exhausted in my first trimester and handling a puppy all alone while my husband was out of town 60% of the week and WOW let me tell you, I don't think I've ever gone through such a trying and lonely time in my life. Which brings me to my next lesson for the year:

Prioritize your people and cultivate those relationships.

Almost all of my family lives out of the state and where we bought our house is a bit of a drive for pretty much all of our friends. I've felt loneliness from this before but when I was going through a hard time it hit me like a ton of bricks. I'm also not always the best at asking for help when I need it. Since coming through that time I've realized that not only should I be better about leaning on my people but I need to do a better job at showing up for them. People don't always know what they need or when they're in need until someone else speaks it. I don't ever want any of my people to feel alone or like they can't lean on me when they need it.

I also learned so much about buying a house, working on a house, being a dog owner, and pregnancy - but I won't get into all of that here! I'm so excited for 2020 and to be prioritizing this business, especially with this new website and so many other fun ideas I want to bring to life.

Cheers, 2019! You were fun and I'm ready to tackle 2020 ;)