New Year’s has always been my favorite holiday. I love sparkly things and introspection; it is truly the perfect holiday for me! I will say the past two years Matt and I have not made it to any event that requires sparkles but I still love reflecting and goal setting. I love getting excited about the future and thinking about the big picture of what I am working towards in all aspects of my life.
I have attached my favorite 50-question reflection and goal setting template. I have no idea where I originally found this but I filled it out in 2015 and recently found it on my computer. I loved seeing what was going on at that time and how much has changed! I love this questionnaire because it asks really unique questions such as:
- “If someone wrote a book about your life in 2019, what kind of genre would it be? A comedy, love story, drama, film noir or something else?”
- “What mental blocks did you overcome?”
- “What was the best news you received this year?”
- “What activities made you lose track of time?”
Another great source for reflection is The Girl Next Door Podcast’s yearly recap and subsequent goal setting episode. I love hearing real people’s struggles and successes plus their goals and “words” for the upcoming year. Hosts, Kelsey and Erica also record a message to their future selves and play it back at the end of each year!
For me, the main thing for this year was (of course) getting married!! Since our wedding was at the end of July, the first half of the year was really dedicated to wedding planning and making that a fun and creative time where I got to make memories with friends and family. I felt like this went pretty well, there were definitely some stressful times but I mostly had a great wedding planning experiences and loved the events leading up to it and the day of.
The second half of the year was focused on Matt and I building our life together: designing our budget, planning vacations, furnishing our home, and discussing career and lifestyle ideas. A lot of this we have started to put into action and I am excited to see it pay off in the upcoming year.
This was also our first full year in Virginia Beach at our current jobs. They are both pretty demanding jobs and with my 45-minute commute I definitely found it challenging to adjust to a life that felt like such a “grind”. I got some processes in place to help be more efficient such as hiring a house cleaner, ordering groceries online, setting up an auto-shipment from Chewy, and meal prepping (as well as freezer cooking).
We have been exploring the area and making some close friends that we are extremely grateful for! I also tried to take advantage of being a 4-hour drive from my parents and we have seen them almost every month since we moved here! I have also learned a lot about my health and have been working steadily on techniques to calm my stress response and hopefully decrease my chronic migraines. This has led to a lot of emotional work such as journaling about past and present feelings and challenging beliefs that lead to anxiety or self-doubt. Finally, I have realized how important it is to find joy in every day and part of this has been through reading, listening to podcasts, and following more speakers/authors/bloggers; the outcome of which has been starting this blog!
I am not sure if I have a word for 2020 yet, I need something that somehow sums up working steadfastly, then finally seeing the rewards. The last 3.5 years since graduating college have been a complicated mix of joy over my relationship with Matt but a lot of confusion in other areas of life. I feel like I can finally see what I have been working towards starting to pay off and some radical changes coming my way!
Comment or message me with your New Year’s reflections and intentions!
This Bright Life 