Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Reviewing 2013

How did this past year go for you?

I try not to follow too many blogs, but the cool ones I follow are taking time to review their past year. It's a great exercise to reflect on what went well and what you could have done better. It is great to reflect. I tend to not push myself with goals. I used to love doing that, but now I treasure the momentum I find in my life and stay way behind on shaming myself into getting things done.

One tool I did not utilize enough was fabulous Leonie Dawson's 2013 planner. I printed it out for myself. Her versions are always fabulously colorful. She reminds me a bit of colorful SARK. This year I am coloring mine in! This year I am making more of an effort to work through the whole book and I will strive to review more often. And I'm excited about this!

Here's What Went Pretty Fabulously:

I joined the Business Academy at www.leoniedawson.com. Best. Thing. Ever! Very motivational for getting myself geared up to believing I could run my own business. I don't come from parents who encouraged us to become entrepeneurs and work for ourselves. They like the 'you've got to work hard for a long time' method. (More about my work later.) I have ideas and I am already talented at writing and I've had some success at pulling in money from writing clients. So I have a start. I love that I've shifted my mentality to want to actually work for myself eventually! I love that I've shifted to start thinking about what products or services I could sell to make a viable business. It truly helps that my daughter has automatic entrepeneurial tendencies already. I never want to squash her beliefs about making it happen, although I have no history of success with it. I keep encouraging her~and whatever she tries her hand at creatively she succeeds easily at!

I am still working at my same job! I am grateful for the opportunities it allows me on a day to day basis while reaching for my bigger dreams! My job is a great lesson in trust. I started on April 9, 2012. We have been through many changes at work, in management, in uncool workers leaving, and getting more stresses dumped on us all the time~these things are the supposed norm of work life nowadays. My trusting comes from still being employed in my position through a temporary employment firm. It's a great opportunity for me to trust where I am at, that I will continue to work and bring in money to keep a balanced life alongside improving my life and yet not freaking out as my mom keeps pointing out I "should" do. It's a challenging position where there is always work to do! I am at the point where I would like to be more valued, so we shall see what employment changes come about in the near future!

My daughter Isabella is ten years old! That means I have made it all these years as a single mom! I truly cherish my time with her~what an absolutely fabulous partner to have alongside me in my fun life! I love laying down with her before she goes to sleep at night. I especially love our laughter and giggle~fests!! In my heart, I'm happy being mama to my Bella! Sometimes it's a challenge and of course I am bad mama not making fabulous choices at times...when it comes down to it, I'm blessed to have her. I'm proud she's half-Cuban, gorgeous, creative, fun, entrepreneurial, and just pretty awesome!

I was able to release my fabulous Chevy Blazer with 243,000 miles on it. I even sold it! I learned a little bit about asking for more money. I am so grateful I could somehow shift into having a different car. I have been wanting a VW since my last one, so wa-la! I got a silver VW Jetta...and two months later a deer got us. So days before xmas, I got a silver VW Passat wagon and love it! I love the seat warmers! It's nice how things work their way into more of what we want. I wanted a wagon, so now I have one! I'm fixing a few things on it, which will allow me to love it even more! I also learned and found a better deal with the second VW. (Yes, a better deal that needs a few things fixed...and I'm okay with that). So now I have a car that can move us back to the ocean when we are ready!

Here's What Didn't Rock:
I did not travel. Yes, I went to fabulous Wisconsin Dells thanks to my parent's timeshare. And I'm grateful for it. This year when we went, my dad went with us and stayed in our two bedroom "apartment" and my brother and his fabulous family stayed next to us. The swimming was terrific! It was easier to walk 15 miles to the pool areas. So I am super grateful for this getaway. I feel like I was waiting mentally to sell my car and begin life. And I just never quite came up with money to go anywhere warm or out of the country. That's okay. It was a hope in my heart. And that hope will be worked on more vigorously this year! (I have my heart set on going to Costa Rica sometime in 2014. Bella and I will most likely go for 10 days, yet I'd love to go for the summer! Or even a month! Cabana boy suggested Tamarindo and I'm already in love with that area! Check out gorgeous sunsets and the life there with sambatothesea.com! Were my life to be even more fabulous and awesome, I'd love to also go to Greece, Australia, Bali, Fiji, Spain, Portugal...I'm flexible for that much fabulousness!) I'm hopeful I will go to at least one new country this year (it will be country #22 for me!!!) I am super grateful to follow some awesome travel blogs like wanderingearl.com and marriedwithluggage.com (they are awesome and I am also excited to keep reading their helpful book Dream Save Do to reach my goals of travelling more, paying off my debt and possibly living in a foreign country!).

I am super happy I continue to work and bring money in. However, at my medical scheduling job, I'm still a temporary employee. I am now more actively working on finding a job with benefits. I had a big improvement from my first summer at this job~yet still lacking energy after so much stress working every day. It's a busy job with a lot to do. More than a lot! I need to work on taking better care of myself and also bringing in a job that leaves me with energy for the other parts of my fun life.

In line with having more energy after the work day is over, I am still neglecting to take the best care of myself. I guess I'm starting with improving the mental parts first. I am overwhelmed. So it's a challenge which part of my life to choose to improve/clean up/make serious changes. For the last several years I've been a member of the "I'm doing the best with what I have" and "I'm good at making do" clubs. I do work with what I have. I'm excited to bring some changes in and shift into a thriving mode instead of feeling sorry for myself/my health/my reality and just not having enough or simply surviving. Only I can start taking the actions to make these changes. I love some of the people I follow for inspiration like zenhabits.net on making changes one simple habit at a time or the way bemorewithless.com encourages decluttering and simplicity and less stuff = more you.

I also know there was not necessarily super sucky energy in the universe this past year YET there sure was a lot of suckiness being vacuumed out. Yay! I love that in my now 44 years, I have lived through so many ebbs and flows of life. While you're living life and it's not fabulous, you don't necessarily attribute it to the cosmos and the planets not aligning for great things. So happy 2014 is going to be an awesome year! I've got a lot of goals and am super excited to start or keep working on them and allow more happiness in my life by at the very least reaching for them!

Happy New Year to Fabulous You!



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