The new year is upon us, and this generally prompts people to want to take a little time to reflect on the past year – what went well, what didn’t go well, did we accomplish the things we set out to? And it’s also a time to think about the year ahead. What goals do we have and how do we want to be in the next year. For the last few years, I’ve done just that by sitting down and completing an annual life review template that I found via this post, which I encourage you to check out. And I like to try to use this information in the upcoming year as a springboard to help me focus my goals. So the process goes: reflect/remember, evaluate, then plan.

If I had to sum up 2021 in a word, I would say it’s been the year of movement for me. It started off slow, with not much movement at all, until by the end of the year I had gained so much momentum and felt like I was really living a full life. It made me realize that I had spent so much time feeling like I was waiting to live my life, rather than living it.

How it Started

I began the year trapped in the house due to COVID (I’m sure this is how many of us started the year). In my days of isolation I started building a POC for a data-driven real estate app for a friend. Although it was super engaging, kept me mad busy, and I enjoyed collaborating with my friend, in general I wasn’t particularly happy. Part of this was because of COVID, but part of this was also just that I was living in a new place with no friends, where there wasn’t a ton to do anyway.

I was on the dating apps, where I let guys know that I was dating with the intention to build towards a relationship. I went out with a few people, but nothing ever came out of it. I wasn’t particularly happy at my job – I was bored and felt like I needed to work on something new. But I wasn’t getting any traction to do so. For the first half of the year, I went on a few trips – DC and Vegas to hang out with my girls, which provided glimpses of social light (so thankful). But all in all I just was in the house, working during the day and reading/watching tv at night. 

Starting to Move

By the time summer hit, I had decided that I was finally going to take my Latin American adventure trip. Things had started opening up more from COVID, and it felt like the time to get moving. So I had that to look forward to, and was in planning mode. Career-wise, two important things happened over the summer: I was selected to work on a secret special project at work, probably largely due to a connection with an SVP that I had strengthened earlier in the year. And a colleague that I had worked with in my first year, and had kept in contact with even after she left the company, reached out to me saying that she had returned and was building a new team and would love it if I joined it; two examples of why building relationships can be so important. My dating life was still basically nonexistent, but I wasn’t concerned about that since I knew I would be leaving soon. Instead, I started doing things that would get me back into the groove of getting out of my comfort zone. I started this blog (hey, it’s not easy putting yourself out there). I took Brazilian Jiu Jitsu classes (I was very leery about the physicality of the sport, but it ended up being a lot of fun). I started to move.

How it Ended

When Fall began, I took off for Mexico City to begin my Latin American adventure. I did some planning, but didn’t book any return trips because I wanted to be flexible about where I went next. Little did I know that I would fall in love with CDMX and end up staying there for three months. While in Mexico, I got a taste of what life should be (in my opinion):

• I made friends
• I took salsa classes and realized how much joy dancing salsa brings me
• I listened to jazz around the city (something else that brings me joy)
• I ate amazing food
• I improved my Spanish a bunch
• I tried a lot of new things I’d never tried before, including surfing and eating crickets
• I explored the city, I learned from the people I met
• I met a guy and had a whirlwind romance that reminded me what it felt like to really like someone
• I accepted my colleague’s offer after I finished the secret special project, and went to work on a new team, which was a promotion for me

When I got back home in December, I had become so used to being on the move, that I continued to do that. In the less than a month I’ve been back to the U.S., I’ve gone to DC to visit friends, and I took my little sister on a birthday trip to St. Louis. I’ve been out with a few people socially in my boring town and I’ve already started planning my next travel adventure. I’m looking forward to what’s to come, but I’m also trying to enjoy the here and now.

Evaluate

And that’s where my head is as I look towards this new year and begin to decide what things I should focus on in order to live my best life. In the annual life review I mentioned, there’s a section where you literally rate different aspects of your life at the time of completion on a one to ten scale. I like this exercise because it made me realize that often when I set goals, they tend to be in areas of my life that are actually pretty healthy. For example, I tend to set a lot of career and money-oriented goals, but if you look at my chart below, you can see that there are other areas that could use a lot more of my attention. I know that every aspect will never be at top marks at any one time, but ultimately I think the pursuit of balance is important, and so this is helpful. 

Looking Forward

When we think of getting outside of our comfort zone, we often think of things related to work or personal growth in the form of overcoming a fear/challenge. But this chart reminds me that there are other areas in our lives where we need to stop being complacent, such as how we interact with our loved ones, the energy and mindfulness that we put into our health, and how we approach matters of the heart. So as I reflect on my year of movement, I take my highs and lows with me into the new year, so I can continue to push myself in ways I never have before. How do you plan to push yourself next year? What’s your process for goal setting? Let me know in the comments, and please share!