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Happy Friday!
I cannot believe this year is almost over. The next time we meet, it will be 2018 – woo! In the past, I have ended the year with a recap of my favorite outfit posts (you can read those posts here and here) but I wanted to try something different this time around: reflecting on 2017. Rather than finish up the year with popular posts or resolutions, I wanted to write a personal reflection of the past year: things that went well, things didn’t and things that I learned from.
Outfit Details
Sweater c/o (under $50!) | Jeans | Boots c/o | Handbag (on sale!) | Hat (also love this) | Necklace c/o (obsessed with this)
This has been a rollercoaster of a year for me. My personal life has less than stellar while my professional life has been triumphant. I am private person by nature and don’t talk about my personal life much on the blog, but as I read back on my previous posts I can see that little by little, I’ve opened myself up to you and have been letting more of myself show. Vulnerability is hard…but having a positive, encouraging community that cries with me, picks me up and cheers me on when, at times, I am feeling hopeless and unworthy means so incredibly much. With that being said, I appreciate the time that you take out of your day to stop by and read my posts and I appreciate your kind and supportive comments. I know that this incredible year would not have happened without you and for that, I am so grateful.
What Went Well This Year
Each year, I sit down and write my goals for the year…month by month. As I was writing my goals for the new year, I went over my 2017 goals and was completely blown away. Every year I say that “this is my best year yet”….but really, this has been the best year yet and I have a feeling that 2018 will be even better. I literally cried happy tears. I surpassed ALL of my goals tenfold and had opportunities arise that I never thought possible. I finally migrated and redesigned my website, was featured in InStyle magazine, worked with a handful of my bucket list brands, designed and launched my first product, attended my first NYFW and realized my worth after years of not feeling “good enough.” What’s even better is that I had the opportunity to open up and share my story across so many different avenues and just knowing that it made a difference to even a few of you and potentially changed someone’s life is probably my greatest accomplishment. I feel like I am finally living out my fairytale. I am so on fire for this blog and I absolutely cannot wait to see what 2018 holds.
What Needs To Be Worked On
While I had some really amazing things happen this year, I also had some unfortunate events take place. In a span of 8 weeks, I lost three people that I was close to…two of them in the worst possible way. This is coming from someone who hasn’t been to a funeral in over ten years and had only been to a handful in my life prior. It took a toll on me emotionally, but I was able to overcome this grief. I have also been dealing with serious health issues concerning one particular issue. It has been a frustrating nightmare of a process that is still ongoing and I am hoping that this next year will shed some light on how I can take better care of my health and hopefully, overcome this obstacle that has controlled my every emotion this past year. Lastly, I had to let go of many, many family members that were creating a toxic environment for me. This has been so emotionally exhausting because I was scared of making the wrong decision and didn’t want to seem overdramatic. While I forgive what they did and continue to do, I cannot jeopardize my happiness and well-being just because we are related. A loving and supportive family would not treat someone the way I have been treated and it has taken me MANY years of heartbreak to see this, but it has been so freeing to let go and just live my life.
What Did This Year Teach Me
The first lesson I learned this year is that I absolutely have to learn how to say NO. I have struggled with this year after year because I am such a people pleaser and just want to make everyone happy. However, by saying yes to everything, I have spread myself too thin and have lost out on opportunities simply because I didn’t have enough time. Next year, I want to simplify my life and prioritize the things that are important to me. I’ve also learned that I need some serious time management skills. This is probably an effect of not saying no to anything haha! While I am very organized person and have made it a point to create various schedules for myself to stay on task, the problem lies in the fact that I just don’t have enough time to do it all. I have an issue with staying on schedule and I end up going from task to task feeling as if I haven’t accomplished anything because I am honestly completely overwhelmed. Next year, I’d like to create a more realistic schedule and actually make myself block out time to get things done (and force myself to take breaks). The most important lesson I learned is that sometimes things are out of my control and no matter what I do, I cannot change the outcome. This goes for both personal and business situations. You absolutely cannot dwell on something that you can’t control. Different things happen to different people at different times and that is part of how we grow and learn. Now that I have come to this conclusion, it makes these roadblocks much easier to deal with. If you can’t control something, then you shouldn’t worry about it. Just move and work on the things you can control.
I feel like doing these types of exercises are incredibly productive and helpful for us to overcome our past and look forward to the future. I do feel like sometimes we only remember the bad things and the good things get overlooked and just sort of disappear into the back of our minds. One thing that has been helpful to me is to write down all the good things that happen throughout the year. When I’m having a bad day or feeling like I’m not good enough, I look back on these things and realize just how far I’ve come and that yes, I am good enough. I also started making a timeline and this has been SO helpful in seeing the process of it all and how each situation progresses into something bigger and even more amazing. It’s also really helpful if you feel like you’ve been “stuck” for a while…having a timeline of your accomplishments shows you that you are, in fact, making huge progress toward your goal. Here are some other way thats you can reflect on the past year and look forward to the new year:
1.) Write a letter to yourself at the beginning of the year. Be sure to note where you are at this point in your life and what you hope to accomplish over the next year. At the end of the year, pull it out and take a look at how far you’ve come. I used to do this in grade school and I was always in such awe of how much I had changed and overcome in a year.
2.) Write down all of your accomplishments from the past year and add your goals for the new year, including a plan of how to get there.
3.) Create a detailed vision board of where you see yourself in the next year – where you live, what you do, what you look like, where you go, who you go with, etc.
*Next week I will be sharing my goals for the new year with you! Hopefully, you can keep me on track 😉 I will also be starting the new series’ next week AND will be making changes to the link up. The link up will still be every Friday, but I will be changing a few things to encourage more participation so ensure that it is beneficial to everyone linking up. I have also decided to start having co-hosts and have almost every week of 2018 booked! There are still a few weeks left so if you are interested, feel free to reach out.
I would love to know how you reflect on the previous year! Tell me in a comment <3
Have a wonderful New Year!!
xo
Shop the Post
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Welcome back to the link up!
Today’s favorite is….
This coat is so chic! I love how she styled this entire look!
For next week’s favorite, I will be deciding on most CLICKED ON post so please visit other posts in the link up.
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