Last year’s New Years Day post began with me asking questions. Would I lose the minimal 10 pounds I need to lose? Should I resolve to finish my courses? Get my health in order? Or spend time on my career? As I end 2018, and try to hold myself accountable, I thought I would also make myself accountable to you. So here is an update for you as to my successes and failures.
The first I will say is a failure, as I did not lose any weight in this last year. However, I also did not gain any weight and am happy about that. This last year has me recognize my need to, and I am learning how to, stick to routines. I will have hope for this year to be active enough to drop what I need to drop, whether that means a walking routine or not.
I will not say my course work has been a complete success. But, I will take credit for some success. Although I have not completed my major course work, I am learning how to fit a few pages, slowly, in between all my other life things. And though the major stuff is slow and go, I did manage to add in some webinars and smaller courses to the year. Any expansion of my knowledge base is a good thing, and I take that one day at a time.
I will also consider getting my health in order a success, maybe also not a complete one, yet one just the same. I say this, as I have been fortunate to not have had a cold, the flu, a virus, or anything like that, in the last year. I also have found ways to maintain habits that are seeing me able to wean myself off a medicine I have been taking longer than a few decades. I am hoping 2019 will find me completely weaned. I am getting so close. Add in to these, that I am trying to find more holistic ways to keep myself healthy, and you can’t get better than that.
As far as my career, maybe I will let you decide where I land. I have managed without a steady income this year, as I try to add more knowledge to my former career path, as well as, shift into writing, which is something I enjoy doing. I have spent a little time heading towards becoming a certified bookkeeper, and using and learning how Quickbooks operates. I have also spent the year doing blog posts, and in recent months more often and with more consistency. I have begun making changes to my blog, and have been, and am researching ways to possibly make it an income source. I have taken some time writing, and putting in order, the pages to a book I hope to see published one day. I have a few more chapters to finish the writing for, then off to edit, and to find an illustrator or illustrators. In order to reach my goals I also must have a more steady income. Thus, I have spent much of the last three months looking and steadily applying for work. Nothing yet, but I remain hopeful in the what is meant to be will be. It gives me some peace in the realizing that I am exactly where I am supposed to be. Not sure why, but excepting, it is what it is, and pushing forward.
I spoke about wanting to bridge divides last year, if not on a grander scale, then at minimal, in my own life. Have I made any progress in this area? Again this is something I am unsure of. What I am sure of, is I am making the attempt with each blog post I write. I also am making the attempt in conversations I have with every new person I meet. I will fight to continue to do so as time is fleeting and I believe unity is necessary.
Most fail to follow through with, or complete their resolutions; I am no different. That is why, last year I introduced something new into my life, thanks to another blogger who gave me inspiration. Their tradition was to choose a word on New Years Day to live by the entire year. WOW!! what a concept. So last year I started that same tradition for myself by choosing the word “GIVING“. True to my word, and my desire to feed someone hungry, help heal someone sick, give clarity to someone who could not see, and make sure someone who felt alone and lonely knew they were not alone, I gave. If not directly, than indirectly via the charities I chose to donate to. I donated to everything from disaster relief and firefighters, to education for children and sick children, to diseases of the elderly, cats, and wildlife. 2018 was a year I chose to give, to as many as I could, as often as I could. Major success.
I am learning that baby steps to goals are steps in the right direction. As long as I continue to make progress and keep courage, strength, fortitude, and love, I will get there. And if I realize I no longer have those goals, I still have the qualities to help me make the shift towards the new direction. That is me, so what about you? Do you have a story of success in your year? A failure you want us to know about and help you with? Was your 2018 a good year or a rocky year? and why? If in the last minutes of 2018 you are ready to share with us, please do. We are here waiting for when you are ready to share. If not, see you in 2019, with my word for the year. May 2019 be a year of great happiness, great health, and great prosperity for us all.