Ready or not here we are at 2019. I don’t know about you but I was born in 1968 making me a child of the 70s. Thinking about 2019 at that time sounded so impossibly far away, even space age. And yet here we are! What is your attitude going into this year? Have you taken the time to reflect back on last year? Considered any goals for this year? Checked back with the goals you set a year ago? How did you do?

I am great at certain goals and some goals show up on my list every stink’in year…

I have rocked my Reading Challenge goals since joining Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/ almost 10 years ago. They have a challenge each year where you can choose to set a goal of how many books to read during the year. I am a pretty avid reader so I always assume I am in the safe zone come December. This year I discovered I was two books behind and instead of giving up or ignoring it I doubled down and got those books read! Why? Why do I choose to push myself to accomplish some things in my life and ignore or accept defeat in others? If I could discover the answer to that it would be amazing!!! 

2018

I am ready for 2019. 2018 kinda kicked my butt and not in a good way. There were a lot of family issues and changes that just kept me running from one fire to the next. I hope to be able to have a bit more peace and less emergency mode this next year. 

Even though 2018 wasn’t my favorite it had a lot of highlights in it for me! I would never have wanted to missed out on time with friends and family, watching my sons receive their University degrees, learning to rock climb, traveling to my 50th state, trying things for the first time and moving into a new home among others.

Brave

I pushed through fears and tackled things I only wanted to run from. My word for last year was BRAVE. It was unexpected the ways I had to be brave, several times, and in ways I could have never anticipated. I found it terrifying to help care for Jeff’s grandfather with Dementia. Such and unpredictable disease and so far out of my comfort zone. Jeff and I moved our oldest to Boise and said goodbye to our child and embraced the independent man he is.  Only a few months later we helped our younger son {my baby!}move out into his own apartment. Now permanently placing us in the empty nest category. This Summer I had to fully accept my children are now independent adults. 

We also made the decision to say goodbye to our home for the past 16 years. During those years I was a different person than I am now. That home is full of memories of us as a family and I found it incredibly scary to choose to leave it for a new home. 

When I chose my word BRAVE for last year I didn’t know how it would manifest itself. I have also learned that BRAVE does not mean fearless. It means you push forward through the fear, the discomfort, through the tears and do it anyway. Even if you grumble, throw a fit, cry, it doesn’t matter. You showed up and you did your best. I know this because those closest to me know that is exactly what I did as I faced last years challenges and as I fretted about being a coward, a bad person because I couldn’t do them with a smile on my face, my family and friends reminded me it is OK if I couldn’t do it with a smile on my face.

I was doing the best I could, I was showing up, I was giving it my best and that was good enough. It was even Brave…

So I’m happy to say goodbye to 2018. I am hopeful looking forward into 2019. Currently I am working on my “word” and my personal as well as professional goals for 2019. They will be shared with you in future posts. 

I sincerely hope your year is filled with opportunity, adventure and blessings beyond measure. 

Thanks for stopping by! I appreciate you so much!

Shelly