Wow did I have big plans for 2017! I'll admit, I went into the year just hoping to put 2016 behind me. Little did I know how much pain and sadness was going to touch friends and family. Despite my hopes to live large in 2017, I unfortunately let myself down in many ways.
Last year about this time I wrote a list of resolutions of sorts to myself. Rather than list all the things I would change, I worded my post Looking Forward to Looking Back on 2017, in a way that might push me to do things so that once I got to the end of
the year, I wouldn't be feeling regretful of things I did not do, things
I did not accomplish. Life has a way of throwing best laid ambitions aside. Still, a fresh year is upon all of us on Monday. While doing my tidying up, I had some good thoughts on how the year went, and what I want for the coming 12 months. Mostly, it comes down to regrets. I do not want any regrets in in 2018. When I do something, I want to fully commit. When I'm with people I want them to be the only ones in the room that matter at that moment. When I say I want to live healthier, it means physically and mentally-not getting sucked into drama when nothing positive will come of it. For posterity, I feel a need to put closure on my list from last year. Did I achieve any of it?
1.
Restored my home to a place of calm and pride, particularly my bedroom
and family room. Well, the family room has been put to mostly rights. We need a good paint job and the bathroom needs some repairs, but it once again is a room to enjoy a movie with my family and football games with friends. The bedroom is still a deep dark hole that purchasing a new bed quilt could not cover. This is my number one focus for 2018, but hopeful other rooms will follow suit.
2. I'll
have gone to at least two music performances that my kid was not
performing in. This was a major success! We enjoyed Kansas and Journey. We went to hear local musicians at a river town festival. DH and I went to hear music at a winery and at a brew pub. These were all in addition to the school concerts, show choir, vocal jazz and the haphazard stumbled upon performances.
3. I'll have hosted no less than six
(combination) of women and wine nights, coffee mornings, and get
together lunches. Fail-let's move on.
4. I'll have done no less than
twelve exploration days. Once a month, sometimes more, sometimes none. I'll call this a partial accomplishment. We found new parks, new coffee shops, and a couple new to us communities to explore.
5. Last, but certainly not least,
I received formal recognition of my existence as a writer. Well, let's see. Twice I had people ask me to include a link to their web page in a blog post. I also had my first offer of a freebie in exchange for a product review. While I did link to the two web pages, just FYI kind of stuff, I passed on the freebie for a review post. If it had been something I actually would have liked to try and maybe purchase, I would have said yes, but knowing I would never spend my own money on said Item, I felt I should pass on the "opportunity." Seriously though, how do people get the good stuff, free coffee or tea, a great hand cream or restaurant voucher for product inclusion in a post? I'm curious. These were not quite recognition, but the fact that enough of you stick around that others want my nod to them on my blog means something to me.
What about you? Did you create the life you wanted in 2017? Despite trying circumstances, were you able to push forward any of your goals? I'll be back on January 1 with a new Looking Forward to Looking Back-2018 Edition.
I'm with you, I'll only accept a freebie if it's something I'd buy myself and/or it's a company with excellent ethical credentials. I can't be doing with all those insincere "Those lovely people at..." posts endorsing all manner of weird things! x
ReplyDeleteDon't get me wrong-I'd love to try things out and give an honest opinion, but I don;t do fake well, and don;t think anyone that would read anything I wrote would appreciate that too much.
DeleteOn getting stuff for sponsored posts-there are advertising type collectives that pair bloggers and companies. When I was blogging, I did some work through a company called Collective Bias-there is also another group called Massive Sway. Look on Pinterest for blogging sponsorship programs or blogging resources. I am sure someone has come with a list.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip. I will check boht those sites out as well as Pinterest. thank you for reading and commenting.
DeleteI try not to get caught up in the end of year/beginning of the year goals. Instead, I try to focus every day on creating the life I want. Odd, as a school kid, the New Year always started in September. In college, I felt I got two New Year's, as we were on a semester system. When I worked, my year was broken up into weekly projects. As a SAHM, the toddler years were never ending, it seemed. In retrospect, while those years were exhausting, they were oh so simple. Now that they are all in school, the years seemed to once again start in September! I guess I am just going to continue to push forward each day by trying to live a life in line with my values, and continuing to quietly remove myself from any situations which aren't in line with those values.
ReplyDeleteI have that feeling about September as well. Still, I'm a list maker and a gola setter-it keeps me trhiving. I'm in total agreement though that we owe ourselves to each day live with our own values, create our lives in alignment, and move on if we are faced with stuff that isn't for us.
DeleteI don't do resolutions, just try to take one day at a time. We do have to plan to make things happen though like date nights and holidays way far in advance so I make that a priority. You have lots of followers who read you daily and appreciate your written word, please don't forget that!
ReplyDeleteI see my list more as a plan than resolutions. Areas of concentration that I feel will make my life better. I do resolve to lose some more weight in 2018!
Delete2017 seems to have kicked my butt. And it isn't stopping. Our dryer suddenly stopped working tonight and when Bill went to leave for work his windshield wipers which we just got fixed a week ago decided not to work again---not good when it is snowing hard. Ugghh. I will be glad when 2017 is over. I didn't really do any resolutions for 2017 either and I admit that I felt lost at times. I am coming up with goals for 2018 and will be posting them in the new year. Hopefully they will help me make those changes that I need to make.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry Rachel. Not great right after the holiday spending and the cold weather kicking in. We can be wing persons for each other-you did great in 2017 on healthy changes. Let's both keep it up.
DeleteI don't do new year's resolutions either. I figure by the time I fall off the wagon (around 5 January) I can't be bothered to start again. So I guess my resolution start on 5 January. Oh, and best wishes for 2018 from France. A
ReplyDeleteI see these more as plans, since I can craft and arrange but should make time for each to make these things actually happen. Happy New YEar from the midwest USA. I like the sound of France better. -11 here today.
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