Happy New Year! This has been a week of joy for me.
There’s nothing I love more than turning a fresh page to a new year on the calendar. Oh the possibilities! I get out all my colored pens and highlighters and hunker down to review the year past, then make goals for the new one. That’s my happy place.
I’m not a fan of Omicron, but between trying to stay Covid-free and out of the downpour of L.A. rain, I got to stay home all week and ponder all that went down in 2021, then look to where I want to go in 2022.
I always do a version of this, but this year I followed Marie Forleo’s 12-Month Review from her Time Genius program. You take stock of what you accomplished, what you learned, what was the most important and why.
2021 was a huge growth year for me. My quick highlights are:
Business/Professional: 1) Taking over Phoenix Classical Pilates as the sole owner. Important to me because I proved to myself I can do hard things I never thought I was capable of. The empowerment and satisfaction I feel is BIG.
Family: 2) Getting back to our favorite spot in Mexico three times. 3) Adopting Cosmo. He came from the German Shepherd Rescue but now more resembles a coyote. He’s a little wild and still a puppy but we love him. These stand out because family time and home life are vital to my mental health.
Personal: 4) I cut down on two things that seemed undoable before – I slashed my caffeine consumption in half and I mostly stopped drinking alcohol. Both have changed me for the better. The improvements to my life have been profound – sound, deep sleep, a clear mind, even at 5:45am, shinier, brighter skin and an overall feeling of optimism and wellbeing. I have a tsunami of posts about the cutting booze subject that I’ve been sheepish to share but they’re coming this month.
Looking to 2022, Marie Forleo has you write every possible thing you want to accomplish in the categories of Business, Finances, Love & Passion, Health & Beauty, Growth & Learning, Family & Friendships and Home & Environment. Don’t hold back or edit yourself at all. Then walk away for 24 hours. When you return with fresh eyes, pick out 8-12 goals that would make the make the most impact, that are doable in a year. Basically one or two goals from each category. Make a blueprint for your year with goals you can actually accomplish so you get closer to your ideal life.
I have a slew of business and financial goals, a chunk of goals for my home and environment as well as family, love and learning categories. Some goals are more abstract like ‘be a more present parent’. Some are very specific and check offable like straighten my crooked bottom teeth before I turn 50 (February 2023!)
One goal that makes the list every year is…
Get healthier!
Too vague, I know. I’m pretty healthy and made big strides on 2021 in this department. The fact that I now drink one cup of half caf/decaf in the morning is pretty mind blowing to me. And the fact that I stopped my wine habit is insane in the membrane. Man, I feel better.
The missing piece that I could improve on is diet. I eat way too much processed food. The reason this bad habit irks me is twofold – processed food is terrible for your body and robs you of natural energy but it’s even worse for the environment! The amount of plastic containers that come through my doors in grocery bags is alarming and has to stop!
One easy way to attack this goal is to do most of my shopping at farmer’s markets and I happen to live near one of the best in the world – the Wednesday market in Santa Monica where you’ll rub elbows reaching for baby greens with the best chefs in L.A.
When we spent three months in Mexico last year, we adopted the habit of mostly shopping at the farmer’s market every Friday. We’d buy all our fruits and vegetables for the week. We’d also pick up eggs, yogurt, cheese, kombucha, fresh bread, jam, nut butters, hummus and some prepared food.
We did this in Mexico because the big grocery stores were a 30 minutes drive away but I can totally do this here in Venice. Get the bulk of what we eat at the farmer’s market, where you know the produce is local and in season and supplement with a few grocery store items that kids like, cereals, cold cuts, apple juice, pasta, etc. This is a goal that is trackable and doable.
I dug out one of my favorites, Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach. Her 1995 daybook is like a warm blanket of comfort and joy to me. Every year I linger on the passage of January 2nd,
“…the New Year’s bountiful blessing; three hundred sixty-five bright mornings and starlit evenings; fifty-two promising weeks; twelve transformative months full of beautiful possibilities; and four splendid seasons. A simply abundant year to be savored.”
It makes me feel optimistic and hopeful about the year ahead and we all need a dose of that for 2022.
