Reflecting on the Past Year

Tomorrow is my 26th birthday! As with every birthday, I’ve been doing a lot of self-reflection on the past year while figuring out what I want to focus on for the new year ahead. The past few years have been an incredible learning experience full of growth and self discovery…

The 23rd Birthday: A pivotal turning point in my life. I was extremely depressed and out of sorts. I remember feeling unhappy with my life, completely lost and absolutely clueless about who I was. I sat down and made a list of everything I thought I needed to do, change or create in my life to be happy. This list served as a starting point for figuring out who I was and what I really wanted.

The 24th Birthday: The boyfriend and I had just moved to Hawaii… While this point in time was full of possibility and positive change, the following year would push me to my limits emotionally in many different ways. I was still lost and depressed and extremely frustrated by the fact that I hadn’t made any real shifts in my life. A year of rigorous and extensive soul searching, questions and discoveries. I learned that I’m an INFJ, that being a graphic designer is not my true calling and I wrote my mission statement while learning what I’m really passionate about.

The 25th Birthday: I started this year off full of optimism and ambition. I set about 25 goals, small and large, that were meant to move me forward in all areas of my life. This was supposed to be an amazing year. But it wasn’t. I fell into old patterns that caused me to limit myself. I lived in a cycle of depression and frustration that was all too familiar. Then towards the end of the year, I decided I HAD TO TAKE ACTION or things were never going to change. I founded StartupCorner, something I’d been wanting to do for a very long time. Since committing 100% to my passions and purpose things have really begun to fall into place. Financially, this has to have been the worst year of my life.

A small part of me feels like 25 was a wasted year. Both 23 and 24 were packed full of huge internal shifts and self discovery.. but this last year was really just full of living in a funky “bleh” rut. Discovering that I was doing this to myself has to be the biggest realization of the year. And probably the last one that I needed to make before I can really step into my greatness and live the life I’m capable of living. It was all necessary and I couldn’t be more thankful for every moment of the last three years. It was hell and I can say honestly, it was absolutely worth it.

For this year, I created some goals that are extremely important to me. Things that I’ve been wanting to complete for ages and things that I know I need to do for my own well-being. Despite the fact that the past couple of months have been stressful and have had my bank account in the negative more times than I care to mention… I feel in my bones that these rough times are passing. There have been several, overwhelming moments that could have been major breaking points. But like I said, I feel the change in the air and in myself… this next year will be amazing.

Some of my goals for this year include:

• Really do the daily creativity thing. 365 days of creativity all captured here.
• Keep a real, meaningful scrapbook of my life. I write morning pages every day, but I’m going to create a scrapbook of the next year, documenting every single day in some way. Art, photos, scraps and words. Simple and memorable.
• Publish a poetry book. This has been a dream/goal for over a decade. The poetry is all from my middle/high school years and putting them into a book with art is important to me. I will likely self publish this for myself and my family.
• Successfully launch StartupCorner. Already in the works… this goal is really about bringing it to life in the way that I envision and using it to make a positive impact.
• Finish my book. Recently, I started writing a blog post about my journey over the past few years. When I was done, I immediately knew that I had written the introduction to a book. I decided not to publish the post and instead began working on writing a full fledged book.
• Really and FINALLY get into my best shape ever.
• Read a book every week to two weeks. This amounts to between 26 – 52 books. I tried for every week last year but got behind and then ditched the goal altogether! I can do two a week but will shoot for one. 🙂
• Launch a creativity and art program for kids and adults. This is an idea I’ve had for a little while and something I’d like to try doing at least once. More details when it develops!
• Launch a personal website. I’ve been toying with some ideas for consulting and I’d really like to have a personal site to link up all my different projects, companies and portfolios.
• Figure out the details and launch Creative Spark Design’s sister company that will focus on working exclusively with green vendors and positive cause clients.
• Blog regularly. I’ve decided to blog on Mondays and Wednesdays (possibly Fridays too) and to actually be consistent. Some days might just be a quote or some photos, but I will be consistent starting……… NOW!

These are the main goals… there are always other small goals but instead of overwhelming myself this year, I decided that these were the most important to me. Here’s to a great 26th year!