New Year, New Goals | What I Plan to Focus on in 2019

And just-like-that, 2018 is coming to a close.

I know this is a ridiculously overused statement, but I truly cannot believe how fast this year flew by.  Guess that’s what happens when roughly half your life is over.  Kinda depressing, right?  But it’s true…2019 will be the last year of my dirty thirties (yikes!).  It only makes sense that each trip around the sun will go by faster with every year we’re fortunate enough to be here for (time is relative, right?).  So what does that mean for me?  It means that I need to get my mismatched pajama-wearing butt up off the couch and start truly enjoying life to the fullest!

The trajectory of my life underwent some major changes when I decided to quit my career and start a blog.  Normal people start blogs while they actually have jobs, and then some will gradually shift to full-time blogging and leave their other job.  Welp, evidently I’m not normal and totally did things bass-ackwards by quitting my job, and then diving into blogging without having a clue as to what I was doing.  All I knew going in is that I love sharing information that I feel will help people, and I loved the idea of putting information out there for people to use if they needed it, vs. me constantly giving unsolicited advice to my poor friends and relatives;) .

January will mark the second anniversary of the creation of Bree At Last, and I still have soooo much to learn.  Clearly.  It doesn’t help that I’m getting old, nor that the industry is ever evolving.

Looking back, it’s honestly astonishing just how little I knew before I got started.  There’s so much that goes on behind the scenes that I didn’t expect.  I’m definitely not at all seeking pity here.  It’s not like it’s typically labor intensive, or inherently unpleasant work…..but it is constant, round the clock, time consuming, often tedious work.  At least if you want to be successful.

The fact that it is constant, and that I apparently have issues with time management with so many plates spinning in the air at once, has played a major roll in why I haven’t been entirely successful in this industry thus far.  Not to mention the constant self-promotion required for success does not come natural to me….like at all.  I mean, I still haven’t even told my immediate family members that I have a blog.  I don’t share any of my posts on my personal facebook page.  In fact, I’ve blocked basically everyone I know from seeing my instagram page.

That all probably sounds strange, but I’m in several blogging groups on facebook where we often commiserate about the industry, and through these groups I’ve learned it’s pretty common for people to conceal their blogs from their family and friends because unfortunately they’re often the least supportive of personal blogging ventures.

So nearly two years into this journey, my biggest takeaway is that blogging for anything other than fun is definitely not for the faint of heart.  I say this with many more reasons in mind, but in the interest of being brief, I’ll save those thoughts for another day.

Despite all the cons I’ve discovered along the way, I do love having this little corner of the interwebs to share aspects of my life…good and bad…with all of you, as well as the occasional bit of useful info sprinkled into my ramblings;)  So my goals for 2019 are generally related to improving Bree At Last for all of you who do support me.  I’m not going to overwhelm myself with too many goals for the new year because I really think just a few changes will make a significant impact.

Here goes….

1. Catch my workouts in the morning vs. evenings.  Why?  It would be way more efficient to get my workout out of the way in the morning, rather than being left with the tough decision of continuing my writing flow to wrap up a blog post, or interrupting that flow to go catch a late afternoon/early evening fitness class.  This is going to be one of my bigger challenges.  First, because I am definitely NOT a morning person.  And also because I feel a sense of loyalty and obligation to a couple of the instructors at my gym who teach evening classes.  I feel like I’ve failed them if I don’t show up for class, but I’m going to have to get over that in 2019 and start doing what’s best for me and my schedule.
2. Spend at least one day a week working outside of the home at a local coffee shop.  Why?  Our crazy dogs and my ever-growing to-do list at the house is incredibly distracting.  It seems like every time I sit down to work on a blog post or edit photos, something or someone else demands my attention.  I could seriously accomplish what currently takes me about a week, in one day at a cozy coffee shop.  I don’t know why I haven’t been doing this all along (other than the fact that I hate to leave the doggies home alone).
3. Make more of an effort with current friends, and make room for new ones. I’m truly a social person, but over the last few years I’ve gotten in a huge funk and resigned to the notion that we outgrow many relationships during our lifetime.  Or more specifically in our case, many of our friends have started families and have outgrown us.  Sometimes it’s truly exhausting and feels like an impossible feat to plan even a simple dinner out with some of our friends.  My breaking point was when I spent over two months planning Michael’s 40th birthday surprise party in 2017, which I ended up having to schedule over a month after his actual birthday to accommodate his closest friends, and then over half of our confirmed guests canceled or no-showed within 48 hours leading up to the party.  Needless to say, I was upset.  But more than anything, I was hurt for my husband.  He didn’t know who was supposed to be there, but I did, and it hurt like hell that people had failed him and didn’t feel he was worthy of hiring a sitter, or just leaving the house to help him celebrate this milestone.  Of course a couple had legitimate reasons for not being there, but most just couldn’t seem be bothered when the time came.  After that experience, I majorly withdrew and I basically haven’t planned another party since.  I used to plan events all the time and absolutely loved it, but after the birthday party fiasco, it was clear the dynamic of our social circle had changed drastically, as well as everyone’s priorities.  Regardless of how I sound right now, I’m learning to accept these changes.  I always knew they’d come one day, but it’s taken me a bit of time to figure out what to do about it.  Okay, so I’ve gone off on a bit of a tangent here.  My point is in 2019 I want to do a better job of merging our childless lifestyle, with the lifestyles of our closest friends who have started families over the last few years.  Additionally, I want to make more of an effort to attend local blogger events.  There really is a fabulous group of supportive women here in Charleston, and I would love to spend more time with these incredible ladies.  This also means I’ll have more interesting content to share, vs my usual sleeping frenchie footage;)
4. GET ORGANIZED!  Why?  Bree At Last is all over the place, because Bree is all over the place (mostly mentally haha;)).  I really want to make the experience here better for all of you by planning ahead and creating higher quality content, vs. flying by the seat of my mismatched pajama pants rushing to get something, anything published. (case in point: It’s after 2am and I’m just over here trying to get this post up before next year….never mind that it’s taken me three days to get to this point.  I mean, holy face-palm batman.)

These are not particularly profound or unique resolutions for the New Year, but they’re critical for me, and they’ll no doubt challenge me to no end.

What are some of your goals for 2019?  And how do you plan to stay on track??  Any and allllll advice is appreciated;)

In the meantime….Happy New Year friends!!  Wishing you all oodles of peace, health, and happiness in 2019!!!