My Year End Reflections for 2012

 

Year End Reflections are a set of questions I prescribed myself to help me review the good and the bad of this last year.

You can read more about them in my last post and answer them for yourself to see what you come up with! If you share them on your blog or anywhere, let me know!

My Year End Reflections:

10 Highlights:

1. Ragnar SoCal with all our friends.
2. Visiting my family in Oregon and showing my husband where I grew up.
3. The overall growth of my blog/opportunities through joining FitFluential.
4. Hood to Coast with Nuun Hydration! Wow. Just wow.
5. Joining a CrossFit box and getting my first Pull Ups & Double Unders.
6. Traveling to Philly with J to see our friends get married.
7. RNR Los Angeles Half. A 15 min. PR and a few minutes away from a sub 2 half!
8. More running on trails and in mountains with friends. 
9. Finishing my first 50k ultra marathon.
10. Deciding to quit my job and try something new.

10 Disappointments:

1. Not committing to more consistent run/bike commutes.
2. Not seeing family regularly and feeling less involved in their lives.
   

   Lonely bike.

3. Not prioritizing my faith more/being less involved in our church community.
4. Work related stress and long periods of feeling too busy to enjoy life.
5. Not handling stressful situations with enough grace or tact.
6. Not being able to stick to a basic training schedule and missing a lot of runs.
7. Giving up too easy and easing up on too many runs when it got tough.
8. Wasting time watching things on Netflix when I could’ve been doing other things.
9. Frustration with the Whole Life Challenge and going “crazy” over food.
10. Several instances where I half assed my project/task/workout and didn’t try my hardest.

3 Game Changers:

1. Joining CrossFit in July changed how we spent our time, money and how we ate.
2. Selling our second car forced us to do things more locally.
3. Deciding to leave my job has really changed my priorities.

3 Things I Focused On: 

1. Running/CrossFit: Most of my highlights are centered around these things.
2. Blogging and related activities: I’ve put more focus on this and have had some wonderful opportunities.
3. Work. 40 hrs a week adds up to the most time-sucking activity there is.

3 Things I Forgot:

1. I spent a lot less time with friends and being involved in our community.
2. I sacrificed sleep, time for prayer and reflection when I got busy and overwhelmed.
3. I’ve pretty much nixed pursuits like mountain biking, music, reading, etc.

Reflection: I have a lot to be proud of in terms of my accomplishments this year. However, that may be at the expense of my relationships. The majority of my time this year has been spent on personal endeavors and I have had less time and resources for my family, friends and community.

My Game Changers are really reshaping my priorities. CrossFit has opened new opportunities for me and is something that I enjoy more than I thought I would. Selling our second car has forced us to live more frugally and locally, limiting our social circles. Decided to leave my job is also forcing us to change our spending habits but it has removed the majority of my existing stress and it will free up a huge amount of time for me.

What will I change?

1. I’d like to spend more time giving or serving because this involves helping my community and focuses on relationships.
2. I need to narrow down my interests/goals to keep myself from getting distracted or overcommitted. This results in little sleep, becoming stressed, and not being able to do anything very well.
3. Being able to leave my job will make a big impact on how much time and energy I can put toward my priorities as much as it will impact how much money I can spend toward my hobbies. This will be the biggest change of all.

Goodbye 2012. Hello 2013!