From today, October 1, it is exactly three months until the new year.
40 Before 40
I made a 40 before 40 list today for my 35th birthday.
When I turned 32, I created a list of 105 things I wanted to do in 1,095 days. Yesterday I shared the review of those 105 things.
I didn’t complete 105 things in 3 years, but I would love to see the completion of 40 things in the next 5 years.
105 in 1,095 Review
Tomorrow I turn 35 which means that 1,095 days have already gone by since I had this idea to do 105 in 1,095 days. Before moving forward, I thought it would be fun to do a 105 in 1,095 review.
2018 Personal Goals
I love, love, love setting goals. Maybe it’s my stringent Type A personality, but goals make me feel alive. That said, the 2018 personal goals I’ve set look vastly different than the 2017 personal goals I set last year.
Last year there were 14 personal goals set. From that list, the ones I accomplished were numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 (kind of because, well, the move), and 10. Additionally, there were several more unafraid/fitness goals set. From that list, the ones I accomplished were: running in general, race short distance, race 1/2 marathon (which I finally set a new PR – since 2009!), hike Yosemite – to address my fear of heights, and continue strength training. I did not do a full marathon or Spartan race, and neither are no longer goals.
This year, I’m making a list of just 8 goals because, well, change.
The changes that are happening and about to happen require me to just embrace them vs. trying to go above and beyond x’s 100 like I am normally used to doing.
2018 Personal Goals
- Help my mom and dad every single chance I can. This, besides just embracing change, is probably my number one goal. We start this upcoming Thursday. I’ll stay at my mom and dads the night before and early Thursday morning will drive them to Minneapolis so my dad can start chemo.
- Trail race in Minnesota! In the November 2017 recap, I mentioned, “I was thisclose to running a December Brazen, but my conscious got the best of me and said, “Nope. Rest. Recover. Build strength.” So instead, I researched and think I’ve found my next race. It’s on May 19, 2018 (plenty of recovery and building time!). I’d tell you where and what it is, but then I’d have to kill you. Bwahahahah.” I couldn’t share the race at the time because it’s in Minnesota, but now I can. It’s the Superior 25KM! It’s a lottery race, but January 1 I’ll be waiting to get in.
- Release The Gutsy Girl’s Bible: an approach to healing the gut 3.0 (And guess what? It’s almost done!)
- Sugar-free January. This isn’t about weight loss – believe me. I don’t believe in detoxes or stringent diets any longer (because my gut has healed immensely and I don’t need to). That said, a break from all sugar for a month, I believe, is just good practice. Don’t worry about me, though, sugar-free means I can still have white rice and coconut oil – so we’re good to go 🙂 p.s. Anyone want to join me?!
- Continue growing all aspects of my business (I had a financial goal to hit by the time I was 35. I’ll be 35 in February, and have hit it, so now I want to make a goal of hitting that number x 1.5 by the end of the year. I’m on track to pass that number up. How I’ve done it?! Almost 10 years of building and staying consistent + having a massive passion for every single thing I touch from a “work” standpoint, and several years of making my clients and everyone I do business with succeed.)
- Join the Food52 Baking Club (after January, of course – ha) I spend all my time creating recipes for clients that I have lost the art of doing it for myself and our family – for fun. I’m hoping this will help.
- Do all the Minnesota things, including, but not limited to: go to a Vikings game, go to a Wild game, watch our nieces and nephews play sports, try new restaurants – farm-to-table – in the Minneapolis area, visit and hike and/or run as many Minnesota trails as I can, snowshoe (my parents got me a pair for Christmas), summer at the lake, fish with my brother (not ice fishing, and please don’t tell him I said this because he will be far too excited), get involved in our hometown – the place we decided to settle for good, eat something I’ve never tried at the MN State Fair, network with people in the natural food industry, and CHOOSE to spend a ton of time with family and friends we have missed for 11 years.
- Travel: Italy, Northern Minnesota, Chicago, New York, Missouri, Anaheim (Expo West baby) and (maybe) Palm Springs are already in the plans.
I also want to blog, blog, blog. In addition to the usual things and topics I love sharing and helping you with – gut healing + living a healthier lifestyle and foster-to-adoption namely – there are so many “lifestyle” topics, events, and other “things” I have been tucking away that will surface.
But beyond those top 8 and blogging in general – that’s it (and yes, that’s a major cut for the goals I usually set at the New Year). There is nothing super concrete or lofty as in year’s past. There are no major fitness or food or big lifestyle goals. I am super comfortable with where I’m at and only have plans to keep doing the same things I’ve been doing the last several months – because it’s working, all of it. Consistency works. It really, truly does.
There are no lofty goals because I absolutely, positively must embrace change and I must help my children, husband, mom, dad, and JJ do the same as well.
I don’t expect that the year ahead will be predictable.
If anything, it’s going to be unpredictable, so I’m just going to roll with my 2018 personal goals one day at a time.
How about you? Did you create 2018 personal goals? If so, what are they?
Xox,
SKH
Half Year Mark
Holy cows! Saturday we hit the half year mark for 2017 already.
This year, I decided to try something new and Bullet Journal my way through the year. It was just sort of a natural progression from my Gut Healing Bullet Journal, but I am absolutely loving the general life Bullet Journal.
There is a page dedicated in the Bullet Journal each month for the previous month’s “blog review” and current month blog goals. On the first day of each month, I go to this page and review the previous month and from that set goals for the new month.
I did this on Saturday. “June Blog Review + July Goals.”
When I do the prior month review each month, I expect growth. I want to see sessions, users, page views, pages per session, and average session duration increase each and every single month.
But in June I felt so burned out by everything in life, including my blog. When I reviewed the goals I had set for the month (new posts I wanted to publish, old posts I wanted to update, etc.), I fell short on every single one.
And guess what?
My numbers showed it. June was the worst month my blog has seen in a very long time (ironically, only number-wise, not sales wise…..quality over quantity?!).
For a split second, I felt a gut punch. Like, “Well then what am I even doing anyways?”
But then I started thinking about what I wrote via if a tree falls in a forest, and I started feeling this sense of understanding. It’s all becoming quite clear. In the post I said,
My tree (i.e. the things I’ve been prioritizing in my life) could crash, make a sound so loud that the whole world heard it, but for what? Then what? Why would it even matter?
When my blog grows, and more people read, then what? What happens next? And why does it matter?
Sure, I always pray that the words I write, experiences I’ve had, and the stories I share will touch someone or help change someone’s life. Please don’t get me wrong. Of course, there is meaning in that. If there wasn’t, I wouldn’t be doing this at all.
But if I died tomorrow, millions of people could know my blog, but there would be a chance that my own children and husband didn’t feel from me the very things I aspired to deliver to (mostly) strangers.
There is a great tragedy for me in that thought.
Half Year Mark
As the half year mark has hit, I have to be 1,000% honest with you and tell you that, at least for the next while, I’m scaling back. I have to. Where I once aspired to blog 5-7 days a week just isn’t all that inspiring to me right now.
I’ll tell you what is currently inspiring to me…..
Ryan. Samarah. Isaiah. Amiya. And everything that comes with all of them, so much of which I have never shared on my blog. California, and the sun and all the beauty that surrounds this incredible place. Books, and digging into the leisure reading (I finished 2 within the past few weeks – any suggestions for an amazing new one?!) I’ve been craving in order to find new inspiration for my own book, Gravel Roads. Healing, keeping on the physical healing path, but also peeling back the layers that exist from an emotional life journey. Exploring. Sleeping in past 4 am. The Bible, and knowing the LORD in a way I do not currently. Blended, creamy lattes, ice cream, homemade eats, and casual drinks with the babies (not drinks, obv), Ryan, and friends. Pool days. Porch nights. Working out, but learning new ways of doing so (yet again). Dancing with the babies at any given moment (we have been doing this a lot lately and man it’s awesome). Singing along with every single song possible. Breathing…..living…..embracing the now to get ready for the next piece life is going to give us.
I promised myself 2017 would be the year to be Unafraid.
At the half year mark, I am seeing that the way I thought I was going to be unafraid is nothing like how it’s turning out to be.
And yet stepping down from “pushing and proving” (as Shauna would say) seems like the most fearless thing I can do right now.
Because it’s downright frightening, and yet totally incredible.
p.s. I really do hope y’all understand. Please know that when I post, they are likely to be more personal and introspective posts (these are the posts that take me 5-10 minutes to write because they are engraved in my heart and easily roll off the tongue – in fact, I already have one in the queue from something that happened this past weekend, and more from our book club book, Present Over Perfect.). But I believe that when you’re out living life more, the words you write and stories you tell are so much more meaningful. Because you can’t write about life if you’re not out living life.
Xox,
SKH
Manifestation Board
Some call it a Vision Board. I call it a Manifestation Board.