2020 is Just Around the Corner

Don’t you want to stop the time sometimes? I certainly do. In a few weeks, we will welcome 2020, but I feel like I am not ready yet. I haven’t achieved most of my 2019 goals, and another year is just around the corner already.

Last year this time, my husband and I had created our yearly goals, and back in June, we reviewed them. Reviewing what we had planned helped us to stay on track. However, since then we did a very poor job to see what we have done so far, and what else we need to do by the end of the year. Normally, I would carry over the unfinished goals to my next year’s resolutions, but this year I will change my approach and deep dive my 2019 experiences.

Overall, I had a pleasant year. Regardless of my accomplishments and failures, I have learned a lot. So, this year during the Christmas break, I will review what I have done and what I could have done better, instead of making new plans and start preparing my new year resolutions. My goal is to see my shortfalls, my strengths, and my trends while I am evaluating my year overall.

In 2019, one of my greatest accomplishments was living in our organized and beautiful little condo. We sold some of our furniture and did not replace them. We are trying to learn to have less and feel more. We are hoping that being minimalist will help us to clear our minds and our environment. We still have many opportunities to improve and 2019 was a great start.

Moreover, my husband and I celebrated our first year of marriage. We have continued traveling within the US, Asia, and Europe. Our trips helped us to realize how fortunate we are, and also, made us aware that the way we live our life is beautiful. And another year passed we did not make any new friends, because we like being on our own. If we meet honest, real, and nice people we would become friends. We have not, and we are totally happy in our little world.
Finally, we started to do daily meditation and practice yoga. We are still learning. So far, I’m feeling happy about the outcome. In addition to that, we started to run. I can run perfectly fine until 3 km, and I ran around 4 km a few weeks ago. We biked several times. We also had a chance to do mountain biking which was so much fun.

Equally, I had some experiences that showed me that I have room to improve. For example, I need to listen more which I already knew. To be honest, it was one of my goals, but I did not practice well. On the other hand, I was pretty judgmental of the people around me including my family members. It did not make me happy about getting angry about their actions and critiquing them. Next year, I intend to improve in this area. Concerning our finances, we did not follow up on the budget that we created. Even though we saved money, we did not have a clear picture of our financial status. And also, I wanted to have some kind of investment, but it did not happen yet. This will be my priority next year. In terms of my health, I felt healthy. Although I wanted to be fit, I was not fit enough. The sad part is that whenever I ate more, I felt guilty. Despite that, I did not take any action to fix the situation. I lost some weight, but I was not consistent. This will be another item that I will focus on in 2020.

When it comes to our jobs, we both worked hard. I learned more and on the 22nd of January, I will be celebrating my second year. I love my manager. It is a blessing to work with people who have experience and know their job well. I am still learning and focusing on my soft skills. Next year, I will need to have more tangible goals though. Last but not least, I read more than previous years, but not as much as I wanted.

We are investing in ourselves, we subscribed to meditation apps, the Economist and the gym. We just need to get the most benefit from them. Next year, I am planning to create a better routine which will allow me to meditate, read, and exercise more.

All in all, I wish I could stop the clock and complete all the unfinished goals and events before 2020. Since as we all get older, we get better at things, I believe that 2020 will be more effective and I will achieve my goals more than ever. As Carl Bard Says, “Although no one can go back and make a brand-new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand-new beginning.” I hope we all start making differences in our lives, have so many new beautiful beginnings, and have a great 2020.