It’s hard to believe that we’re in the home stretch of the year! 2023 was a big year with many life changes: I closed the chapter of my 10-year career on Capitol Hill, pivoted into a new role in corporate communications, James and I celebrated one year of being married.
I normally set intentions for the year but I opted out for 2023 because with everything going on, I really had no clue how my year would look! I did loosely map two project goals for 2023 – updating my blog in the spring and refreshing our home decor in the summer/by early fall. I’m so happy I hit both of those projects! Our home decor is a work in progress but it’s already made a huge difference in the overall feeling of our space. More on that another time because that is a whole post in of itself.
As we look to soak up the fall and then blink before the holidays arrives, here are a few personal goals I’m focusing on to show up for myself.
Focus on flexibility and mobility: Since July, I’ve been better about more consistently getting on the treadmill or heading to a workout class. I can easily reach my toes when I stretch but I would certainly not call myself a flexible person. As I spend most of my day sitting, I’ve started to feel the effects of that on my hip flexors and can tell when I’m carrying stress and tension in my neck and shoulders. I love Mady Morrison’s stretching videos on YouTube and have been carving out time each day to do even 10 minutes of stretching. Her 15 minute daily stretch is my favorite to do right before bed, it’s so relaxing! My progress is definitely incremental but I know the long-term benefits of increased mobility are so worth it.
Write more: With a goal of hitting a cadence of at least 3 blog posts each week compared to 5 posts, I’ve been aiming for quality over quantity when I write. When I say quality, I mean SEO-optimized with evergreen topics. These longer-form posts are fun to brainstorm, organize, research, and write but as you can tell they are pretty time-consuming. I’m taking the pressure off of myself and giving myself permission to write posts more like this one – it doesn’t have a perfect SEO title and keywords and feels more like “old school” blogging. Sharing snippets of everyday life. I hope you enjoy those posts because there will be more of those over here.
Needlepoint: I shared last weekend how I am starting a needlepoint journey because I wanted a hobby/activity that didn’t involve a screen. The repetition of needlepointing seemed almost meditative to me so I purchased a beginner’s kit. It took me awhile to even start stitching because I kept overthinking and worried about messing up the canvas. In a life lesson that I have to remind myself of quite often, I had to get out of my own way. I reminded myself I had to start somewhere and you can’t learn something new without a few hiccups. I’m working through my canvas and I already purchased a few more to keep my momentum going! I will say it’s quite surprising how time flew by when I put my phone in the other room and picked up my canvas.
Read more: I have always been a big reader and finishing a book in a weekend was pretty routine. Lately it’s seemed harder to fit reading into my daily life. This is another area where I’m giving myself grace and reminding myself that slow and steady is still progress and reading a chapter or even just a few pages is still reading.
