Inspire Me // 2012 Review

Happy new year, everyone!

The themes I set out for myself at the beginning of this year were Simplicity, Creativity, and Bravery.  It’s funny, I feel like every year I set up these lofty and giant ideals for myself, and by the end of the year I am questioning whether or not I was truly successful.  But as they say, if you shoot for the stars, you may not make it but at least you will end up much farther along than if you had never jumped at all.  And I definitely feel like that’s true for 2012.

I wanted to set boundaries in my life – for more unplugging, more quiet, and less excess.  I definitely saw some pluses and minuses in this area.  We cancelled cable in August, and since then I’ve been reading more (one of my goals).  However, I am way too attached to my phone and computer and even though I took several intentionally unplugged weekends, I do not think it was nearly enough!  This year has for the most part continued full force forward, which has left me overwhelmed and burnt out at moments.  We did get into the mountains more than ever this year and spent more time outside.  It was those moments of quiet that I did make happen that carried me through the year and gave me a lot of rejuvenation and hope during some difficult and stressful times.  I definitely did more purging this year, and was more intentional about purchases, which is a win in the simplicity area.  Clutter has a way of piling up in a small apartment!   This was definitely a bigger-than-one-year intention, and I’m sure I’ll continue plugging along, but I think I made some good progress.

This is probably the intention where I saw the most improvement.  First of all, there are the 160 blog posts that I wrote, which is a huge creative endeavor that I am tremendously proud of.  I pushed myself to finish National Novel Writing Month in November, which reminded me of the importance of being creative every day.  There are definitely things, like my songwriting and painting, that have not received as much emphasis this year, but overall I feel like I have been successful at making creative expression a fundamental part of my life!  There are also other areas where I have applied a creative spirit – such as the two 30 x 30 challenges I did this year to remix my closet and look at my clothes more creatively.  I have been trying and learning new recipes that have helped me to be more creative in the kitchen.  I just can’t imagine life without a creative outlet, and I’ve made several for myself this year.  I really appreciate you, my awesome blog readers, for following along.  There is more goodness to come!

Of all my intentions, I anticipated that this one would be the hardest for me.  There are definitely moments this year where I was very brave – we faced a lot of challenges this year. Bravery, in the way that I wanted to see it happen in my life, had a few different facets.  Beyond the aspect of pushing myself beyond what I was comfortable with so that I would be able to grow, it also mostly it meant learning who I am, what I truly want, and being able to stand up for that.  That is surely going to be a longer process than one year.  2012 has definitely been a year of self-analysis and discovery, particularly in the career area, and although I do not have any concrete answers for myself, the process of turning dissatisfaction or complaints into an opportunity to figure out what I really need and want out of my career and my life has been an important one.  Overall, I think I have made huge strides in this area and it has set me on a good footing for where I would like to go in 2013.

Tomorrow I’ll be sharing my new words for the new year!

Phew! I love the clean slate that the turning of the year brings – how did your 2012 go?