My overarching themes for the year were Finances & Organization. At this point, I had just started posting on YouTube, but I had already developed quite the shopping habit — mainly clothing, shoes, costume jewellery, and handbags. I felt a desperate need to declutter and organize. While my finances situation was stable (as hubby and I had already paid off the mortgage at this point), I felt like I wanted to focus on saving money again. I had just come off of a year of failing at my health & fitness objectives so I decided to take a break with goals in this area.
2012 Review
I did very well with my overall theme this year. While I didn’t meet all my specific goals, I feel like I did improve in the areas of finances and organization. I’ve started to shift my mindset and this year kick-started a journey of self-discovery and self-improvement that would result in sizeable changes in future year.
Goal #1: photo-a-day project of hubby and me
This seems like a strange goal, but I was feeling a bit unhappy with my collection of personal photos in 2011. When I started my photography business, I stopped taking photos of the people in my life — my husband, my family, my friends. It seemed like I thought the only photos worth taking were the perfect kind, with my DSLR, with perfect colour balance, with perfect lighting. This year, I’m letting go of perfection as I embark on a 366 project of hubby and me. These can be simple point-and-shoot photos.
2012 review
I did SO well with this goal! Hubby complained a bit about taking a photo a day, but I loved it. It was nice having a set of photos to look back on, and it feels good to be documenting simple, everyday life again.
Goal #2: 100-day thrifting challenge
This challenge is going to be two-fold. I’m only going to be buying second hand in the areas of clothing, shoes, and accessories for the first 100 days of the year — until April 10/12. I’m also going to try to wear at least one thrift item every day for the same period.
2012 review
I loved this thrifting challenge so much that I extended it for the entire year. I did relatively well with the shopping part except for a few exceptions sprinkled throughout the year.
As for wearing the thrifted items, I did well with this for the first part of the year (January & February). I can’t remember if I wore at least one thrift item every day for the rest of the year but my feeling is that I didn’t. I may have forgotten about this part of the challenge.
Goal #3: savings goal + rewards!
This year, I set a savings goal and I decided to reward myself if I reach a couple of thresholds. I’ll be allowed to purchase one big-ticket item at 50% of my savings goal and 100% of my savings goal.
2012 review
I only reached approximately 73% of my savings goal this year; however, the way I set this goal made it a little difficult to meet — I had upped my goal near the beginning of the year and I also measured this goal with more aggressive criteria (RRSP contributions did not count towards my savings goal).
In terms of the rewards, I purchased two handbags this year: the Louis Vuitton Trevi PM and the Alexander Wang Rocco. Soooo, I bought two big-ticket items even though I didn’t meet 100% of my savings goal.
Goal #4: one new beauty product per month
At the time that I initially set this goal, I was subscribed to two beauty boxes (Glymm and Topbox). Since I’m going to have a number of samples to try each month, I wanted to limit the influx of new products into my home. That being said, I knew that I would still want to buy a few things during the year, so I decided to allow myself to buy one new beauty item per month — this was in addition to beauty box samples and not including replacements.
2012 review
I had to change this goal mid-year because I failed miserably. I ended up subscribing to Glossybox and Julep, aaaand I bought a whole bunch of new products. My lack of success with this goal was either because (a) I didn’t really want to achieve this or (b) there was an issue with the way I designed the goal. Either way, this goal was a total flop.
Rather than leave this goal as a complete fail, I decided instead to do a two-month beauty ban in September and October, which I accomplished.
Goal #5: one litre of water per day
I used to drink a lot more water, and back then, I was only drinking water (no coffee, tea, pop, iced tea, juice, etc.). I’d like to get back to drinking one litre of water per day, in addition to other fluids like tea and coffee.
2012 review
I did very well with this goal until September — I even cut out caffeine (coffee and tea) and experimented with a raw vegetarian diet for my days in the office (only lasted a month or two). I’m not sure what happened in the fall — perhaps I didn’t feel like drinking as much water when the weather cooled — but I didn’t end off the year very well at all.
Goal #6: figure out the mess that is my hair
When I started posting YouTube videos, I realized I had no idea what I was doing when it came to my own hair. It always looked like a mess, even when I make an effort. This year, I’d like to learn easy ways to make my hair look more presentable. I later refined this goal to something that is more easily measurable — and that is to learn how to do one new hairstyle per month.
2012 review
I feel good about this goal! I learned a bunch of different styles throughout the year, experimented a lot, and was really happy with my progress.
Goal #7: decorate, de-clutter & re-organize
Hubby and I have lived in our tiny condo for five years now, and it’s starting to get mighty cluttered. I want to declutter, make better use of the nooks and crannies, buy some storage solutions, display some of the things we’ve collected over the years, and generally get more organized. I later refined this goal to focus on one area of the condo per month.
2012 review
I only decluttered a little bit during the year, but we made steady progress throughout the year, culminating in getting our closets done at the end of the year! We had California Closets come in for a consultation, helped design our new closets, and had them put in. I feel like we made a lot of progress towards getting organized so I’m chalking this goal up as a win.
Goal #8: keep a better record of events
I used to keep a hard-copy daily planner and put together physical photo albums each year. It’s been 4 or 5 years since I’ve put together a photo album, and I feel a little nostalgic about the way I used to document life. However, at the same time, I don’t want to add to the clutter in the condo.
This year, I’m going to revert back to using a hard-copy planner. In the past couple of years, I’ve been trying to use a digital calendar (on my iPhone), but it hasn’t worked well for me — I started forgetting birthdays, dinners with friends, appointments, etc. — I was a disorganized mess. So I’m going to go back to using a hard-copy planner and see how that feels.
I’m also looking for ways to better utilize the photos I take so I can document my life and see the progress over the years. I’m not exactly sure how I’ll balance the clutter aspect with the documentation aspect. In any event, I’d like to continue to have a visual record of my life over the years that I can look back on.
2012 review
The hard copy planner was a game-changer and re-introduced some organization magic into my life. I didn’t realize how much I missed having a paper planner until I started using one again. I’ve made peace with not having any physical photo albums, but I’ve been better at documenting via my blog and YouTube channel.