Believe in yourself

My overarching theme in 2020 is Believe in Yourself. It took a bit of time for me to settle on this theme this year, but I’m so happy with it. Believe in Yourself encompasses everything I want to work on this year: trusting my intuition to guide me towards moderation and focus, and investing in myself.

I’m someone who has spent her life oscillating between extremes, and I’d like to find a healthy balance this year. I not only want to practice moderation with food & drink, shopping, and other tangible things, I also want to be more balanced with my approach to life. I’m often all or none, but sometimes I think it’s okay to be a bit of this and a bit of that. This is all very abstract, which is why I need my intuition to guide me.

If you’ve followed my journey over the years, you’ll know that I have a lot of interests. I have trouble focusing on one topic long enough to make any headway. While I’ve embraced my hummingbird nature, I still want to complete projects that I’m proud of — namely in the creative realm. Not only do I have a hard time focusing, but I also tend to change my mind a lot. Yet another reason I want to trust my intuition.

I’d also like to take a multi-layered approach to investing in myself. One spectrum involves the time I’m investing towards self-reflection, learning, growth, and overall just becoming a better person. The other spectrum involves making (small) financial investments where I see fit. I have a long history of getting bored and changing my mind so I stopped taking my hobbies seriously. Whenever I came up with a new interest, I’d just go with a simple free blog and not spend too much time or effort customizing it. I still liked the content I put out, but I didn’t love it. I certainly wasn't all that proud of it. I’d like to change that.

By the end of this year, I’d like to feel in my very core that I believe in myself, that I can let intuition guide me, and that I trust my inner compass. In addition to trying to let my annual theme infuse everything I do, I’ve also set a number of tactical, measurable goals to nudge me in the right direction.

2020 review

What a year it’s been! I could say so much about the pandemic and other happenings this year, but I want to stay focused on assessing how I did on my goals. In terms of my overall theme, I’ve made great strides towards fully believing in myself. In 2020, I continually strived to listen to my inner compass and let my intuition guide me — and as a result, I’ve become much more secure and confident in my decisions. While I’m still finding my way towards greater focus, the journey has felt incredibly illuminating, nourishing, and rewarding. At the end of this very tough and emotional year, I’m feeling very full and excited for the future.

Goal #1: Maintain a daily morning pages practice for at least 12 weeks

I recently started flipping through The Artist’s Way, which I’ll talk about in more detail in Goal #2. I’ve heard a lot of good things about this book, and one practice that immediately jumped out at me is daily morning pages. I’ve been meaning to do some sort of journalling challenge, and this book provided me with the inspiration I needed to get started.

When I originally set my goals for the year, I decided to try to maintain a daily morning pages routine for at least 12 weeks. I often test out a potential goal to see if it feels right, so I decided to try my hand at writing morning pages on December 24, 2019. I was delighted to find that it not only felt right, it felt amazing! After several months of writing morning pages every day, I’ve decided to extend this goal for the entire year.

2020 review

This was a HUGE success! Morning pages has become my favourite mindfulness practice. I’ve been writing them consistently every day, and I see myself continuing this practice indefinitely. This small investment of time each day has changed my life — I write more about the benefits I’ve experienced in this blog post.

Goal #2: Complete the 12-week course in The Artist’s Way

The Artist’s Way is a 12-week course that is designed to help you rediscover your creativity. I decided to create a seprate goal for morning pages because I wanted to start the practice immediately, while saving the rest of the 12-week course for warmer weather. There is a second cornerstone to the program — a weekly artist’s date, which is essentially a date with yourself for a couple hours each week. You can do anything you want during your date. Things I see myself doing: heading to a cafe to do some reading or writing, taking a walk in a gallery or museum, dipping my toes in some nearby sand, going on a photography walk, immersing myself in a Hello Writer package, heading to the library and picking out a new book, taking a puzzle or colouring book break… oh, there are so many possibilities!

Besides the morning pages and weekly artist’s date, there are several writing prompts each week that are supposed to unlock various aspects of your creative self. There are quite a few exercises and I’m not sure I’ll do them all, but I’m hoping to select a few to journal through. I’m eager to see what I learn about myself throughout the 12 weeks. I plan to start the course in the spring.

2020 review

Another successful goal! Oh my goodness, I loved The Artist’s Way program. It helped me see a lot of different things about myself — things I want to cherish, things I want to develop, things I want to change. I decided to complete this 12-week course in a bullet journal and I documented my adventure in this video series.

Goal #3: Register for an HST number

Now that I’m invoicing for more services, I thought I better register for an HST number. I don’t want to be caught in a situation where I’m owing taxes but not collecting. I was planning to get this done within the first couple months of the year. That being said, I recently added a monthly income tracking feature to my finances spreadsheet, and I reviewed the rules around remitting HST. It looks like I don’t have to do this quite yet — which is a good thing because quite frankly I don’t want the extra paperwork. I’m going to table this goal and continue to monitor my income for the time being.

2020 review

I decided to away pivot from this goal in 2020. Since I don’t plan to have my invoiced income reach a level where I need an HST number, I thought to myself, “why add unnecessary administration and paperwork to my life?”

Goal #4: Meet my average monthly expense target

This is a similar goal to last year, pretty much right down to the actual target expense level itself.

2020 review

I was waaaaay below my average monthly expense target this year — well over 30% below budget! Due to the pandemic, hubby and I didn’t travel at all this year or go out to any fancy dinners. I barely bought anything in 2020. As a result, I spent very little, but I also didn’t feel like I was depriving myself. Hubby and I indulged in lots of yummy takeaway, and I treated myself to some fun things throughout the year.

Also, I’m patting myself on the back for keeping impeccable cash records this year! I was bang-on with my actual cash on-hand and what my finances spreadsheet said I should have. Of course, I didn’t use much cash this year, but that’s no different from the past few years and I’m usually still a bit off. Yay me!

Goal #5: Buy only second-hand goods in the categories of clothing and accessories

In my very first goal setting video for YouTube, I did a 100-day thrifting challenge that I ended up extending because I loved it so much. I’m not sure why I haven’t done any other thrifting challenges, but 2020 is the year. I’ll be purchasing second-hand in the categories of clothing and accessories (but excluding underwear, socks, shoes, and hats). I’m thinking about extending this to home goods (e.g., dishes, mugs, glasses, etc.), but I’m not 100% sure yet.

2020 review

This goal didn’t work out very well because thrifting wasn’t an attractive option during the pandemic. I found myself not wanting to go to stores, and I don’t have a lot of experience buying second hand goods online. Instead, I mostly refrained from buying things — since there wasn’t a whole lot I wanted anyway. I did pick up a few things here and there, but not much.

Goal #6: Log at least 10,000 steps per day

This is one of my favourite goals — it contributes so much to my physical and mental health. Some days it’s a drag to go out, but I’m doggedly determined about this one.

2020 review

Yes, yes, yes! This continues to be a priority in my life, and this goal was a huge success! Since the pandemic, I’ve been getting all my steps in the great outdoors — no more elliptical or circling the PATH. It’s very difficult some days to get my butt out of the condo, but it always feels good once I get outside.

Goal #7: Complete at least three 30-day challenges

When I look back at all my life changes in recent years, I attribute to a lot of my positive strides to a series of 30-day challenges. While some of my challenges may seem trivial, they have helped me rewire my brain to love a more simple and uncomplicated life. I talk more about my various challenges here. This year, I’d like to complete three more. I’ve already completed a 30-day journalling challenge, I plan to create a 30-day deep cleaning challenge, and I will likely do another 30-day eat-at-home challenge.

2020 review

I’m having trouble remembering all my 30-day challenges, but I know I did at least these: 30-day deep cleaning challenge (30 days leading to the first day of spring), two 30-day eat at home challenges (April and November), and 30 days of posting what I ate on Instagram (November).