okaybee

It’s always interesting to look back on these posts as a little online journal, a snapshot of the year.

I was scrolling through Instagram the other morning, standard, and I came across a post that Jen Atkin put up. It was two lists, one said “What would I do if there was no way to fail in 2019?”, with the headings ‘Have’, ‘Be’ and ‘Do’, against the timelines of 6 and 12 months. The second, said “2019 Goals”, with the headings ‘Personal’, ‘Health’, ‘Career’, ‘Recreation’ and ‘Spiritual’. I thought this was a nice way to break things down and so I wanted to do a reflective post in the same way as list number two.

Personal

Thinking back on this year, there’s a lot of personal things I’m proud of. I made a lot of new friends thanks to travelling and saying ‘yes’ to random adventures that have come my way. I have great relationships with my family and relatives that mean the world to me. I have an incredible group of friends that are supportive, kind, and lovely humans. I finally passed my driving test (yes I know I’m old to be doing that but here we are). I moved to a part of Dublin that I love and has given me a new appreciation for the city.

I’ve been very lucky to watch several people that I love get married this year, including being a bridesmaid for one of my favourite people on the planet. Weddings are a beautiful occasion with family and friends, and getting to be involved in these days really are such an honour. I get all teary thinking about it!

I’ve pushed myself to be more environmentally friendly and I’m making changes every day to be better and more aware. I’ve contributed to causes that are important to me and want to continue to do so. It’s been a year of growing and learning more about myself and I think that’s made me largely a more confident person.

Health

I was very lucky this year to finish physio on my knee. It was a long ass road getting my knee back to normal, and to get the nod from my amazing physiotherapist was such a relief. I still have good and bad days with my knee, but it’s a million times better than it was this time last year.

One thing I think I need to focus on in 2019 is my anxiety and panic attacks. Unfortunately they have come back with a vengeance this year. It’s my mission to make 2019 more mindful and look after my mental health more. For the most part, I haven’t let them take over my life, which for anyone who suffers from anxiety and panic attacks knows, that in itself is exhausting. But I definitely feel that there are steps that I want to take in this New Year to help me get a better handle on it all.

Career

Personally, 2018 was a year of pushing myself and growing. I worked hard and developed skills that I’m passionate about. I worked hard at this site and my YouTube, being more consistent than ever before, uploading a new post and video every week for the last 44 weeks (today’s post will be number 45). That’s a huge accomplishment for me as it showed I can make the time to do the things I enjoy, I can push myself as a content creator, and take myself out of my comfort zone.

I feel like 2019 is the year I want to take my content to the next level. Yes, it’s great to be consistent and have a schedule that I keep to, but I also want to make sure that I’m putting out content that I love and that I’m proud of always. I want to surround myself with creative people who challenge me, and that I can learn from. There are so many talented people in Ireland, it really blows my mind.

Recreation

Travel, travel and more travel. The only consistent recreation that I always have a goal for. 2018, I travelled to Miami, Belize, Guatemala, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Vegas, Brussels, LA, San Francisco, Yosemite, and London multiple times. I have experienced so much through these trips and feel so lucky that I’ve been able to continue to travel as it really is my favourite thing to do.

In 2019, there are so many places that I want to visit, that I get slightly overwhelmed when I think about it. But, if there’s one thing I’ve learned about myself, it’s that if I want to travel somewhere, I’ll somehow make it happen! I’m hoping to share a list of my plans soon, but let’s just say they’re all countries that I haven’t been to yet.

Spiritual

I’m not a very spiritual person if I’m honest (made all the more evident by the fact I don’t even have a slightly spiritual picture to go with this title), but I didn’t take this title out because I thought it would be a good opportunity to reflect upon it. I think the closest I’m ever going to get to being more spiritual is just being more mindful. As I mentioned above, that’s something I really want to work on in 2019, and I believe that being more mindful of myself and my mental health will make a huge difference to me as a person next year.

It’s been a whirlwind year looking back on it now. I’ve mostly focused on the positive here as I don’t want to dwell on the lows that there were in 2018. Work, personal life, arguments, death. These are all facts of life, and there’s always some crap going on in everyones life.

What I have learned from all the crap is that, I’m 100 times more resilient than I was two years ago, I don’t tolerate people taking advantage or talking down to me, I know I can be a good friend in a crisis, ‘no’ is a complete sentence, and life is too short to cling onto the shit. I’m going to take all that, and leave the bad parts of 2018 where they should be, in the past.

I’m wishing all of you a safe, happy, healthy New Year and hope for good things in 2019. Thank you all for the continued support, reading these posts, watching the videos, liking, sharing, commenting. It’s all appreciated so much.

x