Reflection on Year 25

Today I turned 26!

I don’t know how in the heck that happened, but here I am, another year older and hopefully another year wiser! A lot has happened over the past year, both good and bad (not too much bad though!). Here are a few highlights:

• Christmas Vacation in Cabo
• Got a new job as an Epic Consultant
• Became a PMP
• Bought a house!
• 2 more Napa/Sonoma Trips
• Ran another half-marathon

 

Overall, I can’t complain. At the end of the day, I am extremely blessed and it was another great year! I was fortunate enough to buy a beautiful home, spend another year with my loved ones, and get to travel to new places. I am also very fortunate that I work in an industry with plenty of jobs available to me. A few months ago, I was able to make a job change within the blink an eye, and for that, I am grateful.

Last year, I made a list of 25 goals for myself during my 25th year. Unfortunately, I did not accomplish all of my goals. Buying a house was very unexpected and was a HUGE reason for not doing many of these things. I always say #NoExcuses, but I think purchasing a home counts as an excuse 🙂

Here were my goals:

1. Go to the Kentucky Derby: Definitely did not complete. We procrastinated and by the time we wanted to make the plans, it was going to cost an arm and a leg to do this! After buying a house, it just wasn’t possible for us this year. This is still on my bucket list.
2. Get my PMP – Project Management Professional Certification – Accomplished January 2016!
3. Invest more of my money/learn more about investing: I should have done more of this. I invest my money, but probably not enough of it. Unfortunately, the stock market wasn’t doing great last year, so I wasn’t really motivated to do much. I need to focus on this more.
4. Save at least $20,000 (not including 401K): Well, we did save this and more, but a lot of savings were used for a home down-payment. As of today, we have almost re-built our savings back up to where it was.
5. Visit 2 new states: Yes – South Carolina, North Carolina, New Jersey and Pennsylvania (I think I may have been to NJ and PA, but don’t really recall/was too young).
6. Go to 1 new country: Nope. Our plan is to do a big trip somewhere before we have kids. Either Europe or Australia or something! We have enough airline miles to get a ticket for this today, but we are just waiting for the right time.
7. Run Another Half-Marathon and beat my time: Yep! Katy Half-Marathon in February 2016.
8. Floss Daily: Nope. Very much a fail. I also got a big lecture at the dentist about this. Maybe next year 🙂
9. Go back to Napa: Yes! December 2015 and April 2016
10. Read 10 Books: Nope. I hate reading and didn’t make this a priority. I think I got through 1 book. Oops.
11. Go to 2 new college football stadiums: No. This was hard to do since we bought a house in September. I definitely still want to do this though!
12. See Eric Church again: Nope, and I am bummed about it! It just didn’t ever work out.
13. Volunteer 5 Times: We volunteered 1 time. This was still more than the previous year, but I should have done more. Now that I have more time on my hands, this should be doable during my 26th year!
14. Find a new hobby: If my house/home projects and blog count as a hobby then yes!
15. Become a regular morning work-out person: Yes! I pretty much work-out every morning. Usually 6-7 times week.
16. Try Whole30 for a month: Nope. I think I only lasted 5 hours. It is tough! I still kind of want to try it, but there is NO WAY I am giving up wine for a month 🙂
17. Do the MS150 Bike Ride: Nope. I never got into biking until this last month. I can see myself trying this next year!
18. Drink More Water: Yes! I do drink a lot of water now. I have completely kicked my diet coke addiction and I am really happy about it.
19. Go to a drive-in movie: Nope. We do have one that is 20ish minutes away. We are planning on going, but are waiting for the right weekend when they have a movie we are interested in!
20. Go on a picnic: Nope – but this would be easy to check off the list!
21. Go to a Texans Game: Nope – again, buying a home made the fall activities a little more challenging. We will try to go this year!
22. Go to Galveston: Nope. This is still on the list and I am sure we will go very soon!
23. Weekly Date Nights with Alex: Yep! 🙂
24. Go to Mardi Gras in New Orleans: Nope. After further thought, I am not sure I want to go to Mardi Gras, but I do want to go to New Orleans again (I have been there once before).
25. Cook at least 2 new recipes a month: I think I accomplished this! I am not going to count right now, but I feel like I definitely averaged this!

As you can see, there was a lot I did not accomplish, but there were several things I did accomplish that were never on this list. I love setting goals for myself, and I think everyone should do it. However, over the course of a year a lot can and will change. Sometimes you just have to let life happen and roll of the punches!

Looking ahead to year 26, I won’t be making a list of 26 goals for my 26th year. Instead I will be doing a couple of things:

1. Setting Monthly Goals
   • My monthly goal setting is more achievable and it makes more sense for my life. As we all know, life changes A LOT in a year, so the monthly goals make more sense to me.
   • You can find my May Goals here.
2. Making a 30 by 30 list
   • This would be a bucket list of things I want to do before I am 30!

I am really excited for this coming year! I used to dread getting older, but now I kind of like it.

It seems like a lot of people my age hate “adulting” or “responsibility,” but I really like these things (except paying taxes). I like budgeting my money, traveling, doing home projects, working, etc. Having a schedule and keeping organized keeps me going – the older I get – the more of this I get to do!

Even though I am not making a discrete a list of goals for my 26th year, here are a few things I know I want to focus on: running, saving a TON money, completing home projects, blogging, making new friends, being healthy, cooking more and spending more time with loved ones! There are of course several other more specific things I plan on doing, but this is what I want to focus on at a high-level.

To wrap up, I am including a few more photos from this past year! Enjoy!

I hope y’all enjoyed my little birthday post/25th year recap! Cheers to another year of life and making every day count. I am going to enjoy my glass of Cabernet now 🙂

-Catheryn