Reflecting on 2021

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Happy New Year, my lovely friends! Welcome to 2022! Wow, have I missed y’all. I didn’t realize that I haven’t talked to you since Thanksgiving. I didn’t meant to ghost in December and I didn’t think I had since I was keeping up with documentation on my instagram but I am back on my blog posts now!

Over the past week, I have been doing a lot of reflecting on 2021 and how things unfolded. I didn’t speak much about this towards the end of the year but I was starting to feel a little down about how the year went. Obviously, I wasn’t thinking of the big picture and so when I started to spiral, I was only thinking of one specific section of my life and basically chalked up the rest which was forgotten. I really wanted to enjoy the holidays and not miss out on the joy to be experienced. With this attitude in mind, I dove head first into celebrating the holidays with my loved ones and tried to soak in the moment because I knew that when the new year hit, that I would try to shift my mindset. During that awkward lull time between Christmas and the New Year, I was fortunate enough to see some of my extended family which was very grounding for me. I think we can all agree that we haven’t been able to connect with our relatives as much as normal or as much as we would’ve hoped over the past two years, so the fact that I was able to see two of my tia’s (aunts) after 2 years was a very special time.

Right after we rung in the New Year, I sat down and started brainstorming for 2022. However , I wasn’t able to get very far because I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to focus on this year. That’s when I realized, I hadn’t taken the time to look back on 2021 because I was so focused on getting out of it. I took a VERY deep breath and went back to the 2021 goals I laid out for myself last January. I decided to make a “2021 brag list” where I write down all of goals I actually accomplished from 2021 and then I can see what was achieved and which goals I can continue to work on. From those, that created areas of opportunity for 2022 later on.

Everyone conducts their goals/resolutions/words of the year a little bit differently so that’s important to keep in mind here. I will explain my system to y’all but please don’t feel like you automatically have to do the same. What works for me may not work for you but I know this is my method that has proved productive. First, I don’t make big overarching goals because then I am unsure of how to actually achieve them. I instead split up my goals into categories and then write tangible smaller goals within those sections to focus my efforts in. I have a total of 12 categories which are Love & Relationships, Lifestyle, Food/Dietary Needs, Personal Development, Health (Physical/Mental), Finances, Travel, Fitness, Work/Career, Faith, Blog, and Misc/Extras. Within each of my categories, I have 2-4 smaller more attainable goals that coincide with that overarching theme. Now for some people, all of that organizing into sections might sound like overkill but to me, it made it manageable. If you are still trying too figure out your style, keep trying different methods because one size doesn’t fit all!

While I was working on the brag list, I also realized that I had a few other goals that weren’t goals in the beginning of the year but were spur of the moment or things that just came up throughout the year that I hadn’t planned for. I’m not going to share all of my goals that I achieved with you because I do want to keep some of them private as they are personal but I have decided that I will share 5 of them with you here in this post and will include which category they were from.

1. Try new gluten-free and dairy-free recipes from new cookbooks weekly (Food/Dietary Needs)

As you know from my previous blog posts, I dealt with quite a bit of health issues in 2020. This resulted in many different doctors, medications, time in bed, and a lot of food that all of a sudden didn’t work with my body almost abruptly. I ultimately had to switch my eating to gluten-free and dairy-free centric. My family and friends were so supportive and always were so accommodating. I also got a couple of cookbooks that Christmas that would aid me in my new lifestyle. Since I cook weekly from those cookbooks, I was experimenting all the time to find some favourites. This was a huge success for me because not only did I actually love the recipes but so did my family and some of my friends who I made them for. Not only was I finally noticing a difference in my health but I was exploring a whole other way of eating and fueling my body. I felt accomplished meeting this goal!

2. Read 15 books this year (Personal Development)

This one was definitely a big goal for me to set because even though I love reading, I have never had enough time to make it a priority…until the pandemic. So instead of doing 12 to account for a book per month I padded the goal with a few extra to see if I could make it. Happy to report that I exceeded this goal and finished reading 17 books total in 2021! As a reminder, I have a book highlight on my instagram of all my ratings and book recs. If you would like me to recap best books of 2021 in a blog post, let me know! I felt accomplished meeting this goal!

3. Pay off Loans/ Debt-Free (Finances)

I cannot believe I considered 2021 a failed year when I hadn’t even remembered I had accomplished this goal! To be fair, I reached this goal in March of 2021 so it was definitely earlier in the year so by the time December hit it felt like a lot of time had passed. ANYWAY, I was so excited all over again when I was making the brag list. I remember doing a lot of financial literacy courses during 2020 and realized that I felt very tied down by my loans (as I’m sure many of us have felt before/currently feel). That is why I was determined to pay off my remaining student loan and car loan to make me debt-free. I was able to accomplish my goal by the end of March by paying my final payment of both loans. In April, I celebrated with my family. I felt accomplished meeting this goal!

4. Sit, Write, and Publish another blog post (Blog)

Well I think this one is pretty self-explanatory. It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost a year since I started this blog journey but wow oh wow has it been such a positive addition to my life. I have loved getting to connect with you guys in a different way this past year; it was exactly the passion project I needed to start at just the right time. Obviously, just by the wording of this goal made me hesitant to even begin again after how negatively 2020 went but I am glad that I swallowed some of my fear and just began to write again. I have some exciting plans for this upcoming year and I can’t wait to share them with you as they unfold. I felt accomplished meeting this goal!

5. Full Invisalign Journey (Misc.)

This goal was apart of the miscellaneous section of my goals because I didn’t anticipate going through it during the year when I was crafting these goals. For a good amount of time in college, I felt very self-conscious of my smile because my bottom teeth were starting to shift after my wisdom teeth surgery. I realized that I could definitely take advantage of the fact that many of us were still stying indoors and wearing masks when outside so if I started my Invisalign, not many people would even notice. I went in for my consultation in January, got my first set of liners delivered in March, completed those in September. After that, I got re-scanned for a last set of 6 weeks as a victory lap which I completed in November shortly after Thanksgiving. I also made sure I was paying it off every month so that the process was paid off by November before the year-end. Now I have continued my debt-free lifestyle and have sparkly straight teeth again… sounds like a win to me. I felt accomplished meeting this goal!

That’s a wrap on my reflection of 2021 so let’s finally say that’s a wrap on 2021 itself. I am so glad that I was able to share this part of my life with you over the past year and I hope to continue to find new ways to connect with y’all in 2022. If there are any questions or need any guidance on goal-planning or would like to know more about 2021, feel free to reach out! I am always happy to chat! As always, thank you for reading and supporting 🤍

XOXO

–Sara 💋

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