Here were my 2018 "non-goal" goals:
I want to start exercising again.
I want to start eating more cleanly.
I have had some health issues... I want to get those under control.
I have had some mental health issues... I want to get those out of crisis mode.
I have two really nice vacations planned and I want to go and enjoy myself and take beautiful pictures and feel filled up with peace and joy.
I want to continue working on the money thing. Last year was good - we need to build on that and get a little savings cushion so I quit feeling like the next hurricane might blow us out of the water.
I want to start eating more cleanly.
I have had some health issues... I want to get those under control.
I have had some mental health issues... I want to get those out of crisis mode.
I have two really nice vacations planned and I want to go and enjoy myself and take beautiful pictures and feel filled up with peace and joy.
I want to continue working on the money thing. Last year was good - we need to build on that and get a little savings cushion so I quit feeling like the next hurricane might blow us out of the water.
This is really really fascinating to me because I consider 2018 to be an absolute shitshow for me. I truly truly feel like it was a terrible horrible no good very bad year for me in general. Mostly because I felt so exhausted for so much of it due to the thyroid issues and the inability to get the management of that down.
With that said, looking at these goals, I did it. I started exercising again, even pretty regularly here at the end. I started eating more cleanly, and while I am not 100% clean 100% of the time, I really have made a strong change to my diet in an attempt to support my health. My health issues - the jury is still out on whether or not those are under control but I'm cautiously optimistic for the first time in a year, to be honest, so I'm going to consider that an E for effort. I have managed to stop having panic attacks when it rains (a gift of Harvey), and that was the mental health issue to which I was referring. Now in all honesty, the extreme exhaustion caused by hypothyroidism brought on a very strong depression, and I have constant and real work that I need to continue doing for my mental health. But no rainy panic attacks = win. My vacations were lovely. I am very pleased with the photos I got this year, although I would like to do more shooting. Money.... worse than last year by a bit - 7 months green, 5 red. Overall in the red but just by a bit. We did end up buying a new car this year - if we hadn't, we would be green. So it is okay-ish, but I want to get to a point where these incidentals don't tank us, and we are clearly not there.
I did write a post after my goal setting post about counting each one of my successes. Like I ate well this morning, I exercised today, I crossed something off the to-do list. I lost sight of that as the year went on, but I realized when I was reading back that I did embrace this philosophy unconsciously and it worked well for me. It is healthy for me.
So all in all? 2018 is another year I'd prefer to forget. If 2017 was the Year of Harvey, 2018 is the Year of the Thyroid. I am ready for 2019 in every way, and I am ready to have a good year.
