Hello and welcome to a new decade! It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog post, but I wanted to use the first post of 2020 to check-in, update you on what’s been going on in my life, and share my goals for 2020. Grab a cup of tea and let’s dive in!
2019 Recap
So…2019 was a stressful year. I was spread too thin and it affected me in a lot of different ways. I have no one to blame but myself, and I’ve learned an important lesson from it.
To make it short, for the past two years, I’ve been trying to run The Blissful Mind, work 25 hrs/week as a contractor, and coach a high school dance team.
I thought I was mastering the art of balancing it all, and I was for the first year. But then it all became too much.
I was driving 1.5 hours both ways to practices 2-3 days a week, staying up late trying to put in hours at my job, and squeezing in time to write a blog post here and there.
^ an example of my calendar in November
I also started feeling anxious before every practice that dancers were going to quit. We started the year with 9 dancers and were down to 4 by the end. It constantly made me feel like I was doing something wrong as a coach.
When you’re burnt out, you start to feel disconnected from who you are.
Stress makes you blame yourself for a lot of things. It makes you think you’re not good enough. It makes you feel guilty that you’re not able to handle it when there are other people dealing with much worse things. It messes with you mentally, physically, and emotionally.
My top lessons learned in 2019? Don’t take on too much and ASK FOR HELP.
I also learned an interesting lesson in self-care. Even though I made time for exercise, taking baths, journaling, and all of the self-care things last year, I still felt incredibly burnt out.
I was taking good care of myself, but I needed to take something off of my plate if I was going to feel like myself again. I needed to drop the thing that I didn’t feel aligned with anymore.
As of December, I’m no longer coaching the team which is a bittersweet feeling. I loved the dancers on the team, but it took up A HUGE CHUNK of my time. My friend reminded me that it was supposed to be a fun side project, but it honestly felt like a full-time job.
As I write this, I already feel lighter. I know that I have less to worry about. I feel more like myself again. I feel inspired. I’m ready to create more content for The Blissful Mind, work with more coaching clients, and put my massive idea-list into action (seriously, it’s really long).
Related Post: What Happens When Self-Care Isn’t Enough
2020 Goals
Now that I’ve cleared the air, let’s talk about goals! Here’s what I’m working on this year:
Financial
- Pay off credit card debt
- Build an emergency fund
I’ve recently become obsessed with The Budget Mom and got her Budget by Paycheck workbook for Christmas. I’ve been ashamed to admit that I have credit card debt, but her resources have been giving me confidence that I can pay it off.
Health
- Break up with the snooze button
- Workout for 20 mins five times a week
- Eat a more colorful diet
I feel like a broken record saying that I’m tired of snoozing my alarm, but I’m REALLY tired of it now. I actually didn’t snooze this morning so that’s a win ?
The Blissful Mind
- Build a community platform for The Blissful Mind
- Create physical journals
- Hire an assistant
- Create a resource specifically for blogging tips (I get so many questions about blogging!)
- Be REAL in everything I share. I wrote an Instagram post about this here.
I always love to hear your suggestions for blog posts, so let me know if you have any topics you’d like me to write about for future content.
What are your goals for 2020?
Thank you for reading and sticking with The Blissful Mind! It feels good to get things off my chest and start the year with a fresh slate. If you want to map out your own goals, grab my free goal planner here.
8 Responses
It’s so nice to hear from you!
This post helped me a lot, actually. Today, I decided to get the ball rolling in my life, and like always, I was faced with a few fear-based roadblocks, and I even brewed myself some stress relief tea and mediated at the office, because my mind is racing with all I have to do!
This year, I plan to take things off my plate and get more things done all at once. Like you decided to stop coaching, I’ve decided to limit myself to only eating out/going out once a week (I spent so much time spending money and using energy when I could have been doing other, more productive things), and I’m scheduling time to work on my blog, creative write, workout, study, meet with friends, and other things that I usually do in random, time-consuming bursts. Thank you for this post, and I wish you all the success in 2020!
Girl if you find a decent assistant for a reasonable price LET ME KNOW. I have been scammed so many times in the last 18 months that I’ve currently been doing it all alone and I’m spread too thin as well. I’ve hired people on upwork, hired people from friends posting in FB groups, and hired from professional services. I’ve hired five and fired five. I’m floored by how much some of them want paid for how little work they are willing to do, and some of them clearly don’t know how to do what they say they can (eh hem..seo guy who charged $500 for one month I’m talking to you)
Best of luck in your search and on the rest of your goals as well!
Ahh dang that sucks, Deanna! I’ve always wanted to hire someone to help but I’ve never seriously looked because I’m afraid of not finding the right person who understands the millions of things that need to be done lol. And of course, they need to be trustworthy. Thanks for the heads up! I hope you can find a good assistant for your biz this year!
This is all such a great reminder! Especially that we can be doing all the right things but still be taking on too much! I am soooo excited for your planners and journals!!!!
Me too! So excited for the journal creation course!
Hello Catherine! I’m fond of reading your blog. I really like the way you share your personal stories, give useful tips and always respond to the comments of your readers. I completely agree that everything needs to be planned, and goals and plans – to be set. But also I agree with you that we need to do this rationally, we do not need to take on a lot of things at once, we need to evenly distribute the load. I also like so much that you distribute plans by category – health, finance, etc. This is very correct! I admire you and your blog. Each article is incredibly interesting and informative! And I wish you all your goals for this year to be reached!
Thank you so so much! I really appreciate your support xo
Hey Catherine! It was so great to read this post and I can relate to it a lot! I felt really overwhelmed lately and decided to take everything slowly. My biggest problem is to sqeeze too much things in 24hrs! I needed to realize I am only human and things needs tine to be done. I love organize my daily life which help me a lot.