Happy 2017 Everyone!

I’m taking a quick break from my posts this week to get settled into the new year after my travels. In the meantime I wanted to share a few of my thoughts and goals for the upcoming year. January 1st is always a great refresh button. As I get older I start to realize how important it is to reflect and plan for the future. Every new year brings new opportunities that often look completely different from the year before. Growing up you still had school and you focused more on getting through that last semester to your summer break. Now, I find myself questioning what I want to see from myself in the new year.

I have never been one for “resolutions” since I typically dropped those a couple of weeks in. We all say things like “I want to get my workout routine back” or “I want to save more money” but that doesn’t change the years of habits we have already created. Goals are much more reasonable since you can track them over a time period. You might have to cross several milestones before you reach your goal, but you can keep up with your progress along the way.

This year I have several goals both for my personal and professional life. There are the obvious ones like advance in my company and create a healthy lifestyle, but I want to go beyond that. In 2017 I will turn 28 (crazy) and since I have an idea of where I want to be when I am 30 I guess that means I need to get crackin!

Personal Goals:

– Learn to let go of the idea of “perfection.” I am a perfectionist, always have been. I don’t mean that in the sense that I strive for perfection but more that I always think I can do something better if I keep working at it. That can be both good and bad. It drives me to keep pushing myself, but I also feel like it keeps me from letting go of something. This idea that it can get better, be better, do better gives me such unreal expectations. This year I want to learn to relax that feeling of something has to be “perfect” for it to be good enough.

– Take time for myself. I have a tendency to spread myself very thin. I don’t like to say no to people or to not give everything 100%. As a result of that, I can reach a point of exhaustion and need to shut down completely. My focus this year will be to not push myself to the limit. When work gets to be too much, I will let myself take a long weekend – guilt free! We are all entitled to our time off and it’s something we work hard for. I just always feel the pressure to be there and to perform.

– Say yes to opportunity. I am a skeptical person so I always have some type of hesitation or reservation about leaving my comfort zone. As I get older I feel more confident in myself and my abilities so it becomes easier to do things that would normally be difficult. I want to make it a point this year to say yes to things that push me. I’m not saying I’m ready to jump out of a plane, but I want to be more adventurous and to see the world from a different perspective.

Blog Goals:

I started Waketon Road less than a year ago and could not be happier with where it is today. But being a perfectionist, I am looking at my progress and asking what can I do better. I want to continue to push myself out of my comfort zone and share more with you. Blogging is an amazing creative outlet but I also want to share my life beyond the lens.

I am so excited to see where this year takes me and I am incredibly grateful for all of the support! I appreciate every like, follow, comment, tag and encouraging word. If you had told me this time last year that I would have a blog and an amazing online community I would have laughed. Starting my blog was by far the scariest thing I did in 2016 and paid off ten fold. It’s worth taking risks in life and setting goals for yourself. So here’s to you 2017, I’m ready for you!! xo Bryn