What can I say about 2020? It’s been quite a year personally, professionally, and globally!
It’s the year of the pandemic. That will set off so many memories for all of us here in 2020 and in the future.
For me, 2020 has been a year of counting blessings amidst the pandemic, seemingly endless frustration, changes in my own path, taking baby steps (as I like to do), and making ‘fearless’ bounds forwards as well.
If you’d like to check out my other years in review (this is number 5!) you can click here.
As I have done for the past few years, I started 2020 by working through Susannah Conway’s Unravel Your Year workbook. My word of the year was Rise. I wanted to rise up to the challenges that would come, I wanted to see my analytics numbers rise, I wanted to feel my soul rise with pride and happiness as I reached more and more goals. Some extra words to support this journey were Believe, Confidence, and Soar.
I also created 20 goals for 2020. Some of those goals were to read 24 books (see this post for my favourites!), finish my 2nd manuscript, and make unnecessarily fancy cookies! Then it was time to get going!
January marks the release of the first ever See Heather Smile product – the Self-Care Workbook! This was a HUGE milestone for the blog! It was the first real money I made from running the blog and it gave me hope that I have something special here. On a more personal note, I was doing tons of venue shopping for mine and the fiancé’s wedding – little did I know that this was a doomed task…
In February, I was running a pretty darn successful group fitness program in my new city. At around 6 months of running classes, my program was growing!
Oh March. It felt like everything fell apart in March. My fitness classes were shut down (it was my largest session to date!) and I was rendered unemployed. I was confined to our apartment while the fiancé (the introvert between the two of us – oh how that hurt me!!) continued to go to work and interact with real live people. But I buckled down and decided to focus on the blog. I took a course with business coach Regan Lumpkins and I started writing my choreography ebook. I also pitched my first manuscript for the first time!
So many things are crossed out of my calendar in April. So many plans and appointments that got cancelled. But I came out of hiding at the end of April. The fiancé and I were finally able to see our parents again. I was still doing as much learning as I could (I took a great writing and marketing course at Paperback Kingdom) and was still working on my second ebook.
May marks the reopening of Saskatchewan – finding our way to a ‘new normal’. I was continuing to work on the ebook, and was back at finishing my second novel. Still ‘unemployed’.
June is the month I took a leap instead of a baby step and took my life coaching certification!!! That was such a scary purchase for me. But it was so exciting to finish the course and realize that I was on a really good path. This was also the month wedding plans finally started up again (despite being technically venue-less) and I ordered my wedding dress! Oh and the choreography ebook released! And I finished my second manuscript! Wow, put me in quarantine and I get stuff done!
July means we all got to go outside a lot more. Thank goodness for that. On a personal level, the fiancé and I decided it was time to let go of our 150-person wedding and knock that number down to 30. Oh, yeah, and find a venue!!! On a professional level, I started practicing my coaching on some lucky volunteers.
Coaching by See Heather Smile launched in August! That was a vulnerable and exhilarating moment. I also attended an online conference for further education within the life coaching field. Taking on this new role as a life coach felt like the opening of so many doors. On a personal note, we had an engagement photo session with Omera Photography!
September had me working with my first couple clients (so exciting!!), and editing my second manuscript. Otherwise, most progress was made in my personal life – I had an amazing bachelorette party (read the post here), FINALLY booked a venue (check out what planning a wedding during a pandemic has been like here), and took an online investing course (wrote about that one, too!).
I spent October making behind the scenes plans. Hint: I have a big idea for a membership group here on See Heather Smile!
And November is NaNoWriMo month! Yup, that means I started drafting a third manuscript!
Just because it’s the last month of the year doesn’t mean I slowed down in December. I made a major investment in my education and business (I shared more about that with my email subscribers) – making that decision was so hard, but also felt so good when it was finally done!
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Top posts of 2020:
- Outlander vs Game of Thrones
- Hope Writers Review
- Downton Abbey vs The Crown
- Why I Hate the Phrase ‘You Can Sleep When You’re Dead’
My favourite posts of 2020:
- How My Burnout Led to Self-Care
- Thoughts on the Pandemic and Social Distancing
- My Fictional Bucket List
- Imperfect Work-Life Balance
- The Ultimate Guide to Goal-Setting
- Things a Writer Misses During Physical Distancing
- My Experience with a Diversity/Sensitivity Reader
If I thought 2019 was a wild ride, 2020 was a roller coaster gone off the rails! But despite the craziness – or maybe because of it – I’ve learned and accomplished so much. My path has gone in a slightly different direction than I expected, but it also feels like a right direction.
Goals for 2021:
- Sign up a few more life coaching clients!
- Launch a self-care for creatives membership – This is actually in the works! Email subscribers have exclusive access right now! There’s still a chance to sign up – just subscribe to the newsletter! There’s a form just above!
- Publish a novel! (Or two?)
My next steps: unravel my year with this workbook, re-re-read the Being Boss book, make my 2021 goals list, have a CEO Day to plan an amazing year!
I’ll see you in 2021!
Enjoy the journey,
Heather
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