Let's get Personal | Time to reflect

December time is always the time of year where I start reflecting on the year that was and what I want the next year to be like.  Today I thought I would do a little bit of a personal post to share the most important lesson I learnt and also just get more in touch with you, my readers.

I have learnt so much this year - professionally and personally. The biggest lesson I have taken out of the year is that it is okay to let things go. This truly goes against everything in my nature and was very uncomfortable for me to do. This year was an incredibly busy for me, the fact is that the past two and a half years have just been chaotic most of the time.

In previous years and last year in particular, I made the mistake of trying to do it all. My main focus was on my career but I also wanted to keep my blog going and still try to spend time with family and friends.  I failed miserably. It reached a point where my daily life routine was: come home from work, do more work, eat supper, squeeze a blog post in, get ready for bed, sleep and then it was off to work again. Weekends weren't much better because I had to spend time working and doing general admin things - all while planing a wedding. It all got too much for me. I became worn out and at times I was despondent. I felt like I had to be able to do it all and pushed myself so hard that at the end of it I was emotionally and physically exhausted.  I was caught in a vicious cycle - that I had very much created for myself. There was no way that I was going to allow myself to repeat those mistakes again.

This year I made the decision to think about what I wanted to achieve in the year and things I wanted to do. I literally prioritised my life as you would with a "to do" list and planned according to those things. I also made a choice to allow myself to "let things go". My blog, although very important for me was something I decided could fall to the side if I needed or wanted it to. It was a scary choice to make and I was worried that I would disappoint all those who choose to come visit this space.  But I made the choice - I stepped away from blogging at times and just in general I have posted fewer posts this year. It was not at all because I no longer wanted to blog, but it was about prioritising things in my life - family and work always come first. The good thing is that I don't feel that my blog suffered too much from this. It is largely due to the fact that all of you choose to come back and read what I have to say - which means so very much to me.

I am happy that I took the time that I needed to and focused on my family and career. I feel that I am a lot more comfortable with the balance I achieved this year by allowing myself to be okay with not doing it all.  It was still a very busy year, but such a very fulfilling one that has left me feeling more comfortable and content.

So thank you once again for sticking with me and popping by to visit this blog. Your ongoing support keeps my fingers tapping away at the keyboard.

Big Hugs,
Charlene XXX