December 6, 2012

Dear <<First Name>>:

Welcome to another edition of the life [simplified] letter.

News

A trip to the Island

I'm traveling to Pender Island, BC today. It's a bit of a commute and involves a few different modes of transportation: a plane, taxi, and ferry ride. I'm looking forward to taking a few days to relax.

I'll still be writing from the Island and keeping up with the letter.

My Year in Review

A look back at my success

What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals. ~ Henry David Thoreau

This is the time of year when "the year-in-review" articles start arriving. The best songs of the year. The best (or worst) movies of the year. The news makers or best books of the year. So I thought it might be fun to compile my own list.

My unofficial theme for this year was creativity. Although I had many reasons for leaving my 9-5 job, probably the most important reason for leaving was to find the time to be more creative. My main focus was on writing as a creative outlet, but I also did a few other things that required a bit of creativity. Here is a sample:

Writing: I've written on a public blog for a number of years now, but I was inconsistent in posting to it. I didn't hit my stride until I started writing a weekly letter. I enrolled my first subscriber in June and the readership has grown steadily since. I believe now, that my breakthrough was finding a "real" audience. I may have had readers for my blog, but by having subscribers, I actually knew the members of my audience. It made a huge difference in my motivation and creativity. I've said it before, but the best part of have a readership is the feedback and responses I get on a weekly basis. I understand now why actors and comedians love a live audience.

Gardening: For the first time, I started most of my garden from seed. I used grow lamps and started some of my plants indoors in January. I had a huge learning curve. Yet it was so satisfying when the fall came and I had a harvest of fruit and vegetables that I had grown from scratch. I was over zealous in my planting and had literally hundreds of plants. It turned out for the best though, as I also lost quite a few plants when I tried to harden them off. I learned that I need to be really patient in getting plants use to the outdoors. I didn't do it right and many of my transplants died or were set back. Another setback was hail in August that did quite a bit of damage. While it was frustrating, I can't control the weather. I'm sure there is a life lesson in there somewhere or a future letter. :-)

Crafting: I've done many kinds of crafts over the years and I had quite a few projects were not finished. Either I was bored with them or I had made a mistake somewhere and was too frustrated to finish it. So I dug up those projects and finished them. I took the time to figure out why I had made a mistake and to how to fix the problem or I just took the time to do the finishing work. I also reconnected with my love for cross stitch. I finished a number of fun kits this year.

Renovating: The joke around our house is that we live in the reno that never ends. When we bought our house fifteen years ago, we knew that buying a older home would mean more upkeep and possible renovations. We love our central location and older, established neighborhood so we renovate. This year, my husband and I spent some time working in the basement. I learned to lay hardwood floor, the interlocking kind. I had to learn to use a miter saw to cut the wood to fit. I was pretty happy with the results. We are still doing finishing work like baseboards, but I'm hoping it will be done soon so I can start to decorate the space.

While it wasn't all sunshine and roses this year, it was still pretty great. Everyone's definition of success is different. When I look back at some of things I've tried and the fun I've had this year, I feel I've been successful. And that's pretty cool.

Your life [simplified]

What would you include in your list for a year-in-review?

I would love to hear from you.

Have a great week!

Cheers,
Catherine

P.S. Check out my letter archives if you are interested in reading back issues.