This is the mark I gave myself
Hello!
I hope you had a wonderful Christmas / holiday break and are feeling relaxed. I have been back in Melbourne a day or so now and am still holding on to some of the relaxation feelings of being away which is great!
If you have been reading me for even just a couple of years, you would know that this is the time of year where I share my yearly review. Regardless of how my year has been, I embrace the yearly review. Even if I haven’t achieved my goal for the year, if I go through what you achieved there is generally much to be happy about. For 2021, If I had to give myself a grade for my performance on goal achievement it would be 7.9/10.
2021 was again another COVID interrupted year. Living in Melbourne meant that we have endured six lockdowns of various lengths and have spent 263 days in lockdown since COVID hit. Four of the lockdowns were in 2021, totaling 109 days. And this doesn’t take into count the paced easing of restrictions that happen after the end of each lockdown.
This year has had significant challenges but I am super proud of how the kids applied themselves through lockdowns to their studies and their work – I could not have asked any more of them, especially our daughter in year 12 who has two severely interrupted years for her VCE.
As someone who already worked from home and is a bit of an introvert, lockdowns are not as hard for me as they are for some and I truly believe it is much much harder for the kids. Choosing a goal that was about doing the inner work to be able to give more to others could not have been more perfect for the year we had. I did spend significant time and mental energy making sure the kids were doing okay, smoothing waters where needed, leading in a positive mindset and pre-empting and diffusing issues.
We will definitely have some wonderfully fun and happy memories of lockdowns – most evening meals we had everyone in attendance and had card games after dinner. And we certainly will have some memories of testing times of personal space and internet speed issues!
Coming out of lockdown in late October means you are really thrown into the deep end. Going from hardly leaving the house to the traditionally busy time of the year with the added bonuses to the calendar of rescheduled events. This did mean by the time it hit time for holidays and heading away mid December I was so looking forward to it and having a break.
Overall 2021 was still a positive year in many ways despite the challenges and I believe it has helped me have a greater appreciation for many things in my life.
2021 yearly review summary
My gratitude practice was super solid for the year with the exception of small patches here and there. What I like most about how I went about my gratitude practice this year was that I also connected it to my faith which made it even more meaningful to me. 9.5/10
When I decided on choosing the habit of participating in a weekly faith based activity, I thought out of all the habits that I was setting this would be the most challenging for me. In the end, it was the one I was actually most consistent with and that is because it ended up being a daily activity that came with a plan. For those interested in this type of thing, I can highly recommend doing the The Bible in a Year podcast with Fr. Mike Schmitz. I am pretty sure they are going to kick it off again on January 1 2022 or you can go back and start from Jan 1 this year. 10/10
My meditation practice of meditating in the morning for at least 20 minutes was going great until our long lockdown kicked off in June. I reduced the time back to 10 minutes and then did a guided meditation at night as well but I could have done much better on this. 6/10
While I think my habit of learning and speaking Phil’s love language well and daily was the area where I performed the worst, it was still a big improvement over the year. My key learning from this experience this year was that what the love languages process does is make you focus on your partner’s needs and how you can best communicate with them. It is about really listening and watching and understanding the way you connect on a daily basis and whether or not this is happening enough to feed a healthy relationship. 6/10
At the end of each year, I like to ask myself an additional series of questions because while I work towards a goal each year there are plenty of things that happen outside of this area that are worth noting. If you would like to see these questions and my answers click here.
Have a great evening and I hope the new year brings you and your family much happiness and good health.
Nic
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