So it seemed like a good idea to take this month to review the year and look forward to next. I’m so not being original (look at all the people doing the same thing!)
As ever, I’m behind so I’m gonna catch up here and then carry on through the month…I hope!
01 – What is one word to describe your 2011? Why does that word sum up your year?
Perseverance.
I started this year in a really good place and three months in I lost my job. For the second time in as many years. I loved that job, yeah it had frustrations but I’d worked hard, improved the role, mended some fences that the organisation had broken and it didn’t get me anywhere. When it came down to it, they didn’t see that I’d done anything special, they just let me go because they didn’t want to make me a permanent employee, something HR decided a month after agreeing a contract extension and a week before I had to leave. That sucked. I temped and that wasn’t fun and wasn’t constant. Eventually I had to sign on and join the ranks of the unemployed. Again.
Thankfully (and in large part to my friends and more especially my mum!) I’ve lived to tell the tale. However, after losing the job I loved through no fault of my own, the constant rejection (I applied for 65 jobs in 5 months) really started to wear me down. I had to persevere. To hang on to Nic and be positive, at a time when I felt that might never work again. Over the past two years, my mantra has been ‘nobody died’ but it’s hard to have faith in yourself when you can’t work, not because you don’t want to but because no-one wants you. I did it though. Other things went by the wayside but I got through this. The last 9 months have taught me lots of things but to keep on keeping on was something I had to re-learn and each time it’s a little easier.
02 – Did you slip back into any old habits that you wish you hadn’t? Did you gain any new habits that you wish you would have walked away from? Did you discover the evils of Nutella? ‘Fess up … we won’t tell. This prompt may sound dark and dreary, but we’ll be back to our sunshine selves tomorrow. Take today to reflect on a vice (or two or twelve) that you’d like to give up in the new year.
Yep, I lost the sensible eating and the exercise, I got really lazy, half hearted and I ate, drank and was far too merry. It’s showed in my waistline and my mood and I’ve started in the last 4 weeks to do something about it. That’s my plan for the New Year, to set monthly goals and get back on track. I’ve realised that I lost track of the exercise and eating because I lost confidence in my ability to do anything worthwhile. That can’t happen next year.
Nic Dempsey 