It’s that time again. Another year nearly ending. If you are anything like me, you can’t help but to look back and reflect how successful or unsuccessful the year has been for you. What have you been taking inventory of the past few weeks as the year comes to a close? Are you taking inventory of your losses or your wins? What about your relationships with friends and family? Are you taking inventory of your mental and physical health? Or what about your financial status? 

Let’s take a step back. Why do we take inventory each year? Some of us take inventory to acknowledge that we have done anything….something for the year, good or bad. Some of us take inventory to see how much we have messed up for the past year in hopes to learn from our mistakes. Others of us take inventory to give ourselves credit for the good stuff that we have accomplished. 

For me, looking back over the year……I want to say I am very grateful and appreciative that I got a chance to see another year. I like to take inventory of everything, good or bad, that I have done. I do this NOT to just see anything or something just for the heck of it. I like to take inventory each year of everything to evaluate the things that I think I did good as well as the things I think I did not so good. This helps me be able to focus, on the next year, and improve on the things I did not do so well at and keep on doing the things that I did good…and maybe even betterJ

I hate to start off with the negative, but I have to start somewhere. For the things that I did not do so well I think include falling off of my health plan (including eating healthy and exercising). I mean, I still watch what I eat and exercise just not to the best of my ability. I have not had a healthy balance between work and play. I had a tendency in the year 2018 to work…work…work…work…and work. With ALL this work, I terribly neglected my significant other and my self-care. Let me say, self-care is huge and something that does not need to be taken for granted. Self-care is something that I will discuss in future blogs. 

Now for the good… my successes for the year include an almost completed doctoral degree….yea!! I have also started my own business…yea!! I started a new job this year that aligns with my desire to do research and teach and counsel.  

So what is planned for next year, improve self-care by balancing work and play. Continue to work on my doctoral degree, research, teach, and counselJ

Tell me what you what you have been taking inventory of for the year 2018? What will you work on to improve? What will you continue to do what you do well?

With love

-reese