Decade In Review: 2010s

Can you really believe that we are at the end of a decade? What has changed for you over the past 10 years? What have you learned? What have you improved? What have you finally let go of? What did you accomplish?

Normally, I use this time of the year to reflect on the previous 12 months and then determine my goals for the year ahead. With this being the end of a decade, I had to take it to a whole new level. If you are a fan of Marie Forleo, then I’m sure you have already seen her Decade In Review blog posts or watched her on MarieTV. She has an amazing 3-part review to help you reflect on your accomplishments, lessons, and goals for the coming year and decade. That is what I used for my reflection this year. If you have not seen her on MarieTV or read the Decade In Review blog posts, I strongly suggest you check it out here.

For me so much has happened and so much has changed since January 1, 2010. I have grown into a person that I did not expect at the start of this decade. It all started at the very beginning of the decade with the unanticipated launch of a business (Conscious Mind Records, Inc.) in January and followed by my graduation in February. In following Marie’s Decade In Review, some of the accomplishments I am most proud of include:

• Graduating with BFA in Interior Design (a field that I absolutely love)
• Started Conscious Mind Records, Inc with my husband and a family friend. In a few weeks, we will celebrate 10 years of being in business.
• Read and implemented “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. I believe this book directly contributed to 3 promotions at work which helped me build my belief in my abilities to be a leader as well as improving my quality of life.
• Became an advisory board member for the Central Florida Division of Children’s Home Society of Florida, joined the “An Evening of Hope” Gala planning committee and was part of the launch of Tech Success Florida. I have now been a board member and gala committee member for 6 years.
• Hubby and I started focusing on eating healthy. We start juicing and eating a more plant-based diet. Even though we don’t stick to the plan as often as we should, we do stick to the diet most of the time. We can feel when it’s time to dig in and be strict with our diet and make sure that we listen to our bodies.
• I learned the value of creating a vision board and have seen so many things manifested over the years.
• Started Coffee.Yoga.Life. as a way to share my path with others and help them pursue their own.

Marie’s next area of focus is the lessons that we have learned. Over the past decade so of my most game-changing lessons were:

• The importance of how I interact with others, and to recognize that I am responsible for my reactions. I was able to think through my reactions and stop reacting to anger and raised voices with the same.
• The need to focus on my diet. This has helped me feel better overall.
• Being an introvert is NOT bad. I always tried to force myself to be extroverted, thinking that was how people are supposed to be. Once I understood the difference between introversion and extroversion, I let go of that stigma and immediately felt at home in my own skin. I now understand why certain situations drain me more than others and I am able to step back when I need to without feeling like something is wrong with me.
• I am a good leader. I never saw myself as a leader before it happened and was very surprised when my manager told me that he wanted me for the job. I was able to make huge improvement s in how our department functioned and build the beliefs my team members had in themselves to do the job and make good decisions.
• I truly love helping people recognize their strengths and helping them achieve their goals. This is my life’s mission and the reason I started Coffee.Yoga.Life.
• I need to speak up more with my hubby instead of expecting him to just know when something is wrong or I am upset about something. I know it sounds crazy but it seems that a lot of us expect our significant others to just know these things. We need to remember that each one of us is an individual and we do not share the same thoughts and patterns as someone else. What you see as disrespectful or hurtful may not even cross their minds because they have a different perspective. Being open and honest with hubby also keeps me open and honest with myself. And in the end, it prevents headaches 😊
• I can succeed through my fears. This was a major epiphany for me. While my fears do need to be acknowledged, they do not need to be focused on or have the final say in my decisions.

The third area that Marie asks us to focus on is what are we willing to let go of in this next decade. To me, the most important part of this is the old stories and limiting beliefs you have been telling yourself for years. For this, I will focus on releasing these limiting beliefs:

• I have to do all and be all. This is just not possible without running myself to the point of exhaustion. I will focus more on doing what I can while including mandatory self-care time.
• People pleasing. This is old and exhausting. It has contributed to an increase in my anxiety over the past few years. Not everyone is going to be happy with everything I do or say, and at some point, it can become a stage for manipulation. I’m over it.
• I’ll never get back in shape or like my body again. This has been my biggest battle lately. I recently found out the I have PCOS, which has a direct impact on your thyroid. My body is not like it was in my 20s and it has been hard to face that realization. That my body is no longer the same has now been accepted, BUT I am taking charge again and ensuring that my body is healthy. Health is my main focus now, not weight.

Continuing with the future-focused theme, Marie walks you through identifying your goals for the next decade and then focusing on what you want to accomplish in the next year. My top 3 goals for 2020 are:

• Identifying a healthy eating plan
• Daily writing
• Launching my first online course (more to come on this soon!)

To close out this decade in review, Marie asks you to imagine that you are at the end of the next decade, so 10 years in the future. What does your future-self want your present-day self to know now? While I won’t share my letter with you, I do highly suggest that you do this. You’d be surprised at how easy the writing comes to you.

Once you have completed this decade in review, you now have a framework to start planning how you will achieve your 2020 goals.

Next week we will start focusing on the importance of visualizing and having a vision board. Also stay tuned for the launch of my first online course, Creating Your Vision Board. Whether you have created vision boards before or this is your first time, this FREE course can help you focus on your vision and give you some ideas of how to create your next vision board. To be notified when this course is launching, pre-register here.