Q1 Reflections
I'm writing these from the Dominican Republic, so I'm extra happy and relaxed. Very grateful to be here, and it feels like the post-pandemic world. Still feel like I'm thriving. I give myself permission to keep these reflections a bit brief, a) because I want to make the most of being here, and b) it's only the first quarter of the year, there's more to come!
This quarter has brought life changes - getting married, meeting my partner's nephew - my nephew now, too.
Revisit resolutions
Here were my topics for the year:
- Physical: Move With Ease
- Emotional: Embrace What Is
- Mental: Part of a Whole
- Spiritual: Wholehearted Collaboration
Physical: Move With Ease
Working with a trainer has been amazing, have definitely gained muscle and also strength. Switching to strength gaining is more rewarding than I expected - I finally got to a good point with my weight/muscle/look, and although I could tone up a bit more, I'm also very excited to feel strong. And it feels good to get some cardio during the workout, and regular swims.
Celebrations:
- Working with trainer.
- Strength gains.
- Swimming 1x/week, quite exhausting - I could take a nap after!
- Tracking wellness budget
- Parasite cleanse
- GF/DF pretty consistently, rare exceptions
- Dilligent about dry eyes - eye drops, diffuser. No humidifier yet, but may upgrade the home someday
- Headaches down significantly
Improvement:
- Continue GF
- kettlebell, more trampoline
- bloat and gas sometimes
- grounding outside, not much
- stretch more
- still a couple of headaches - maybe <4 all quarter though!
Emotional: Embrace What Is
I've definitely detached my self worth from work more, but not enough. I still worry about it a lot, and push myself to finish stuff I'm working on. I do see improvement as far as judging myself though, I treat myself better than I used to.
Celebrations:
- Walking into the office I feel less stress, the post-it note does work to bring my mind to feel relaxed and spacious
- I put myself in clients' and team members' shoes more frequently and it helps me relax, listen and empathize more easily.
- I've been taking notes on my anger and frustration, and that has helped reduce it or bring awareness to what's causing it
- Releasing through gym and kitesurfing
- Working on the business mission and values, marketing, etc
- Shared joy at work
- Gave focus presentation at a business group and felt good to get feedback
Room for improvement:
- I still have a hard time stepping away without finishing all that I feel is "on the list" or in progress. After traveling, this has been the most common cause of headaches.
- Related, I feel constrained by my daily schedule - still feels busy at times.
- I still have a hard time doing nothing. Though it has gotten easier (could be listed above)
- Could encourage and empower our team more
Really happy with my emotional well being. I like my intention, though the affirmation isn't really tied to it.
Mental: Part of a Whole
Celebrations:
- I am taking more breaks at work, doing stretches, little things.
- Taking deep breaths while I'm at the desk
- Using my strengths for sure, coordinating our team, onboarding, offboarding, check-ins, sharing feedback, thinking ahead on projects. Did some creative work or content as well - mission and values.
- Hired 1 employee, wohoo!
Room for improvement:
- There are still days when I sit down for too long trying to finish something.
- Take those 5m breaks every hour. I do take them at least every other hour… but it can be rough if I skip more than one a day.
- Kicking off other breaks - need more easy ways to do it.
- Brainstorm more of what I'm good at and do more of that. Reduce what I'm doing that is not in this area.
My favorite is definitely the deep breathing. It's not the most consistent habit, in that, I'd love to take a deep breath with every sip of liquid, but it does help do it more often and I catch myself holding my breath more.
Spiritual: Wholehearted Collaboration
Technically I did this in April, but I'm very excited to have booked a silent meditation retreat and will talk about it next quarter for sure.
Room for improvement
- Not doing evening meditations or inversions regularly. Would really like to tend to my neck and back with those.
- Walking meditation too, after work
- Busywork - happens more rarely that I jump around, but it does.
Celebrations:
- Reached 600 consecutive days of meditation!
- Enjoying where I live more. Especially with gardening. And, by traveling elsewhere too, I appreciate when I come back home.
- Investing in the home - fixing up the fence, in progress.
- I often think about compounding, big picture, and helping direct our team to work well on their own, with kindness. I enjoy leadership.
- Passing feedback to help improve a team members' work has me worried at times, and it's helpful to remember people want to do well, and they want to improve.
Present and future
How are you now? How do you want to be feeling and living?
I feel so much joy for being on this kite trip in the DR, and even before this for celebrating family birthdays, spending time with family, traveling, getting married to my partner. Grateful for my partner and for our relationship growing, our open conversations, our hopes for improvement.
The biggest stressors have been at work - project deliverables, budgets, dotting all the i's. Hiring a perfectionist and having to mediate that with the client. Overall, though, it's been less stress than before, and even though the business has grown, the stress overall has not. Excited for sales improvements coming soon, to help us with larger projects.
I continue to think more long term and feel more relaxed about time and that's helped me enjoy the present even more. I remember a moment listening to my partner's family work through some challenges, and noting how "old me" would have tuned out or tried to talk more, but instead it felt good to just listen, it seemed like that's what was needed.