2022: Year in Review & Goals for 2023

Every year I write one of these, and I’m not sure if anyone reads them to be honest. I keep it up because it’s really great to look back and see how I’ve grown. If you have read any of these posts of mine in the past, you know that I don’t ever set any actual goals, because I think New Years Resolutions are kind of foolish. I am a proponent, though, of setting intentions for the coming year based on your value systems.

This last year was very full. Full of big moments, like Calin and my engagement; full of travels, heading on three large trips this year and a handful of small ones in between; full of work, taking on our biggest projects to date. But I realized I was missing something, and that has inspired my intention for this coming year: “live fully.”

While our 2022 was full, it was missing fullness in the everyday: in the little moments in between. For the pursuit of big moments, I set aside things like decorating for Christmas, having dinner with friends, making this apartment feel more like ‘home’. I missed calling family, painting, taking baths. And I definitely could have done all those things.

You see, my ADHD brain likes to go all in, or not go in at all. And all the in-betweens get neglected for destinations.

I want less filler between those destinations. I want to be an active participant in my life. I think I wrote this a number of years ago (although I can’t find the post just now), but life is not meant to be lived just at points A-B-C: it needs to be lived at the dashes too.

I have a very clear idea of how I’d like my life to be, and I don’t take derailment very easily. I have my boxes, my rules, my playbook for life, and I struggle to differ. That’s my autism kicking in. In order to ‘live fully’ even in the mundane, I think I need to keep an open mind when it comes to the trajectory of my life. Keeping walls up doesn’t allow for life to seep in. I have worked tirelessly on accepting change and newness into my life, as I know the ADHD side of me craves it. Perhaps 2023 is the year that the balance is finally struck.

Lately I have been reading about memories, and how to make more (happy) memorable experiences. Another bad habit of mine is to remember the bad, and let the good slip away. Embracing positive memories will be a test of my abilities, as our brains do tend to naturally remember the bad (to keep us safe). Journaling is a way I’ve been changing this. It’s time to let go of all the bad, and embrace the good things that can happen every single day, and not gate-keep the good for peak moments.

I am safe.

I am capable.

I am capable of living a full life.

I will live fully.

Here’s to 2023.

Do you have any intentions set for 2023? What led you in that direction?

Happiest of New Years,

Cate