Reflecting on 2013 - considering the year past, and looking to the year ahead

With Christmas over, it's suddenly that time of year again. You know, that time, where summary posts, "best of" recaps, and resolutions / aspirations abound. I like to save my blog-related summaries for March, where the anniversary of Bite-Sized Thoughts falls. As we've seen, though, I do like this time of year for reflecting and goal setting. 

I had 10 aspirations for 2013. Let's revisit them.

Run the Bunbury half marathon on the 14th April.

Done and dusted! I even threw a second half marathon into the mix, with the Perth half marathon in August. I loved the half marathon distance and definitely want to do more of these runs over the coming years.

Drive from Darwin to Cairns in an Australia-based holiday with Mr Bite.

This holiday, in June, was wonderful. In fact, it was so good, it got 7 recap posts for the 2 week period.

Make work count. 

This is a tricky one to evaluate, especially on a public blog. There were positives and negatives, and the real test will be in how my work situation looks in a year's time. I did have a bonus trip to America for an expenses paid conference, so that was obviously a highlight.

Make money count. 

I think this has been achieved in part. I can't remember the last time I bought a take away coffee, new clothes are few and far between (except in New York!), and we don't live a decadent lifestyle when at home. For example, we haven't eaten dinner out in Perth once in the last year, and have gone to the movies a grand total of 4 times in 2013.

Offsetting the above are 2 travelling stints (Northern Australia and America) and my intermittent buying of luxury raw/vegan ingredients. So, in all, I think we spent wisely but did still spend.

Stop buying tinned legumes and switch to dry.

I'm calling this a success. I still have 'emergency' tins of legumes in the pantry, which are used on occasion, but those occasions are few and far between.

Enter previously read books into Goodreads.

Done. And as a benefit, Goodreads can tell me that I've read 38 books and 14,288 pages this year, compared to 37 books and 16,061 pages in 2012. There are a few days left of 2013, so there is a good chance that 2012/2013 difference will be evened out...

Schedule in pilates, in some form, on a regular basis.

Mmm. I did this weekly, in the form of the Xtend Barre Ballet Workout, over the first half of the year. It was great, I was really pleased with myself, and then...I stopped. Finding time for running, cross-training, weights and pilates continues to be a challenge, and pilates always seems to be the thing that is dropped. I'm putting this back on my aspiration list for 2014, but can't really call it a win for 2013.

Read more history.

I haven't expanded much beyond Britain, but did read more non-fiction books on British history: the biography of Lizzie Siddal, and three books by Alison Weir on Mary Boleyn, The fall of Anne Boleyn, and The 6 wives of Henry VIII. Paul Theroux's book The Happy Isles of Oceania also taught me quite a lot about the pacific.

Play the piano at least every other month.

I set the bar quite low for this aspiration - 6 playing times in total! - and I certainly achieved 6 occasions of playing. I'm not sure if they were evenly spread at bi-monthly intervals, but I did have more musical engagement than in past years. Mr Bite's keyboard birthday present in April helped here, and I am extending 'piano' to 'keyboard' for reviewing this particular goal.

Practice photography.

This happened, but I'd still like it to happen more!

What about 2014? I'm repeating a few of my above aspirations, and adding 5 others.

1. Do pilates at least monthly.

In the interests of low bar setting, and thus increased motivation to try, I am aiming for low frequency pilates with the hope that this may facilitate more frequent practice over time.

2. Play the piano / keyboard at least monthly.

Having managed bi-monthly last year, I figure monthly is achievable for the next 12 months. I've recently brought the music for my favourite piano piece across from my parent's house, and hope to (re) master a keyboard rendition of Pachelbel's Canon in D before long.

3. Practice photography at least monthly.

Notice a monthly theme? ;)

4. Try a new dinner recipe at least fortnightly.
This one I figure can be done more than once per month! In truth, I probably already average this, but I'd like to make more of an effort to use my cookbooks and work through my bookmarked recipes - and not just the baking / sweet recipes.

5. Run a half marathon in England.

This aspiration sums up our plans to move countries (in May! it's nearly upon us!) as well as my goal of another half marathon. I'd love to run the London Run to the Beat Half Marathon (September 2014) or Royal Parks Foundation Half Marathon (October 2014) if possible.

6. Exceed 5 vegetable serves per day.

Recently, I was curious about how many vegetable serves I actually get each day, so I tracked it for a month. Not counting legumes (which are vegetables, but I counted them as protein serves), I averaged 4.5 serves / day. This isn't far off the recommended 5, but for 2014, I'd like to up the average by 1 serve a day. 

Incidentally, I have absolutely no trouble getting fruit recommendations in...I averaged over 3 serves a day and there were a few days when I hit 5 serves! More vegetables and less fruit might just be indicated.

7.  (Try to) embrace change.
Traditionally, I'm not very good with change. I am a creature of routine, I hold unhelpful beliefs about the way I "have to" do things or "can't do" things, and I strongly relate to the concept of "just right" / "not just right" experiences. However, I am planning to move countries, may or may not have a job in place when I do, and all the 'adult' things I barely have a handle on in Australia will need to be re-learnt somewhere else. I am extremely excited about this, but it is highly likely that I will struggle if I do not embrace change!

8. De-clutter and reduce material possessions.
This is a bit of a 'no fail' aspiration because with moving countries, we will have to de-clutter our possessions. However, I'd like to make doing so an opportunity to form new, lower material habits that last beyond the middle of next year. We will be shipping some things from Australia to England (on my list? books, my food processor, our wedding present crockery, my bike) but a lot will be left / sold / passed on. When starting afresh, I'd like to remember that a lot of what I have here I don't wear, use or look at on a regular basis.

Tell me, are you pleased with what your 2013 brought? Do you have many hopes for the next year?

And remember, you still have 7 days to share your 2014 aspirations on this giveaway for a Paul's Warehouse voucher!

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