Waving Goodbye to 20090 "Dovima with Elephants" by Richard Avedon
You know, ordinarily I am not a big fan of year end recaps, but I am so self indulgent these days that I think I’ll indulge in one anyway.
2009 was fucking ridiculous. If I could summarize this past year in a cute little title, it would be “The Year of the New Beginnings and Big Things Poppin’”. Let me give you a breakdown.
Work:
I started 2009 off as a member of a team that was led by one wildly successful Financial Advisor at one of the biggest wealth management firms in the nation. As many of you know, this was not a good year to be in Financial Services and with the industry appearing to have lost its mind and sense of rationality, I was caught in a whirlwind. The team and I parted ways soon after. What proceeded goes as follows: I had a job, lost the job, left the company, got an offer to rejoin the company at a different location, got a promotion, and landed the amazing opportunity to be where I am now.
In 2010, I’m looking to grow my business and determined to survive and succeed in this challenging environment. There are a myriad of obstacles that stand in my way- new firm policies, shaky consumer confidence, tough competition, etc- and to be honest, I get butterflies in my stomach when I think of all there is to overcome. However, considering the fact that I felt hopeless many times this past year and made it through the fire alive each time, I’ve learned that I’m more capable than I think. Thus, I’m heading into this new year both anxious and excited by all the new things to come this way. When it comes to my career, 2010 will be entitled “The Year of Survival and Success”.
Life:
I started this blog this past year as an attempt to document my desire to achieve as close as I could get to a true work/life balance. As you can see by the lack of updates, I haven’t been so great about attending to that balance these days. Going forward, I have a lot of things to work on. I’d like to read more, cook more, exercise more, do more in general. Nonetheless, it was a wonderful year for memories.
Some highlights include:
- I ate a LOT of good food.
- Acheiving my financial savings goal
- Completing my first and second 5k runs
- Moved from a 1 bedroom to a gorgeous studio apartment
- Seeing Mayer Hawthorne live in concert and finally meeting him
- Spending the summer on the beach bike riding and body boarding.
- Serving on the Board of Directors for a wonderful non-profit organization
- Getting more involved with cooking as a hobby. Becoming the dessert girl at our friends’ dinner parties.
- I did my fair share of domestic travelling and went to the Bay Area, Napa Valley, Las Vegas, New York , New Jersey, and Detroit.
Balance
The last few months, balance has gone out the window and moving forward I’m going my best to acheive it. Eek.
To be continued in 2010….
Cheers to a HAPPY NEW YEAR!
