2020 Word of the Year

G R O W T H

My word of the year for 2020 is growth. I contemplated on this because I used ‘focus’ a few years ago and I really did focus for that year. This year, change will happen and I believe my progress and growth are what would make me the happiest. 

Growth, to me, means moving from point A, moving through point B and accomplishing your goals you’ve set for yourself. There is a long laundry list of things I’d like to check off in 2020. Big and small. Most of these are related to my blog/online business. I need to create a new schedule and stick by it to make myself dive back into being productive and knocking stuff out. 

I feel very nostalgic about blogging right now because I’ve been on this journey for a very long time now (I need a blog anniversary day). My beginning was in 2009, right after we got married. I realized that “having a blog is more than just sharing what you ate” and there is more business effort involved than I ever thought. Don’t get me wrong, writing for fun and as a hobby is fine, but you may not consider having a following at all without bringing some valuable content to your “ideal” audience. There is a mindset shift with blogging as a business, and now a decade later I’m very aware of that. Now I’m bringing value to the table and keeping my readers needs in mind more often. I had a close friend (Raewyn Sangari- @UnicornVABasics) redesign and overhaul my website and I think this will make a huge difference. 

I would like to get into product creation for printables and digital products. Let me know if you’d like to have a free/cheap printable and/or content library. A lot of bloggers do this to expand their horizons and as a way to diversify. I’m creating a new opt-in for my email list and freebie for you to grab and use throughout the year. If you have ideas about things you need or would like to see from me, please leave me a comment below letting me know and I will get started right away in creating it for you. 

I promise to be more present and consistent with a posting schedule, and sharing on social media whilst doing it in a healthy way. I want to be a little raw for a second, I feel pretty stagnant in that I haven’t grown or made much of an impact since I began. There are so many things I want to incorporate this year that will make an improvement in my life and make this blog more interesting for my readers. 

This last year so much happened, so here’s a quick recap: 

We struggled through the first part of the year

We had debt building and compounding from various sources (credit cards, auto loans etc)

We worked to undo our debt and keep building our savings 

We celebrated my 31st birthday and Sean’s 31st birthday

We toured a couple apartments to try to move out (loud neighbors and problems never got solved)

We applied to said new apartment, and put in a deposit

We tried to move and couldn’t due to unexpected old debt owed from a rental 

Everyday we struggled through dealing with bad management and extremely loud inconsiderate people around us

We were finally able to look at houses over a couple of months and got priorities in order

We found our dream home and moved in a short 4 weeks later

We celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas in our new home with family

…… and here we are upon 2020. CRAZY right?!