I can't believe we've already said goodbye to 2017 and hello to 2018! The past year has been a busy one both in my professional and personal life and the new year seems like it will only get more hectic. I wanted to take a look back at the past year and share with all of you my take aways, what I think went well and what I wish had gone better, as well as a few of my plans for the new year.

Professional Wins of 2017

2017 was my busiest year yet professionally. I am still working full-time as a marketing manager in NYC, I now have more freelance clients than ever. Professionally, I think I really crushed it for the most part in 2017. I set a monthly goal income and came in just shy of that goal by the end of the year. I'm happy to say I continue to do well at my day job, despite working on my hustle in the evenings and on the weekends.

Professional Difficulties of 2017

But with those professional wins also came some difficulties this year. There are only so many hours in the day and I still found myself procrastinating or being lazy some evenings after work or some weekends. We are still running our Etsy shop but we haven't put in as much time and effort as we should have so it hasn't seen much growth since we opened it about a year ago. I'm also still trying (and admittedly sometimes failing) to regularly post to this blog. These are two major areas I want to focus on in 2018 and I plan to make them more of a priority.

Personal Wins of 2017

We made a goal at the beginning of the year to get up in the morning to hit the gym before work...and we did it! We have regularly woken up by 5:30am at least three times per week almost every week this year. You know that friend who always wakes up to go on that casual five mile run every morning tells you to do it because you'll feel auhhhhmazing? Well it's true! We regularly badger all of our friends to workout in the morning before work. It just makes both me and Dino feel like we have so much more energy and sets us both up to have happier and more productive days, I can't recommend it enough! If you're afraid you won't be able to wake up that early in the morning, a little pre-workout is a real game changer.

Personal Difficulties of 2017

This year and next year are what I call "The Wedding Years," for us. Almost all of our friends are getting married between 2017 and 2018 as well as some family too. This has meant many weekends of bridal showers, bachelor(ette) parties, wedding showers, and weddings. One thing that I really wanted to focus on this year was losing weight. I dreamt of having a completely sick bod for all of the bikini pics at the bachelorette parties and having toned arms for all of those bridesmaid dresses but it just didn't happen. As usual, life just seemed to get in the way. I did discover Whole 30 this year which is probably the most enjoyable diet I've ever been on, I love that I know exactly what I can and can't eat and I have the freedom to cook creatively within those parameters, I tend to cheat on diets that give me any wiggle room. So this is something I'll continue to work on this year.

Looking ahead to 2018...

I'll probably do a more in-depth post in the next couple of weeks about my professional goals and I plan to do check-in posts on those goals at the end of every quarter to help keep myself accountable but here are a few of my professional and personal goals for 2018. I definitely want to continue to grow my freelance income as that is a major part of my side hustle and is helping us to save money. We plan to tag team the Etsy shop a bit more so Dino will be focusing on growing the shop in Q1 while I focus on getting into a regular and consistent groove with this blog in Q1 so that I can keep it up throughout the year. I've always planned to treat this blog like a business so I will be writing a business plan and treating it like one! Personally, we have a TON of weddings between January and April this year so I'll be working on keeping up with my hustle as we travel. I'll also be focusing on my losing weight again this year, isn't that everyone's New Year's resolution? I plan to try to be more mindful about my eating (and let's be real, drinking) and what is causing me to turn to food for comfort.

How was your 2017? What are you most looking forward to in 2018?