Reflecting on 2020 and intentions for 2021

I’m writing this post from our patch of dirt, quite literally. We bought the kids a trampoline for Christmas and had no where to put it at our small townhouse rental. So now we have an awesome excuse to visit our block daily for the kids to have a jump and to check progress on the new house.

I’ve been meaning to sit down and write this post for days but I’ve been too distracted, too itchy and restless. I’m not sure what exactly is up. Instead I’ve procrastinated in style by watching the entire season of Bridgerton on Netflix and helping the kids finish off the last of the Christmas treats. I ten out of ten recommend. 

I’ve done some form of end of year post and shared new years plans for at least the last 4 years here on the blog. While I always feel a bit nervous to share what I want to do (for fear of embarrassing myself should it not actually happen), putting pen to paper is a big part of how I’ve managed to actually do many of these things in the last few years (a book, a successful YouTube channel, a thriving business, etc).  

So without further keyboard rambling let’s get into the shortlist of what I’m proud of from 2020 and what I hope to achieve / do / create in 2021. If you prefer to watch you can via the video below.

What I’m proud of from 2020

Creating and running my two teacher training programs

If you’d told me 3 years ago that I’d be running yoga teacher trainings, I would have said you were crazy. I would have declared that I wasn’t qualified and why would anyone want to learn from me?! It’s insane how much can change in just a few years.

After running the Zenko Yoga Level 1 prenatal teacher training workshop for the last few years and being asked constantly for further training, I decided this year I would finally put my online versions together. I launched the pregnancy and postpartum yoga teacher training first and followed it up two months later with the fertility yoga teacher training. Both have been getting amazing feedback and I’m beyond proud of both them.

Brought other yoga teachers into my OYC

Again, this is another element of my business that has just evolved on its own. 3 years ago, I would never have even dreamed that I could offer work (from home) to other teachers, other mothers, to teach within my membership. And yet here we are. (As an aside, if you’re a pregnancy or fertility yoga teacher – or other relevant modality – and would like to get involved, please send me an email).

All the creating I’ve done this year

I’ve just done the final count and I’ve created 82 videos this year! No wonder I’m so tired lol. I’ve also written 31 blogs and hundreds of emails. It’s crazy to me that I’ve done so much because in many ways my creating this year has felt so sporadic.

Youtube is the only platform I’ve kept at consistently and have (mostly) posted at least weekly. All of the others have been squished in between the cracks of everything else that has been going on this year (work, kids, moving, covid homeschooling, etc)

Moving our family and mostly staying sane 

I feel like this BIG life move deserves a mention. At the start of 2020 I said we needed to decide whether we would move to Brisbane, or whether we would go with a FIFO-type lifestyle. Spoiler alert. We moved in April.

I always underestimate how hard moving actually is and never remember to account for all the little things that just make life more exhausting (I.E having to learn all new roads, new shops, new doctors, etc). Not to mention having to re-create your entire social circle, which I find entirely overwhelming.

So I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m incredibly proud of all that we’ve done this year considering we’ve moved amongst all it.

Did I achieve the goals I set last year?

To be honest, I had to search in my archives to even remember what goals I’d set for this year. I feel like this year has thrown everything up in the air and we’re still somewhat suspended waiting for everything to drop.

These were our family goals. The only one that we didn’t meet was ‘two family holidays’ but in the year of a global pandemic, I don’t think anyone is going to hold that one against us.

My business goals for 2020 were to launch my teacher trainings and to just “watch my business steadily grow”. Ironically the year that I didn’t try and set big goals for my business, was the year that it exploded beyond what I had ever dreamed was possible. I’m can’t even begin to tell you how proud I am that I now get to share yoga with women all over the world from this space.

My intentions for 2021

Bring on 4 extra teachers in my OYC membership

I want to continue to grow my online yoga circle community and showcase even more amazing teachers. I’m hoping to have 5 regular teachers creating classes for you by the end of the year. I love that not only does this mean my members win (IE. more classes added every month), but it also means I get to offer employment to other women (usually Mums) who can work around their babies too. Basically what I wanted for myself when I started creating this business all those years ago.

Website rebuild

The time has come for me to not be the sole creator of this space. I’ve done the best I can over the last 8 years creating this site but a website genius I am not. I’ve recently hired someone to help me with this and my biggest goal is to make my members area a nicer place to be. I’ll keep you posted.

Look after myself better

This year has been FULL on. At the start of the year I went back into classroom teaching. I’ve dabbled in and out of this and other work throughout the year, whilst also juggling this growing business. We moved. We went into lockdown. We set our coast house up as an Air bnb. We kept 3 kids alive.

The complete lack of routine this year has meant my own practice, and looking after myself has really been neglected. Next year I want to make myself a priority.

Re-devote to writing

As I wrote in my last post, I miss writing. This space started with 27 year old me and my first baby, typing out my thoughts to the internet. This year I want to get back to my writing roots. I don’t care if it makes sense business-boosting-wise, I’m doing it for me. I want to write at least one post each week here next year. I’m also dabbling with the idea of writing another book, but in an effort to let 2021 feel more spacious I’m not officially putting that on my list.

So they’re my goals for 2021. What have you got planned?