2019 was both a wonderful year for me and my family and one of great sadness – one of my best friends chose to end his life, a decision I will never agree with and pray hard to accept and understand.
Collectively too I sense many of us faced big challenges the past 12 months so I sat down to spend time cataloging my personal list of 19 Good Things That Happened in 2019:
Big Things
1 I achieved most of the goals on my 2019 list and am solidly in process on others – like finishing my book The Camera Ready Checklist – which tells me my goals were realistic, achievable steps forward (a goal within a goal!)
2. Being in flow more consistently with my work, connected to purpose, teaching more workshops to more people – and knowing I want to do more of this.
3. Making/posting videos to LinkedIn – a goal many years in the making
Mindset Shifts
4. Finding the balance between making it happen and letting it happen. Learning to let go of outcomes (a work in progress) has been huge for my control enthusiast self.
5. Learning the difference between getting and receiving – central to living in abundance
6. Learning to let go of The Shoulds and give myself space and permission to go at my own pace in my own way.
+ Learning, Living & Art
7. Duolingo – there are many language apps, this just happens to be the one I chose to study French – and not only am I seeing real progress (day 228 as I type) but it’s re-affirmed for me that a) 15-30 minutes a day of regular practice yields results and b) we really do learn from our mistakes
8. Travel to Morocco – I spent 2 weeks visiting my daughter who was studying there and fell in love with the country, the people, the colors. It doesn’t matter where you go – just go! explore! be open!
9. Sneakers as chic and appropriate (almost) anywhere footwear are here to stay and I couldn’t be happier.
10. Gayle King at the top of her career at 65…with the best instagram.
11. Anne Lamott – whose writing has lifted me up for years finally found love and her happily ever after
12. Keanu Reeves – provided mother-son bonding (John Wick 3), self-aware parody (Always Be My Maybe) and a mature love story we could all get behind with artist Alexandra Grant
13. Great roles for actors over 50 especially: Alan Alda, Alan Arkin, Christopher Plummer, Jane Fonda, Liliane Rivere plus…
14. Laura Dern chewing up scenery from Pretty Little Liars to Marriage Story to Little Women
15. The Jungle at St Ann’s Warehouse
16. David Byrne’s American Utopia on Broadway
17. Frida Kahlo – my takeaway from this blockbuster at the Brooklyn Museum was the detail we often overlook about Frida as Icon – she was a person with disabilities working through constant pain.
18. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (Gail Honeyman) – not new this year but new to me and the best book I read in 2019.
19. Julie K. Brown – and her fearless journalism taking down a pedophile.
