Happy 2012!

I hope everyone had a fun, safe, and happy New Year! Although I was sick as a dog over the long weekend, we made the most of it having family in town, attending a great friend's wedding, and of course ringing in another year!

I've always been a "resolution" type person, or I guess goal-oriented would be a better way to put it. So I'm excited to have an excuse to be more accountable.

Being the type-A that I am, I categorized my 2011 resolutions as either personal or professional. It seemed to work (at least I checked off one of each), so doing it again...here's hoping!

Personal:

• Run at least four half marathons. Thankfully I'm already registered for two!
• Travel somewhere new (preferably on another continent!).
• Stop gossiping.
• Make more time for family and friends.
• Be happy!

Professional:

• Start arriving 10 minutes earlier to work. I'm ALWAYS running late, so this would be a huge accomplishment.
• Follow through with all goals listed in 2012 marketing plan and have a measurable ROI for each.
• Focus more on networking and business development, which will enable the company to close a new project because of that relationship.

Cheers to 2012! I have a feeling it's going to be an excellent year. :)

Starting 30-Day Blog Challenge!

As one of my New Year's resolutions, I wanted to write a blog every day for an entire month. With all the craziness going on in November, I might actually have enough to write about each day. We'll see how long that lasts, though...

I was supposed to get my CT scan results back from the urologist yesterday, which would then determine if I was going to have the current {and HIGHLY uncomfortable} stone removed by lithotripsy or cystoscopy. But of course, I'm still waiting. Hoping to hear something soon so we can get this resolved before I head out of town.

Autumn and I are doing a long run this afternoon, and I couldn't be more excited about it! I haven't run since Race for the Cure on Saturday, haven't done a long run in who knows how long, and I've been feeling so down and just blah because of it. But as my blogger friend Amanda said in today's blog post: there's no point in dwelling over runs that aren’t fast enough, long runs that aren't long enough, having no time to cross train, only time to run, and beating ourselves up for taking an extra rest day. "You have to appreciate your run TODAY!"

And so...I will. :) I'm going to appreciate that, my family, my friends, and so many other blessings today.

2011 New Year's Resolutions

I'd like to say I never make New Year's resolutions, because (1) I don't believe in making resolutions just because it's a new year, (2) I want it to be a lifestyle change, or (3) you're just setting yourself up for failure (as my husband would say). But that's totally not me.

I make resolutions each and every year. And though I don't always make it a point to keep them, I still think it's a fun tradition. So here goes...

2011 New Year's Resolutions


Professional:

• Finish a project completely before moving on to the next one. I have a bad habit of spreading myself too thin and not doing important projects to the best of my potential...because I start too quickly on the next "to do."
• Complete a 30-day blog challenge. I've done a better job updating our company blog as of late, but I'm nowhere near where I want to be in terms of posts. My plan is to do this the entire month of February...or maybe Feb 15-March 15. We'll see...
• Take away at least two innovative (and new) strategies or tactics at each marketing conference I attend this year, and begin implementing them in my own marketing plan.

Personal:

• Run a marathon
• Complete a 30-day blog challenge for myself as well. This will be tough. Doing something in your spare time that you do for work often takes the fun out of things. But hopefully that won't be the case here...and hopefully I'll have topics of interest to write about. :)
  
• Get pregnant...or not (this is out of my control, obviously)
• Be happy with the life I've been given. I have no control over others or other situations, but I do have control over myself.

Happy New Year, friends!

A New Year Begins...

The first two weeks of 2010 have definitely flown by! And I have a feeling that's how the entire year is going to be.

Aside from the fact that I had laryngitis, it started off super great. New Year's weekend, Brent and I saw Avatar. It's probably one of the best movies of all time. I'm really into graphics, so not only was it cool to see that, but the story was even better. We also went to Zoo Lights at the Memphis Zoo (the #1 ranked zoo in the country, for those of you who didn't know), where we were finally able to go through Teton Trek and see the beautiful wolves and grizzly bears. Awesome. We went to Restaurant Iris after that, which is one of my absolute favorite restaurants in the world. The next day, Brent's sister, Brittney, asked me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding! This will be the very first wedding that Brent and I are in together...besides our own, of course, and I can't wait!

The next few months are going to be filled with lots of traveling: work trips to New Orleans in February, Las Vegas in March, Boston in May... and fun trips to Orlando for the Disney Princess Half Marathon (maybe), New Orleans for our friends' wedding, Charleston for Brittney and Frank's wedding, and Chattanooga for Ben and Christina's wedding. Brent and I are hoping to take a trip to Italy this year for our third anniversary, so I'm praying everything works out for that. Speaking of work, I'm about to hire my first intern...yessssss! I'm super excited about the opportunity to train someone on all the fun things I do on a daily basis.

Did I mention that I ran 1,000 miles last year? Well, actually, I did 1,001! :) I can honestly say that's one of my favorite accomplishments. Sadly, I'm really having to take it easy this month, as I overdid it, and now I'm having lovely knee pains again. This, too, shall pass...at least that's what I'm telling myself. I'm very excited to get back into cross training, though, especially spin class and kickboxing. Tomorrow will be my first 4:45 am wake-up call for spin in a loooong time...we'll see how that goes.

In 2010, I'm looking forward to accomplishing a great deal at work, running at least two half marathons, going to see some super awesome movies that are coming out (especially on June 30!), traveling for both work and pleasure, and enjoying all the blessings in my life each and every day.