2019 in Review

• 2019 in Review

Wow it's so crazy how fast this year flew by!
Today on the blog I am sharing some key lessons I have learned this year!! Last week was my birthday on the 27th, two days after Christmas 🎄 & yes I'm a Cap!

So for me, I take my birthday seriously up until the day is the birthday lol
But it made me take a moment to stop and pause and rewind the year and think about the lessons I have learned.

So I personally find that I can be a very private person and it's pretty ironic when I think about the fact that I am a fashion blogger!
But it's always been a apart of me and I find that I need the balance in order to flourish which ties in with one of the lessons I learned this year.

1. Keep BIG ideas Private

So this year I have had several big projects that I have been secretly working on that are pretty big gamer changer for me and I decided to intentionally keep it private from everyone in my life except my small inner circle of 3-4. For me, there is something special about working hard on a project and not letting any negativity in the early stages of it so that I can fully dive in!
Everyone is different with how they like to the pre-stage of any business idea and I highly encourage you to protect that idea or dream and only let those who fully know you into the idea.  There really is no type of regret like the one of forgotten and shot down dreams because of the first person's disapproval!

2. Understanding my Stress Style and Working with it!

For me personally, I experienced more stress this year than I have since graduated from college.
There were so many fundamental changes that I experienced this year that I am genuinely grateful and proud to say I MADE IT!!
But what was seriously so fundamentally important for me this year was understanding how I cope with stress and not work against it.
When I am stressed or working towards a goal it's as if I am holding my breath! And I'm clenching my fists "as if I am already grasping my goal". ( At least that's what I tell myself)
But when I am holding my breath and tense in my body I am not able to fully experience life and the daily routines. Instead of trying to work against it I decided to work with it. I have intentionally set up workout reminders and Intentionally took on the practice of MEDITATION!!
I know everyone says meditation is key but for me and my spiritual practice and overall well-being, Breath Work is essential.
It's like stepping into a solitary oasis of clarity and intention. I have found answers to solutions, clarity for misrepresented emotions and access to unconscious roadblocks!!

3. Meditation was Key!!

Y'all meditation has been the BIGGEST LESSON I learned this year and it's my goal to do the practice on the daily and not when I'm under stress!

4. Embrace my Emotions and Not Run from them but to accept them!

So this was a big one for me this year! Paying attention and being aware of my emotions was a lesson I felt more strongly this year! I had several difficult emotions I was dealing with in the beginning of the year that I didn't think I would experience. For example at the beginning of the year I traveled to my dream place: Paris! I have always dreamed of traveling to Paris and looking at the Eiffel Tower! To me that location was the epitome of success in an unconscious way. I literally had a screensaver on my iPad and phone for years of the Carousel next to the Eiffel Tower!

So when I returned from the trip I remember how happy I was but how jarring it was to be the next day just driving on 635 in Dallas like I wasn't a whole world away 24 hours prior!
It was crazy and for some reason, I had a reaction of sadness and missing that wonderful feeling of being oceans away than of gratitude!
Looking back now I realize I wish I had automatically gone to gratitude instead of sadness because that would have helped me cope better. But the lesson I found was instead of me trying to avoid the sadness I should have just leaned into it and released and felt the emotion so that I could go to the next phase of gratitude!
Life is seriously a journey and I have no regrets but was a great lesson learned. It made me dive deep and research why my emotions were so different than expected and how to cope with it! It was a totally normal reaction apparently and also had to do with my jet lag who knew!!
Which brings the last point home...

5. Staying Present & Having Gratitude

For me practicing gratitude for each stage of my life and not looking forward to the next and the next but look at the present.

By taking a moment and really living in the moment and being grateful for being there in that moment allows me to fully understand that moment. I know that's a lot but for me I realize that every different phase I had this year had so many pros and so many cons to each phase. But what I realized was in each phase when I was present and actively doing my best and focusing on the positive the negative was less frustrating. Were the negatives still negative? HELL yes,
Did I need to make a change? YES, but not in that moment! That pause and understanding the moments have me the ability to see the big perspective and understand it all..

This lesson was huge to my self-growth and MASSIVE for my career growth!!

The crazy thing is my theme for the year was GROWTH and man oh man so much growth happened this year.

I was recently listening to Oprah's Podcast and she was talking about how her word of the year was the strength I believe. And when she had that as her word of the year she ended up encountering different difficult lessons on how she HAD to find inner strength and be strong!

I feel the same as Growth was my goal and I can tell that I had nothing to do but grow based on my circumstances!
From changing career fields and working alone to joining a team and then finally pivoting back to working alone and pursuing my dream of becoming a Texas Realtor and passing my exam in one try! Yall I seriously can not believe how the year went!

I say all of this to say that you have to trust your intuition all the way thru and understand that we are all divinely guided to walk our OWN path! No one else will walk in your shoes and there is so much beauty in knowing that. Once I stopped comparing my lane to others I was really able to intentionally enjoy my own journey!

All of it was so necessary for me to go after a career of my dreams! I'm grateful for the lessons and soo excited for the next year ahead!! Stay tuned as I'll be sharing the New Goals of my 20/20 Vision!! See what I did there!

I encourage you to take time to review the past year you've had and what lessons you've learned!
Also if you have any advice please share below as lessons learned are seriously the best lessons taught!

Peace and Love to you!

Karen Beatty-Martinez 💕💕