2011 Reflection

 Hi Everyone! Happy New Year!

Yes, my blog has been a bit quiet over the past little while but I have a good reason! I have been relaxing and enjoying my 2 week vacation! I have had a great time with my love, friends and family - watching movies, eating delicious food, having great conversations, ice skating, celebrating Hanukkah/Christmas... thinking about all these activities makes me smile :)

Moving on! I would like reflect back on my 2011 accomplishments. So here goes:

Made a career change - I decided to leave my job at Vancouver Film School and find an events position that would challenge me and allow me to grow. It was a very difficult and hard change to make but it was one of the best decisions I have made in my life so far. It took 7 months for me to find full time employment again but I do not regret the decision that I made. I learned to be patient, to appreciate what I have and I pushed myself outside of my comfort zone. After a lot of hard work and patience, I found a job as an Events Coordinator at Mitacs. I really enjoy what I do and I know this position will allow me to grow in my career. 

Developed my wedding planning experience. In recent years, I have developed a strong interest/passion in wedding planning. It combines two things that I am passionate about - weddings and event planning. A number of my friends got my married this year so I took advantage of offering my event planning expertise to them, while building my wedding planning experience. I had a lot of fun helping with my friends weddings and they were very appreciative for all my assistance. The best part was seeing everything come together on the day of the wedding and see how happy my friends were. I also decided to reach out to a wedding planner to see if they needed a wedding assistant... and luckily they did! I met with Alicia Keats of Alicia Keats Weddings & Events and we hit it off! She was more than happy for me to help her given my event experience and passion for weddings. I helped with several weddings this year and it was such a great learning experience (also quite fun!). I can't wait to help with more weddings in 2012!

Volunteering. During my career transition, I decided to volunteer and what a great decision that was! I really enjoyed further learning about how events are executed, giving back to the community and meeting some great people. It feels really good to help out and volunteer. I really don't know why I had not really done it much before. It make me feel great about myself, helped me build my network and opened opportunities for me.

Improved my fitness level and health. Early in 2011, I decided to take control of my health and fitness. I enrolled in boot camp classes! I was a bit scared initially but after the first class I was hooked! I went to boot camp 3 times a week for about 5 months or so. I also change my eating habits and started to eat healthier. I noticed change in my energy almost immediately. Shortly after that, my clothes started getting looser and I was losing inches. I finally fit into my skinny jeans again, which practically made me cry!! I lost a total of 10 lbs which was my goal. Overall, this year I improved my health immensely and will continue on this path in 2012.

Developed new friendships. I developed a number of new friendships over the past year. I love meeting new people and developing new relationships! It makes life exciting :) We learned a lot about each other and did a lot of fun things. I can't wait to meet more people and introduce them to my life.

Celebrated my 1 year anniversary with my sweetie. I don't know if this is necessarily an "accomplishment" but I want to mention it nonetheless. January 22nd marked the 1 year anniversary of my boyfriend and I. Time has gone by so fast while we have been together (probably because we were having so much fun). I love him dearly and he treats me very well :) For our one year, we spent the day at Granville Island, went for a nice dinner and stayed at the Granville Island Hotel. It was lovely. I can't wait for the next year with my sweetie, it's now almost been 2 years!

Started a blog. I was encouraged by one particular friend (who will remain nameless) to start a blog. He recommended the blog involve me discussing what I know, so I did just that. I created a blog that provided event planning tips and also discussed my passions. I really have enjoyed blogging over the past 6 months (even though sometimes I can be lazy with my posts). I will continue to write informative and interesting blog posts throughout 2012 and beyond :)

Started networking. For many years I knew it was important to network but I never seemed to get around to it. This year, I decided to get out there and finally do it. Being unemployed was definitely a motivator but I would have done it even if I was employed. I was quite nervous at my first networking event but that slowly faded. I met a lot of great individuals and started to build my network. I am definitely going to continue networking this year!

Developed a positive outlook. Throughout my life, there have been times where I became incredibly negative towards others and myself. I learned that negativity does not make me happy and pushes away those that I care about. This year, I decided to really focus on having a positive outlook on life and appreciating what I have. My career transition definitely helped me realize that being positive was important in order to be happy and successful. There are of course times where negativity does creep up on me but I can now better control it.

Wow, this 2011 reflection post sure has made me feel good. I feel like I have accomplished so much! Stay tuned for my next post where I will discuss my 2012 goals (I promise I will post this VERY soon)

-Shira :)