It’s been a while since I’ve put finger to keyboard (or rather finger to iPhone as that’s how I’m writing this post), but I’ve been reflecting on 2014 quite a bit the past few weeks and had some thoughts I felt like sharing….even if only for me to look back on in years to come.

2014 was an interesting year for me. I had some personal and professional highs and lows which got me thinking about balance, and how often we as human beings spend time trying to find the perfect balance of the pieces that make up our life.

Some highs of the year for me we’re finally hitting a goal weight after years of going up and down. I also made the difficult decision to leave a company I had been at for the majority of my professional life and start a new job at a company I knew very little about. For me this has been the one accomplishment I am most proud of, specifically because it was a big leap of faith. A calculated risk, but a risk nonetheless. As someone who tends to be risk averse, this was huge for me. I recently read an article about traits of successful people and it mentioned taking big risks. I’ve been afraid so much of my life to take risks. I have a lot to fear I hold on to and one of my goals (or resolution if you prefer) in 2015 is to take more risks.

Which leads me to another thing I’ve thought about this year: holding on. Outside of my professional accomplishment I’ve held on to things in 2014 that I should’ve let go of at some point or another. Again it ties back to fear…fear of rejection, fear of the unknown, fear of being hurt. But what I’ve realized is that holding on to things is often a double-edged sword. It doesn’t stop these fears from manifesting. In fact it makes it worse. The counterbalance of holding on is to let go. And so a big theme for 2015 is to let go of things that are not worthy of being part of my life.

Overall I’ve felt that 2014 was a pretty awful year (which is completely subjective, I understand lest you think I’m being overly dramatic)
. While I’ve had some huge positives, the negatives have weighted me down, not letting me enjoy the positives as much as I should. I’ve been off balance. But as I reflect now, and no doubt will reflect in the future, as painful as 2014 has been for me, it has taught me a lot about myself and these are lessons that I will take with me for the rest of my life.

So here’s to 2015. To finding balance, to taking risks, and to letting go.