045- Word of the year- what was yours?

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The past couple years I've joined others in the personal development world by choosing a "word of the year" to guide me and help improve my life. My word for 2023 was EXPERIENCES. What led me to choose that word was a couple things. I wanted experiences that I could enjoy and help enrich my life. I also wanted experiences that I could learn from, and help me become a better person. The majority of my experiences, although not all, in 2023 were centered around travel, but the things I learned can be carried with me long after said trip. Some of these experiences I've already written about here, but some are new things I am sharing, not in any particular order.

Added another Starbucks country- for the past few years, I've been trying to get to a Starbucks in every country that I visit. It's a fun little thing that I can keep track of. So far, I've been to a Starbucks in the USA (of course), Hong Kong, China, Philippines, Mexico, France, Amsterdam and Belgium. It's been interesting to see the differences. The coffee tastes pretty much the same but the cups and flavors offered are sometimes different. Where should I go next?

Unicorn at the office (a.k.a. team member of the week)- we started a new thing at my office where (almost) once a week, we give a stuffed unicorn (named Eunice) to one of our team members for the next week. Then the next time that person chooses someone new. It could be for something specific or it could be just because they have worked really hard on a certain thing. Its been fun to add some positivity to our week.

Whale watching in Cabo- it doesn't matter how many times you see those whales, it blows me away (hahaha, no pun intended) how freaking HUGE those things are! It's just a really cool experience to go out on a boat in the middle of the ocean and see them doing their thing.

Ascend Retreat- this was the ultimate experience and a birthday gift to myself all wrapped up into one weekend. I cannot put into words everything that I took away from this weekend. I wrote about it in a previous post HERE. Meeting this group of ladies and others in their sphere has helped me so much this year as I've been on the continual personal development journey.

Masterminds- On that note, I joined a Mastermind which was a program offered by the Ascend host, Emily Reuschel. We met every two weeks for 4 months and talked about everything from goals, personal life, business aspirations, life, and so much more. I actually did two rounds of this program and it was such a great way to continue what I started at Ascend. I think Emily will be offering these again soon, but there may be some changes to how she runs the program.

Texas School of Photography- my bestie (Sandi Petersen Photography) and I flew to Dallas to attend the Texas School of Photography in April. As many of you know, I don't have a photography business any longer so I went for fun. I went to add to my "experiences" for the year. I chose to take a class from Jen Rozenbaum who is also a breast cancer survivor. I wrote a previous post about it HERE.

Monthly breakfast with my Dad- my dad and I have a standing date on the second Wednesday of the month to have breakfast after his Rotary meeting. It gives us a great chance to catch up and talk about things going on in our lives. I can fill him in on the kids and what they are up to, crazy things that happen at my office, or anything else that comes up. It's great to have it on the calendar- not that we haven't had to move it around every once in awhile, but having a regular date helps a lot.

Cabo trip with kids- we took the kids and their significant others to Cabo in June. Raising kids (not sure you're ever really done) is a hard job. It's so great to hang out with them as adults. For my friends with young kids, it does get easier. Having a good relationship with your adult children is so awesome!

Cancer 2.0- this was a different type of experience. But I did learn some things. I don't really want to rehash this but I wrote about it HERE.

Europe trip- we went to Europe in October to celebrate our 25th anniversary. I just realized that I haven't written much about it on here, but hopefully I will get to that in the coming weeks. We went to Amsterdam and Paris. We saw some amazing things and had some great food. This was the ultimate experience and a great way to celebrate our anniversary. While we were in Paris, we went on a day trip to Normandy which was quite the experience. I will admit that I didn't know many details about what happened there in WWII, but I learned so much on that tour. I also have read several books since then about WWII which has been very educational.

FFA National Convention- our son received his FFA American Degree this year and we went to Indianapolis to see him receive it. It was quite the experience seeing THAT MANY blue jackets around town. I have a goal of getting to every state by the end of my lifetime. This trip helped me add two more- Indiana and Kentucky. We were able to take a day trip to Louisville. Another cool thing we saw was the Indianapolis Speedway which was quite the experience. It's huge!

Kids home on Christmas morning- the best experience to end the year with was having our two kids and their significant others at home on Christmas morning. The 6 of us slept in until 8:30am (well sorta- Andy and JT went to the dairy very early and got home around 5am). We had a nice morning having breakfast and opening gifts.

I have been so blessed during 2023 to have so many life changing experiences. I'm still working on my word for 2024, but I will still be trying to enjoy as many experiences as possible in the coming year. I'm proud of what I've learned over the past year. Enjoy the experiences that come your way and Make Yourself Proud!