At the end of every year, or at least for the last 10ish years or so since I started planning, goal setting and journaling, I will sit down and take a moment to reflect on the year that has passed.

Not only does it embed the memories (as these days I seem to have a memory of a fish and can barely remember what I did yesterday) this process reminds me about the life I am living, as well as turning my attention to the things that I want to create more of in my life.

This is personal development, it’s the consideration of how we can live with intention and hopefully work towards living a happier, more successful and ultimately living a fulfilling life.

As I fill out the final pages of my trusty Get It Together life planner and cast my mind back over the year that has passed, I am filled with feelings of gratitude.

First off I want to thank you lot! 

Yes, you right there, reading this email. 

Whether you are new to this list or have been with me over the years, know that I appreciate you deeply. 

If you have supported my business in any way, whether purchasing my services, given a like on a social media post, read an article, completed a workout, or shared them with your friends. 

Know that any of these actions matter and mean a lot to me, these actions support me and it helps me to continue to keep on doing the work I do.

The Year Of Simplicity

At the beginning of the year I like to set out a theme for the year ahead. This year’s theme was simplicity. 

Simplify to maximise.

Looking back I have certainly achieved the simplification part.

I know we all felt the pressure that came with a global pandemic and it changed us all in so many ways. On the back of that, I felt the pressure of just doing too much. 

My business was all over the place working on a mindset and personal development membership, the Shine Squad, my health and fitness membership Better Body. Plus still trying desperately to run retreats, sell my planners, run fitness classes and Personal Training clients here in France. 

Combine this with the normal life stuff of being a mum, wife and with a husband that works away,  continuing the struggle of a renovation that wasn’t happening and living with 2 growing boys in a 2 bed apartment! 

We were only ever meant to be in this apartment for a year  before the pandemic and now 4 years later we are still living here in this small space!!

Don’t get me wrong, I know how lucky we are to live in the mountains. We have a roof over our heads and the ability to work. But a family of 4 and two massive fluffy dogs in a 75 square meter apartment has sometimes felt like living in a pressure cooker that is just on the verge of exploding. Having 2 growing boys sharing a tiny box bedroom as any mum will know is a battle in it’s self.

After the stress of the pandemic it was all feeling like a LOT! 

I felt like I really I wasn’t doing any of it as well as I know I should have been doing. 

I felt like I was failing, failing my clients, my kids, my husband, shit I was failing myself. 

Things needed to change and I needed to streamline and pull things back, to break my business down before I was the one that broke down. Ok, that sounds a little dramatic, I’m totally ok, but it was a clear sign that things needed to change.

Retreats got cancelled and refunded, I said goodbye to the Sine Squad and focused my attention on health and fitness coaching and writing. 

After finding some success on the writing platform Medium, I discovered that actually, this is what I really love to do. 

I have been writing emails to the people on my email lists for over 15 years. Now writing on Medium would help my writing to be seen by more people and I am totally in love with it.

During 2022 I also got my new blog/website up and running and it’s become the space where I can continue to work on improving as a writer/blogger.

Writing about health and wellness has meant that I am reading more research, keeping on top of new trends and it actually supports me in becoming a better coach in the process. 

Win, win win!

So whilst the process of simplification, I feel like I have pivoted to just make the working parts of my business develop into a better fit for my life.

Of course, the theme was ‘simplify to maximise’ the maximise part is still a work in process as at times it feels like I have had to start from scratch. But it is a work in progress that I’m enjoying the challenge of to be able to recreate something even better.

I haven’t set my theme yet for 2023 but it will be around the idea of maximising,  growing and maintaining focus.

What I’m Saying Goodbye To

With all of this I also got to the point where I felt like my Get It Together planner did need to be updated. With my theme of simplification I get to ask myself lots of questions before I start any new endeavour. I have a problem with shiny object syndrome which leads to me doing too many projects and my attention gets split with my monkey brain having a million different ideas.

So I asked myself is re-designing and updating the planner a good use of my time? Will it bring in enough return for my efforts? Is it something that I have the time to do well?

The answer to all of these questions was a NO. And so whilst the planner has served me over the years and it may well be back in the future. For now I’m saying goodbye to it.

You see when I first created it there wasn’t as much on the market that fitted what I need, that’s why I went and created my own. Now there are a tonne of beautiful and amazing planners out there and much more to choose from.

So this year I have decided to go with the Clever Fox Planner . I have gone for the daily premium edition. It’s only a 6-month planner but it’s a good size and has pretty much all of the things that I want to be included in a planner with added blank pages to add in the things that I would like added in.

I use a beautiful but plain notebook for my journaling which is still and I always will be a key part of my life. I love journaling so much in helping me to remain balanced, grounded and in line with the goals and ideas that I set for myself.

I am loving the look of the LWMinds journal though that also comes with a deck of journaling prompts. I will likely invest in one of these soon and write a review on it. 

Going Forward

And that leads me onto what you can expect from me going forward.

Better Body will remain a staple of the work that I do though it is also shifting and evolving. I’m working on tweaking and improving the plan as it’s not going to be a 28 day weight loss plan that is focused specifically for 40+ women. As I too will be hitting 40 in 2023 it makes sense to me that this programme is designed to support women who are just like me.

So Better Body is still here and better than ever, the main difference is that all workouts are now pre-recorded and scheduled for you to follow at a time that suits you. I am adding in additional layers of coaching and accountability into the programme so you can still get the best results possible.

If you want to come and join and get coached my me. You can CLICK HERE and reserve your space for January now. We will be kicking things back off from 2nd January.

Writing, writing and more writing. Oh and a few video’s too. Yes I will be continuing to write over on the blog. I’ll be focusing on writing lots more tips, tools and reviews. I’m actually loving testing out health and wellness products and programmes and sharing my honest opinion.

So if you have any products that you have had your eye on but aren’t sure if its worth your investment then let me know and I will try it out for you.

And this is a key part of the work I will do going forward. We are entering a challenging time economically and I know that not everyone can afford the £47 to come and work with me for a month. For those that can afford this, this will always be the best way to come and work with me and get more personalised coaching.

But for those that really can’t I’ll be sharing lots of useful advice and tools on the blog and on my Youtube channel. J

ust by reading articles or watching my video’s this is still such a huge support to me and really helps me grow my business so that I can continue to provide as many free resources as possible. 

I’m also working with more affiliate programmes which means that if you do purchase anything that I recommend I may get a small commission. This comes at no extra cost to you, and you have my word that I will only ever recommend the things that I love and truly believe in and would use for myself.

Wins, Lessons & Love

If you are still here reading at this point. Well, thank you, you are my people and I love you deeply and I really do mean that.

So whilst 2022 has had it’s challenges it’s also been a pretty amazing year and has as always brought in so many lessons.

Here are my wins and lessons for 2022

Wins

• Going on 5 amazing trips abroad. After a few years of reduced travel, having the opportunity for multiple trips in one year was an absolute blessing and revisiting my youth in Ibiza really brought the fun factor back to this year.
• Coming back to education. After feeling like I have taken a hiatus from formal learning, I completed my MoveNat qualification and my Precision Nutrition coaching certification is almost complete. 
• Medium. Experiencing some viral articles on this platform, getting paid for them and having my writing as a lucrative side hustle is exciting. My highest earning article there has earnt me just over $2,500. For one article is just insane to me and it’s still earning money each day though it’s now pennies, that passive income is any business owners dream.
• Overcoming hormonal issues and managing my weight better with more balance. This is once again leading into the work I do with Better Body coaching as I have been through the challenges of gaining weight with what feels like no reason. More on this will follow.
• A year of consistent french lessons. I have remained committed to my french learning with doing a daily practice of Duolingo. Whilst my french speaking still leaves a lot to be desired, there have been some big improvements this year in my understanding. I still have a long way to go but feel more comfortable with my progress.
• New website and exploring writing and blogging. I am really happy with how the website turned out after lots of challenges to get it up and running. I will continually be making tweaks and improvements but we have a new website.

Lessons

• I can do anything, but I can’t do everything. I know I can do anything I set my mind to, I just have to keep that mind focused and stop trying to do everything or too much. This is showing me that remembering focus needs to play part of my 2023 intentions, in fact that may be my word for the year but I need to work on and feel into that a little more.
• With simplicity comes time freedom. I feel I have had more time this year. When I talk about success, what success means for me is shifting. Time freedom is becoming a more essential as a key component of my own personal success.
• It’s ok to pivot. Nothing is permanent and changing doesn’t mean failure, it’s just taking the decision to allow further growth and development.

I really hope you enjoyed reading my run down and that you are also inspired to take on your own reflection work so that you can hit 2023 running.

If you want a little help doing your reflection work you can check out last year’s It’s A Wrap Workshop. Again I asked myself if it was worth re-making this workshop or just sharing last year’s workshop for free. So here you go, click here if you want to watch that.

Once again, I want to thank you all for being here. I also love nothing more when you guys hit reply, and give any feedback, suggestions of what you want to see more of. Or simply give me an update on you and how your year has been.

I think this is such a huge part of why I love what I do so much is that you are not just my audience, my email list, many of you have become what I would class as friends and I am very lucky to have you in my life.

I wish you all a wonderful Christmas and can’t wait to share so much more awesomeness with you in 2023.

All my love always 

Emma