This past year has probably been the most difficult and challenging year of my adult life. Navigating a challenging work environment with layoffs and shifting priorities as well as several personal and mental health challenges, this year was just rough.

On a positive note, I fit in a bunch of amazing trips with my travels to Iceland, Mexico, New York, DC, and Denver! These really help offset a lot of the rough spots as well as the time spent with friends and family.

Looking forward into 2024 I know I've got a lot of work to do to maintain a healthy mindset and be flexible to what life throws at me. The goals below outline the broad strokes of what I'd like to achieve in 2024.

Give more grace

The world is a really crazy place, and I don't want to be someone who makes it worse. Everyone is fighting their own battles and whether it's at home or work I believe that being understanding, forgiving and patient with people is very important in fostering relationships.

In my daily life I'd like to:

• Be more patient
• Set healthy boundaries
• Offer more encouragement than criticism

Limit distractions

The world is full of distractions. There are too many things to care about, even if you wanted to care about all of them. I find that most of these distractions do more to upset me than bring me joy.

I do love scrolling through socials and TikTok but I've noticed lately that I have a tendency to get upset/unsettled by smaller things; and it'd just be easier to avoid the distractions in the first place.

In my daily life I'd like to:

• Reduce my screentime by half, limiting TikTok/scrolling to an hour before bed
• Tune out stressful news and distractions that upset me

Reduce stress, increase joy

Work and life are stressful enough, and as I mentioned above there are so many distractions that are more stressful than they're worth. I believe that spending less time doing things that are prone to upsetting me, and finding more joy in the simpler parts of my daily life.

In my daily life I'd like to:

• Be more intentional of the news and social media posts I consume
• Connect more with friends in person and try new things

Plan more frequent, smaller trips

Typically, when I make plans I don't like them being too far out because it lacks instant gratification. I've never been able to plan trips that are a year or so out, which is unfortunate because a lot of longer trips take that kind of discipline to plan.

I'd like to take a few big trips this year, but I'd also like to try different places in the Pacific Northwest. This year, I'd definitely like to go up to Canada and do slightly longer road trips and stay in an Airbnb for a night or two.

In my daily life I'd like to:

• Be more open to planning trips that are further out
• Be more spontaneous about longer trips