Category Archives: Reflection

4 Steps To Your 12 Week Review

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Following on from my blog post on ‘The 5 Reasons to Prioritise Your 12 Week Review’ below are 4 Steps to your 12 Week Review.

Before you start your 12 Week Review, here’s some worthwhile preparation.

Grab a notebook and pen – you can document your review electronically also but science suggests what gets physically written down gets done!

Henriette Anne Klauser’s book ‘Write it Down, Make it Happen’ outlines the science behind the principle that writing your goals down gives them a higher chance of success.

I use Moleskine journals for physically writing down goals and reflecting on them. Moleskine journals are beautiful, hard wearing and in my humble opinion the best journals in the world!

I also use regular notebooks found in any shop for documenting progress of goals.

If someone were to ask me where to start with any change in their life I would say start by buying a notebook and a nice pen and writing down your goals – it’s so simple yet so effective!

The Asana App is my go to app for documenting and monitoring goals online. Asana is super easy to use and is also an excellent project management tool. I have been using the free version of Asana for years and it suits just perfect. I also use Google Suite (Docs, Sheets & Slides) for online documentation

Categorise your life into areas – the categories of my life are Sense of Self, Relationships, Health, Work, Finance, Fun/Experiences, Environment & Contribution. You can use these or create categories of your own.

I wish you success, health and happiness as you look back at the past 12 weeks, here’s the 4 Steps to your 12 Week Review,

1. Step 1 is all about what went well over the past 12 weeks

i. What worked well for you in the past 12 weeks?

What did you do that you enjoyed?

What worked out exactly how you wanted or better than you wanted?

There are so many blessings in our lives each and every day, sometimes it’s just a matter of taking a closer look to find them.

You may see that life goes your way more than you may realise.

Take your time with this, work through every area of your life, focus on the small stuff first – as it’s the small stuff that is really the big stuff!

Using a daily gratitude journal can really help answering this question. If you don’t have a daily gratitude journal maybe it’s something you could start for the next 12 weeks.

Even just one gratitude a day over 12 weeks is about 90 things to be grateful for over 12 weeks, wouldn’t that be something really lovely to look back and reflect on?

ii. What did you do that supported this success?

How did you bring success into your life?

How did you contribute to the things that worked well for you?

The only person who has control over your life is you and the only life you can control is your own. Keeping that in mind, all success in your life starts and ends with you.

No-one is going to improve your life for you, no-one is going to set and reach your goals for you, yes, it’s all on YOU!

Did you work hard at something and then reap the rewards?

Did you make sacrifices to improve your life?

Knowing how you contribute to your own success means you can build on this to bring so much more success into your life.

iii. What brought you joy and happiness in the past 12 weeks?

When were you at your happiest over the past 12 weeks?

Think about what you were doing, who were you with, where were you?

Knowing what brings us happiness allows us to create more time to bring more happiness and joy into our lives.

Who doesn’t want to be happier and more joyful?

Knowing who brings you happiness means you can create more time to spend with these very special people.

You want to be spending as much time as possible with those who bring out the best in you. The more you bring out the best in yourself, the more you can bring out the best in others.

iv. Are you happy with where you spent your time over the past 12 weeks?

Time is so precious – we all have 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks in a year but nobody knows how many years we have.

This realisation always makes me so determined to live life to the fullest every single day and that means spending my time where I am happy spending it.

Where did your precious time go over the past 12 weeks?

Are you happy with where your time was spent over the past 12 weeks?

Are you fully enjoying every minute of your days, weeks, months?

That’s Step 1 of your Personal 12 Week Review done!

2. Step 2 is all about what didn’t work well for you in the past 12 weeks

i. What didn’t go well over the past 12 weeks

What didn’t go your way in the past 12 weeks?

What happened that you didn’t enjoy?

What didn’t go to plan?

What is holding you back from living your best life?

Challenges and obstacles are a normal part of life.

No matter how much we plan, no matter how much we try to control our plans there are times when things just don’t go our way. Acknowledgment and acceptance of this fact is the first step to turning challenges & obstacles into opportunities.

Acknowledging when things don’t work out takes bravery and courage and also an understanding that it is completely normal.

How can you acknowledge and accept what doesn’t work out for you and understand this is all part of your path?

ii. What obstacles got in your way?

Looking back at the past 12 weeks, were there obstacles that got in your way? Did you get in your own way?

Obstacles & challenges can turn into opportunities for success if we take the time to evaluate and learn from them.

The question to ask here is what can you do to eliminate these obstacles & challenges and if you can’t eliminate them how can you think about them differently?

We all have compete control over our thoughts and just reframing things in our mind can turn obstacles & challenges into opportunities for success.

Dr Wayne Dyer’s book ‘Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life’ teaches us that all we have to do to change what is not going well in our lives is to think differently about it. A most profound book, I highly recommend it.

iii. What didn’t bring you joy and happiness in the past 12 weeks?

Happiness and unhappiness go hand in hand. No human life is devoid of unhappiness just like no human life is devoid of happiness.

Acceptance of this goes a long way to find out what exactly makes us unhappy.

When were you at your unhappiest over the past 12 weeks? Think about what you were doing, who were you with, where were you?

Knowing what makes us unhappy allows us to think deeper about the role certain people, situations, interactions and places play in our levels of happiness.

There is no such thing as the perfect life that is happy all the time, however there is a level of contentment and inner peace that can be reached by understanding what takes our happiness & joy away and working to avoid, eliminate or understand more about this.

What could you have done to understand and alleviate your unhappiness?

iii. Where would you have liked to have spent more time over the past 12 weeks?

Where would you have liked to have spent more time over the past 12 weeks?

Think about all of the key areas of your life from your Wheel of Life – did you spend too much time in some areas and not enough in others?

What areas would you have liked to have spent more time in?

How balanced is your life in terms of where you spend your time?

That’s Step 2 of your Personal 12 Week Review done!

3. Step 3 is all about what you learned in the key areas of your life

The only way we grow and evolve as humans is by learning more and by turning these learnings into action that propels us forward.

Reflect on the questions below to understand what you learned over the past 12 weeks in all of the key areas of your life.

Sense of Self – What did you learn about yourself? How did you grow and evolve as a person? Have you dedicated time to personal development? What did you learn about your relationship with yourself, has your relationship with yourself improved?

Relationships – What did you learn about your relationship with others, has your relationship with others improved? Are there relationships you want but don’t have? Are there relationships you have but don’t want?

Health is Wealth – What did you learn about your physical, mental, emotional & spiritual health? Did your physical, mental, emotional & spiritual health improve?

Work – What did you learn about your work? Are you growing and developing in your work? Has your work moved forward and improved?

Finance – What did you learn about personal finance? Did your personal finance improve?

Fun/Experiences – What did you learn about fun & experiences? How can you bring more fun into your life? What experiences have you enjoyed? What experiences have you not enjoyed?

Environment – What did you learn about your environment? Did your environment improve? For me environment relates to my home and also our planet, both are of immense importance to me and bring me happiness and joy.

Contribution – What did you learn about contribution? Did you make the world a better place by giving your time, money or skills? Giving doesn’t have to be grand gestures, giving in the smallest possible way can often be the most impactful.

That’s Step 3 of your Personal 12 Week Review done!

4. Step 4 is about learning more about personal goal setting & reviewing.

i. Do you set personal annual, quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily goals?

Yes – great, are you reaching these goals daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually?

No – why not? What is keeping you from setting & reaching your personal goals?

ii. Do you celebrate and learn from your successes?

Yes – great, keep celebrating every single success, no matter how small! Look out for the small successes, they really are the big things!

No – when are you going to start celebrating your successes, each and every one of them, each and every day?

iii. Do you reflect on and learn from your challenges?

Yes – great, keep reflecting and learning. Reflecting on what happens and what doesn’t happen is one of the most powerful ways we can learn.

No – when are you going to start reflecting and learning from your challenges, each and every one of them, each and every day?

iv.How do you like to learn about personal goal setting and reviewing?

It’s one thing setting goals, working towards them and reviewing progress. It’s another thing to continue to learn about what you want from your life and how to achieve that.

Do you like learning about yourself and your life? Learning is the key to success as you are the only person who can bring success into your life.

What is your preferred way of learning – through books, podcasts, courses, videos, mentors, coaches, your work, observing the world, observing others, observing yourself, through reflection?

Whatever your preferred way of learning is, make sure it is part of your daily plans for the next 12 weeks.

Download your ’12 Week Review Workbook’ below – this will sign you up to my emails where I share resources and learnings every week.

That’s Step 4 of your Personal 12 Week Review done.

I wish you success, health and happiness as you look back at the past 12 weeks and even more success, health and happiness as you look forward to the next 12 weeks.

Want to join my weekly newsletter?

If so download my free ebook ‘The A-Z of Effective Change’ below and you are all signed up!

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

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How To Get SERIOUS About Your Goals!

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Image Credit: Madhuri Gupta

Following on from my previous blog post ‘A Guide To Your Mid Year Personal Review’,

Step 5 of your Mid Year Review is getting SERIOUS about your GOALS for the next 6 months.

This is my favourite part of the Mid Year Review as it is where you take your learnings from the first 4 steps and turn them into PURPOSEFUL PERSONAL GOALS!

So how do you set PURPOSEFUL PERSONAL GOALS for the rest of 2022?

Here are six simple steps to Personal Goal Setting.

1.Buy notebook – I highly recommend physically writing your goals down, if you don’t write your goals down somewhere it’s very easy to forget them and not be accountable to them. Henriette Anne Klauser’s excellent book ‘Write It Down, Make It Happen’ explains the science behind writing down your goals and their increased chance of success.

2. Divide your life into categories, this creates your Wheel of Life. If you can’t think of categories you can use my Wheel of Life below or your own version of it. The categories of my life are Relationships, Health & Fitness, Personal Development, Career/Work/Purpose, Finance, Social Life/Recreation, Environment & Contribution.

3. Set goals for each area of your life with the timeline of the end of December 2022. Don’t forget to DREAM BIG as Robin Sharma advises. (Document these in your notebook)

4. Work on your goals EVERY DAY (Document what you do in your notebook)

5. Review your goals EVERY DAY (Document your progress in your notebook)

6. Celebrate and acknowledge progress of your goals EVERY DAY (Document this in your notebook)

The above will build a habit of working on, documenting and reviewing progress of your goals EVERY DAY.

This gives your goals the best chance of success and will ensure you are learning about goal setting, achieving and reviewing EVERY SINGLE DAY.

The acronym SERIOUS can support you to set goals for the rest of 2022 in all of the key areas of your life.

Go through your Wheel of Life (or use mine) and ask yourself the following questions for each of the key areas of your life,

S = STOP

What will you stop doing that is not supporting you?

Do you have habits that you want to stop?

Do you have behaviours that you want to stop?

E = ENGAGE

Who do you need to engage with to support you?

Are there relationships you need to give more time to?

Are there relationships you need to give less time to?

Do you need to find a coach and/or mentor?

R = REMOVE

What do you physically need to remove from your life/work/business?

What do you mentally/emotionally need to remove like beliefs & stories you tell yourself?

What do you need to remove electronically – electronic space also takes up mental headspace!

If your life is full, there is no room for anything else to enter!

I = IMPROVE

What will you improve in each area of your life?

What is working for you that you want to build on?

What parts of your life do you love that you want more of?

O = OPEN YOUR MIND

How will you open your mind, grow, evolve and move out of your comfort zone?

Your comfort zone is exactly that – comfortable.

There is no growth there, you will only grow by moving outside of your comfort zone.

What do you need to learn about to move you out of your comfort zone?

U = UNDERSTAND

How will you understand more about each area of your life?

How will you understand more about yourself?

How will you understand more about others?

S = START

What will you start?

Our lives are already overflowing with busy and so to start something new, we need to create the precious time, space and energy to do so.

It’s better to focus on everything else in SERIOUS (especially STOP & REMOVE) so you can create the physical, mental and emotional time & space to start something new!

That’s it, answer these quick & easy questions to get SERIOUS about PERSONAL GOAL SETTING in every area of your life for the rest of 2022.

Whether this was your first time setting Personal Goals or you have been doing this for many years, I hope you learn something new during your Personal Goal setting process.

More importantly, I hope you TAKE ACTION!

Goal setting is only as good as the ACTION YOU TAKE.

I wish you happiness, joy, success and purposeful, positive change for the rest of 2022 and beyond.

If you missed my post on ‘A Guide To Your Mid Year Personal Review’, you can find it here,

‘A Guide To Your Mid Year Personal Review’

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

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5 Reasons to Prioritise Your 12 Week Review

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Image Credit: Madhuri Gupta

When you start doing quarterly reviews you start to realise just how fast 3 months go by.

The end of each quarter is a super time to look back and reflect on how things went in the past quarter and plan for the quarter ahead.

Having a personal strategy is all about creating an amazing, fulfilled, purposeful and meaningful life. Your personal strategy is only as good as the reviews you do and the changes you make as a result of these reviews.

When personal strategy and the goals you have set, the quarterly review can be the most important. It certainly is my favourite review because it’s a deep dive into progress of goals and there is way more progress quarterly than can be seen daily, weekly and monthly which is always motivating.

As humans we are wired to perform better when we are making progress which is why reflection & reviews are so important. You may not think you are making progress in your life & work but you are probably making way more progress than you think!

On reflection, this will become very clear!

BUT FIRST – WHY!

WHY should you carry out a 12 Week Review?

Simon Sinek is famous for his brilliant TED Talk ‘How great leaders inspire action’ with over 13 million views on YouTube. In this video, Simon talks about the importance of knowing your ‘WHY’ in terms of everything you do.

When it comes to everything in your life, your WHY is the first step to success!

Here are 5 reasons WHY I think your 12 Week Review deserves to be your priority,

1. It slows you down and gives you time & space to think

We live in an extremely fast paced world and we seem to be so busy all the time.

Reflection of any kind allows us to stop moving forward, to be still in the present moment and to give the necessary time and space required to learn from the past.

Not to dwell on or judge the past, but to take the learnings from it to move forward with more knowledge, focus, intention, purpose, motivation & understanding of what our priorities are.

When was the last time you took a few hours to look back and reflect on your life & work?

Do you give yourself the gift of sufficient time & space to reflect regularly and learn from reflection?

2. It allows you to acknowledge, appreciate and celebrate your successes

Do you celebrate all your wins & successes or do you move through life at the speed of light, not acknowledging, appreciating and celebrating your success?

We make progress in our lives & work all day EVERY SINGLE DAY yet we are sometimes so busy & focused on getting things done that we don’t see all of these wins and successes.

Carrying out your 12 Week Review gives you the time and space to acknowledge, appreciate and celebrate the progress you have made in the past 12 weeks.

This in turn will get you thinking about all of the amazing wins and successes you have EVERY SINGLE DAY of which we all have so many.

3. It allows you to understand what contributes to your success and take action to create more

There are many reasons why we are successful at some things and not so successful at others.

Have you ever sat down and reflected on your successes and really thought about how they happened.

Was it something you did?

Was it something you got support with?

Was it something that happened quickly or something that took a long time?

Was it a bit of pot luck or did you plan meticulously for it?

When we understand what contributes to our success, we can replicate & build on this to bring us more success.

Success has a different meaning for everyone as we all live different lives, are at different stages and have different priorities.

Reflecting on success supports you to learn more about exactly what success means to you so you can create an action plan that will build on the success you already enjoy!

4. It allows you to acknowledge challenges that got in the way of your success

Things don’t always work out how we plan or how we want them to.

Even the best plans don’t work out, this is a normal part of life and work.

Acknowledging your challenges/obstacles is the first step to learning about them and overcoming them.

This in turn ensures you don’t come up against them again and if you do, you are better prepared.

Sometimes we don’t want to face our challenges/obstacles let alone reflect on and review them, however it is from our challenges/obstacles that we can learn so much and grow and evolve as human beings!

5. It allows you to understand what contributed to these challenges and turn these into successes

Challenges and obstacles are a normal part of life and work, it is how we deal with them that determines our ability to overcome them.

Understanding what caused the challenges and obstacles goes a long way to dealing with and overcoming them in a healthy way.

Challenges/obstacles are a constant companion on the road to your goals and are your stepping stones to success. Llearning from them makes stepping over those stones that bit easier!

Taking action from what you learn will turn challenges/obstacles into opportunities!

What can you learn from the challenges you experienced over the past 12 weeks?

What action can you take to turn your challenges into successes?

That’s it, the 5 Reasons to Prioritise Your 12 Week Review.

I wish you success, health and happiness as you look back at the past 12 weeks and even more success, health and happiness as you look forward to the next 12 weeks.

Want to join my weekly newsletter?

If so download my free ebook ‘The A-Z of Effective Change’ below and you are all signed up!

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

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Annual Review 2020

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Image Credit: Immo Wegmann (Unsplash)

In the Lean/Continuous Improvement world we carry out ‘Hansei’ which is Japanese for ‘Self-Reflection’. Hansei allows us to review & reflect on our goals to evaluate what worked so we can celebrate & build on the successes and also evaluate what didn’t work so we can adjust and change direction.

I have been carrying out a personal annual review (Hansei/Self Reflection) for many years and find it hard to believe this is the 8th year I have published this review online. See annual reviews from past years at the end of this blog post.

2020 has been a year like no other on a global scale. Who could have thought a pandemic would sweep through our beautiful planet and bring life as we know it to a halt and do so much damage in terms of loss of life and other devastating losses.

Just like all change, planned or unplanned, welcome or unwelcome, a new reality emerges and we adjust to it. The resilience, adaptability and drive of our human spirt supported us to get through 2020 and gives us hope for 2021 and beyond.

In Leo Varadkar’s address to our nation on St Patrick’s Day, he said that ‘not all super heroes wear capes’, referring to the healthcare workers and other front line workers that kept our country functioning during the pandemic. From looking after our sick and vulnerable, to putting food on our table to delivering our post, these frontline workers are the real heroes of 2020. All credit and gratitude is owed to these people, I am deeply grateful to each and every one of them for keeping us all safe so we could live through this pandemic and rejoice in the fact that we get to ring in a New Year. This is a luxury denied to many this year. Thoughts and prayers are with those who lost loved ones this year to Covid 19 or any other reasons. The finality of death is almost incomprehensible.

My plans for 2020 changed dramatically in March as I’m sure yours did. Plans changed, work changed, socialising changed, when we could see our family & friends changed, our sense of freedom changed, communication changed – everything we regarded as normal changed. And everything continued to change throughout 2020, it was the year of immense change – and yet, we all got through it.

Whatever 2020 brought you, I hope you find time to reflect on your year, leave behind what doesn’t serve you and bring into 2021 everything that will make 2021 your best year ever.

Here’s my annual review of the year like no other, 2020,

As always, Mike, my family and my friends are my reason for everything. and the source of most of my happiness. Even though we were in lockdown and in varying degrees of restrictions, I spent loads of time with Mike and my family this year. I have been working from home since March and so removing the long commute from my day and working reduced hours gave me precious time to spend with those I love. Every minute with our loved ones is precious and, as we were in and out of lockdown, this time has become even more precious. This time together was spent at a slower pace as we weren’t trying to pack so much into 2 short days at the weekend. They say everything has a silver lining, for me this was definitely the silver lining for 2020, more quality time with loved ones and less rushing and racing around trying to get everything done. I will be bringing this slower, less stressful, more peaceful way of life with me into 2021.

I didn’t see my friends as much I would have done in previous years and as much as I would have liked. I have missed them and look forward to the day that a night out or a weekend away becomes the normal thing to do again.

I hope you and your loved ones remained safe during 2020, we have more work to do to ensure this in 2021. Here’s hoping we get Covid 19 under control and return to the freedom to see our family & friends that we had pre 2020.

There is no truer saying than health is wealth.

I have always been aware of the importance of physical, mental, emotional, & spiritual health and over the past few years, for many reasons, this awareness has been brought to a deeper level.

Without all elements of our health nothing else matters. Spending time to learn what health means to us and how we can improve & optimise our health is time well spent. As we are all unique, what works for one person may not work for another and so it’s important to understand what works for you, what optimises your health, what makes you happy and what brings you joy.

With more time at home this year and more time on my own I learned a huge amount about myself and what supports my physical, mental, emotional, & spiritual health. The more I learn about myself, the more I accept myself which goes a long way to keeping my mental health strong and stable. This is not work that a personal trainer or anyone else can do for us, it is inner work – work that that can only be done by ourselves, at our own pace and in our own time.

I had more time for exercising this year and have loved walking and running around the beautiful countryside where I live in Knockaderry. This gives me time to listen to my favourite podcasts and audio books which is also a great way to strengthen & stabilise my mental health. Towards the end of 2020, I started learning about nutrition and macros and have developed a new found respect for food and my relationship with it. This is thanks to Munro Fitness and Jason Munro for his fact based learning, no nonsense, just do it attitude and support. Gratitude to my friend Vicky Baker who introduced me to Jason and Munro Fitness.

I regard learning a key element in keeping my mental health strong and stable. I love learning and the more I learn the less I realise I know! This year I learned loads and gained more clarity about who I am and what I want from life. I learn from many different sources and in many different ways including,

Books – my goal this year was to read 2 books a month, 24 in total. I didn’t reach this goal but did read 20 amazing books and learned so much from each one. I’m currently finalising my blog post on my ‘Top 20 books of 2020’ and will share it with you as soon as it is finished.
Podcasts – I started listening to more podcasts this year. My top 6 podcasts are Untapped by Natalie Sisson, The Mindset Mentor by Rob Dial, Online Marketing Made Easy by Amy Porterfield, The Jocko Podcast by Jocko Willink, The Brendon Show by Brendon Burchard & The Marie Forleo Podcast by Marie Forleo.
Mentors & inspirational people online – there are so many people that I follow online that that I learn from in all areas of life. Including all of the above whose podcasts I listen to, I learn from everyone I’m connected with online (& offline). Everyone is inspiring in their own way and everyone has something to teach us.
‘Launch Your Damn Course Accelerator’ by Natalie Sisson was the first online course I have ever taken. This was a huge learning curve for me and pushed me far outside my comfort zone. In saying that, I loved this course so much I went through it twice!!

Physical, mental, emotional, & spiritual health is a journey and just like any other journey, it’s important to keep learning and keep moving forward no matter the pace!!

Here’s to a healthier year for us all!

Every year I learn more and more about personal finance and every year I wish personal finance was a subject I learned in school, it certainly would have saved me much trial and error. Learning about personal finance at a young age would set up young people for a healthy and prosperous relationship with money.

Just like health, finance is a journey of which learning & understanding are constant companions.

Even though my earnings were down this year, the time I gained was far more valuable than any income. Where and with who I spent this valuable time meant more to me than anything money can buy. How ironic is it that money of which we spend so much of our time earning cannot buy that time back or any of the most important things in life – for me being relationships and health!

I have listened to the audible version of Tony Robbins excellent book ‘Money Master the Game – 7 Simple Steps To Financial Freedom’ many times and with each listen I continue to learn more about financial freedom. Tony is a master when it comes to finance and in this book he not only shares his own wisdom but also leverages the wisdom of many of the world’s finest financial advisors to share their advice, insights and experience. Tony’s book is written in an easy to understand format for all levels of financial understanding which is why I like it so much. I listened to this book again this year and learned more about and moved a few steps closer to financial freedom which is my long term goal.

If you want to learn more about and improve your personal finance I highly recommend this book. It’s not a quick read but it is totally worth the time.

In 2020 everything changed dramatically for me in terms of my work, writing, business & brand.

Lean is a business philosophy that I follow at work & in my personal life and that I write about on my blog ‘The Art of Positive Change’. Similar to previous years, this year I again became even more aware of the power and necessity of a Lean culture/strategy in business.

In terms of my day job, I moved to a 4 day week in January to achieve a better work/life balance and give more to my writing. After March, due to the pandemic, I moved to a 3 day week which I am currently on. This meant I had more time for writing etc which is where I spent most of my free time. This focused time resulted in the following,

I wrote and launched my very first e-book. This is a huge milestone for me as I have wanted to write an e-book for many years. You can download my e-book for free here ‘A-Z of Effective Change’.

I published more blog posts this year than I have ever published since I started blogging in 2012 which resulted in my blog views being higher this year than the previous 3 years combined.

I created and launched my first online course which was a Masterclass on ‘How to Create Your Personal Vision’. Gratitude to all the fabulous girls who attended, you all made it so enjoyable. Learning how to create, launch and promote an online course was a huge learning curve for me and took me way outside of my comfort zone. Thanks to Natalie Sisson and her amazing course ‘Launch Your Damn Course Accelerator’ for making it possible. If you are interested in launching your own online course in 2021, sign up for Natalie’s course, I cannot recommend it highly enough.

I joined Natalie Sisson’s 10K Club which is a business mastermind club for female entrepreneurs designed to get you to hit 10K months! I have only been in the club 2 months but am loving every minute of it. I have been following Natalie online for about 10 years and am thrilled to finally get to work closely with her. The group of entrepreneurs in the club are all so talented, passionate, inspirational and supportive, it’s a wonderful club to be a part of. If you are a female entrepreneur and want to bring your business/brand to the next level check out Natalie’s 10K Club.

Before the pandemic hit, Mike and I spent a fabulous weekend in the beautiful Inchydoney Island Lodge & Spa which was lovely and so relaxing. In January, I went on my annual ski trip with my friends Karin, Shelly and Ailbhe. The fresh air and the excellent company on and off the slopes was food for the soul!

Staycationing was the thing to do in 2020 and I spent many weeks staycationing with my parents in my hometown of Kilfinane, I enjoyed this time at home with my family immensely.

I look forward to the day we can travel the world again, in the meantime we can enjoy the beauty & company on our doorsteps and no matter how far we travel from our homes ensure we all stay safe and keep those we love and the world at large safe.

Travel and Photography are a big part of my life and 2020 was to be a year of an epic travel trip! I was due to join my friend Katie Anderson and other Lean enthusiasts on Katie’s ‘Lean Study Trip’ in Japan for a week in May. I was then to spend 3 weeks travelling around Japan. My summer was to be filled with editing images, creating a Travel Photography book on Japan and adding Japan Fine Art Prints to my portfolio. As all of our travel plans did, my travel plans went on hold and are still, for the foreseeable future, on hold!

Japan, like all of our holiday destinations, will be there when the world becomes safe again.

I had also planned to launch a new Travel Photography website in 2020 but those plans also went on hold. I didn’t renew the hosting of my current Travel Photography website which was a hard decision to make but it is 7 years old and needed a lot of work to upgrade it. I’m looking forward to working on my new Travel Photography website when the time is right.

I have been supporting 4 main charities for many years. Year on year I try to give more to each charity whether this is monetary support or volunteering my time. This year I gave more to charity than I have done in previous years as more was needed due to fundraising efforts being impacted by Covid 19.

That’s it, my 2020 in review.

As with all annual reviews, looking back and reviewing my year brings pride in what I have achieved but also many lessons learned and things I would like to do differently that I will bring into 2021.

Want to carry out your own annual review? You can download my free ‘2020 Personal Annual Review’ template which will walk you through the 3 simple steps I use to do my review. It’s so useful to learn from the year gone and bring these learnings into the New Year to make it your best year yet!

Thank you for reading my blog posts and your kind words during 2020, I really appreciate your support. I hope whatever 2020 brought you that you can build on & learn from it to make 2021 your best year ever. May 2021 bring you and your loved ones health, happiness and prosperity.

Thanks for reading, stay safe,

Siobhain

x x x

Note: The system I use for my annual review is a work in progress and evolves year on year. When I first carried out my annual review I started with a template used by my friend and inspiration Chris Guillebeau. If you are interested in starting your own annual review, here is Chris’s guidelines on How To Conduct your own Annual Review.

My previous annual reviews can be found below,

Annual Review 2013 Annual Review 2014 Annual Review 2015 Annual Review 2016

Annual Review 2017 Annual Review 2018 Annual Review 2019

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Annual Review 2019

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In the Lean/Continuous Improvement world we carry out ‘Hansei’ which is Japanese for ‘Self-Reflection’. Hansei allows us to review & reflect on our goals (personal and professional) to evaluate what worked so we can build on the successes and evaluate what didn’t work so we can adjust and change direction.

I have been carrying out an ‘Annual Hansei/Review’ for many years and find it hard to believe this is the 7th year I have published this review online. See Annual Reviews from past years at the end of this blog post.

A large part of me didn’t want to do this year’s Annual Review as I would prefer to look forward to 2020 than to look back at 2019. Parts of 2019 were amazing, and parts were beyond sad. My uncle and one of my best friends passed away in Oct/Nov and everything else that happened in 2019 paled into insignificance.

Losing people you love is hard for many reasons and even if someone has been ill it is still so unexpected and completely unwelcome. It is an inevitable destination for us all but still yet so incomprehensible.

And so, with trepidation, here is my Annual Review for 2019. As always, Mike, my family and my friends are my reason for everything. and the source of most of my happiness.

Lean is a business philosophy that I follow at work & in my personal life and that I write about here on my blog.

I had 3 ‘Lean’ highlights this year,

1. I travelled to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia on two trips to teach (and learn) Lean Principles & Leadership to the 2018 & 2019 classes of Riyadh Airport Future Leaders. These groups of young and inspirational Future Leaders taught me more than I could ever teach them. I am grateful to all at daa International for this opportunity esp. my friends Debbie Kearns for looking after me so well and all of the Riyadh Airports Future Leaders for welcoming me to their beautiful country and sharing their knowledge with me.

2. I wrote an e-book on ‘Positive Change’ All going well I will be launching it early in 2020. The e-book is a compilation of blog posts from a blog series I wrote in 2019/2019, you can view the blog posts here ‘The A-Z Of Effective Change’

3. I am fascinated by Japan and all things Japanese and in 2020 I am finally getting to tick Japan off my ‘to visit’ list. I have booked a place on Katie Anderson’s ‘Lean Study Trip’ in May 2020 and will be sharing the journey with you here on my blog and through social media

Similar to 2018, in 2019 I became more aware of the power and necessity of a Lean Culture in business. Respect for & development of people is truly the only way to grow and sustain businesses. Lacking these people focused elements and treating people poorly will ensure your company is one that people cannot wait to leave and are in no hurry to join, leaving your company moral on a downward spiral with your profits following closely behind.

In terms of Travel and Photography, my friend’s Karin and Paula enjoyed a few days skiing in the Italian Alps in February. I’m not the best skier but the fresh air and the excellent company on the slopes was food for the soul!

I visited Riyadh with work twice in 2019. My blog post on ‘The Top 5 Reasons To Visit Saudi Arabia’ was my most viewed blog post of 2019. I cannot recommend Saudi Arabia highly enough as somewhere to visit and now that it has opened to tourism, there has never been a better time.

My Mom and I spent 2 fabulous weeks on the islands of Malta and Gozo in September. I would highly recommend both islands as places to visit, you can read more about them on my blog posts,

The Top 5 Things To Do in Malta

The Top 5 Things To Do in Gozo

I enjoyed working with my gorgeous family and friends on photo shoots this year, it is always a joy to work with those you love.

Like most things in life, the more I learn about social media the more I realise I don’t know. Social media changes every day and so there is always much to keep up to date with.

In 2019 I continued to post about Travel and Photography and Positive Change on my blogs,

‘The Photographer’s Guide To Travel’

‘The Art Of Positive Change’

Blog posts on ‘The Art Of Positive Change’ were categorised into 3 areas of interest,

Thoughts On Change – my thoughts on both personal and professional change
Tools Of The Change Trade – useful tools I recommend for personal/professional change
Book Reviews – reviews of books I love

Throughout 2019 I continued to post daily positive quotes to various social media platforms which helped me learn more about posting, scheduling and outsourcing on social media. I created ‘The Quotes Store’ on Flickr where you can download albums of these positive quotes for your own use.

I continued to work with the brilliant cartoonist Andy Kefford who created the cartoons of ‘Pinky the Positive Pig’, the star of my 26 part blog post series ‘The Complete A-Z Of Effective Change’ of which my new e-book is based. I look forward to sharing our new writing project with you later in 2020!

I love writing on my blogs and I learned over the past couple of years is that not only do you need to build skills to write content, but you also need to find the time to think about, write, edit, publish and market this content. I struggled to find enough time for writing last year (as I did in 2018) and so this is a real focus area for me for 2020.

I have always been aware of the importance of physical and mental health. 2019, for many reasons, brought this awareness to another level.

Keeping our physical and mental health in peak shape is required for everything else in our lives to function. Working to look after our physical and mental health should be the top priority in our lives and a daily practice to ensure same.

I wish you and your loved ones excellent physical and mental health in 2020.

In 2019 I continued to improve my financial habits by learning from Tony Robbins book ‘Money Master the Game – 7 Simple Steps To Financial Freedom’. Tony is a master when it comes to finance and in this book he not only shares his own wisdom but also leverages the wisdom of many of the world’s finest financial advisors to share their advice, insights and experience. Tony’s book is written in an easy to understand format for all levels of financial understanding which is why I like it so much.

Like all habits, my financial habits are a work in progress.

It’s nice to give back. I have been supporting various charities for many years. Year on year I try to give more to each charity whether this is monetary support or volunteering my time. This is something I will continue with and build on in 2020.

That’s it, 2019 in review, albeit a little less detailed than previous years.

Here’s to 2020, may the New Year (and the new decade) bring you and your loved ones health, happiness and prosperity,

Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

x x x

Note: The system I use for my Annual Review is a work in progress and evolves year on year. When I first carried out my Annual Review I started with a template used by Chris Guillebeau. If you are interested in starting your own Annual Review, here is Chris’s guidelines on How To Conduct your own Annual Review and his Annual Review Template.

My previous Annual Reviews can be found below,

Annual Review 2013 Annual Review 2014 Annual Review 2015

Annual Review 2016 Annual Review 2017

Annual Review 2018

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Annual Review 2018

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It’s that time of year again, time to reflect on what the year has brought us and time to look forward and plan for the unknown future. Time to be grateful that we are still here to experience and enjoy life, time to carry out the Annual Review. In the Lean/Continuous Improvement world we carry out ‘Hansei’ which is Japanese (反射) for ‘Self-Reflection’. Hansei allows us to review goals (personal and professional) and reflect on how they went to see what worked so we can build on the successes and see what didn’t work so we can adjust and change direction.

I have been carrying out a ‘Hansei’ or Annual Review for many years now and find it hard to believe this is the 6th year I have published this review online. Time really does go very fast! See Annual Reviews from past years below,

Annual Review 2013 Annual Review 2014 Annual Review 2015

Annual Review 2016 Annual Review 2017

2018 wasn’t a bad year but I did find it very challenging for many different reasons. In turn these challenges had a counterproductive impact on the goals I set in all areas of my life. I reached very few targets and 2018 was probably my least productive year in many years. In saying that I learned more lessons this year than many previous years and so it was more of a learning year than a productive year! In his amazing book ‘The Power of Now’, Eckhart Tolle talks about cycles of low and high energy that we all go through. 2018 was for me definitely a year of low energy, which if I look on the bright side means 2019 will most certainly be a year of high energy!

In the Lean world when things don’t work out as planned (as they often don’t) we always evaluate why things didn’t work out, what lessons we can take and how we can do things better. I will keep this Lean philosophy very much in mind as i set goals for 2019.

But for now, here is my Annual Review for 2018 – as always Mike, my family and my friends are my reason for everything. and the source of much of my happiness.

I continue to work for and enjoy my role with daa implementing Lean Strategy & Culture. As with my personal life, my professional life seemed to be about learning lots of lessons this year. The highlight of my year was traveling to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia to train Riyadh Airport colleagues on the principles of Lean and Project Management. This was an incredible opportunity & trip thanks to my amazing friend Debbie Kearns. I loved every minute of my time in Riyadh and hold dear memories of the people I met, the food, the culture and the 42C heat!

In 2018 I became even more convinced of the power and necessity of Lean Culture in business. Respect for and development of people is truly the only way to grow and sustain businesses to what they are capable of becoming. Lacking these people focused elements and treating people poorly will ensure your company is one that people cannot wait to leave and are in no hurry to join, leaving your company moral on a downward spiral with your profits following closely behind.

In terms of personal goals, 2018 was my second year using the principles and structures of Hoshin Kanri (Lean Strategy Deployment) to set, monitor, action and review personal goals and objectives. These systems and structure give me more visibility into progress of goals and in 2018 highlighted so many areas of my life that need focus, attention and/or change.

This blog is where I share thoughts, information and resources on Lean and Positive Change. One of my goals for 2018 was to write and publish a blog post a week (52 in total). I didn’t reach this goal as I completely underestimated how much time it takes to create, edit and publish blog posts. I did manage to publish 24 blog posts which is the same number as last year and the most I have published in any year. Better luck next year!

I continued to work with the brilliant cartoonist Andy Kefford who creates the cartoons of ‘Pinky the Positive Pig’ who is the star of my 26 part blog post series ‘The A-Z of Effective Change’. You can view all of the published blog posts in this series here ‘The Complete A-Z Of Effective Change’. Andy, Pinky and I are currently working on a new writing project which will be launched early in 2019!

In terms of travel, Mike and I enjoyed weekends away around Ireland during the year and a fabulous week in Rome at the end of November. I dusted off my skiing skills and joined my mates Karin and Paula for a fun few days on the German slopes in February. In June my fabulous sister in law, Aoife turned 40 and we celebrated with a family holiday in Lanzarote. As mentioned above I travelled to Saudi Arabia with work and loved every minute of my trip.

I’m way behind with editing images from trips in 2018 and 2017. This is another area that needs more focus in 2019. A little later than planned I published ‘The Top 5 Things To Do In Dubai’ following my trip to Dubal with my Mom in 2017.

I enjoyed working with my gorgeous family and friends on photo shoots this year and have a few already booked in for 2019. It is always a joy to work with those you love.

If you are new to my Travel Photography work you can view my images here on my website ‘www.siodanphoto.com’ and read my Travel Photography blog posts on my blog ‘The Photographer’s Guide To Travel’.

Like most things in life, the more I learn about social media and online marketing the more I realise I don’t know. Social media changes each and every day and so there is always much to learn.

As mentioned above I published 24 blog posts this year which helped moved my social media metrics in the right direction. I’m not a professional writer nor do I have any formal training as a writer. What i have learned over the past couple of years is that not only do you need to build skills to write content but you also need to find the time to think, write, edit, publish and market content. Finding the time to write, edit , publish and market is where I struggled last year and is a real focus area for me in 2019.

Throughout most of 2018 I continued to post daily inspirational quotes to various social media platforms which helped me learn more about posting, scheduling and outsourcing on social media.

Social media and online tools are constantly changing and it is a job in itself to keep up with these changes. It’s as challenging as it is fascinating and I look forward to learning and sharing more in 2019.

I take both my physical and mental health very seriously as I firmly believe the popular Irish saying ‘your health is your wealth’. Knowing what nurtures or challenges my physical & mental health allows me to make decisions to protect both.

I try to eat healthy and exercise regularly but I find I need to work much harder as the years go by. We all know that eating healthy and exercising is all we need to do to be fit and healthy – if it were as simple as this I’d be size 8 with abs of steel! This has always been a work in progress area for me and will continue to be a focus for 2019.

To keep my mind/spirit active and healthy I read as much as I can. My goal was to read a new book every 2 weeks this year (26 in total) but I didn’t get near this goal reading just 13 new books. I did however read some books many times. Ironically my favourite book this year was ‘Black Box Thinking’ by Matthew Syed. This book highlights the inevitability of failure and subsequent learnings from failure on the path to success. Matthew’s writing is genius as he explores learning from failure that ultimately leads to success in the Aviation, Healthcare and Criminal Justice worlds.

In 2018 even though I didn’t reach many of my personal goals in this area I am much more aware of what actions are required to reach these goals and the discipline needed to consistently take this action.

Every year my goals include understanding more about personal & business finance. In this quest every year I re-read Tony Robbins book ‘Money Master the Game – 7 Simple Steps To Financial Freedom’. Tony is a master when it comes to finance and in this book he not only shares his own wisdom but also leverages the wisdom of many of the world’s finest financial advisors to share their advice, insights and experience. Tony’s book is written in an easy to understand format for all levels of wealth which is why I like it so much.

This year I monitored income, spending and savings much more closely than I have done in previous years. Like many people I am not what you would call ‘good with money’ and I need to work much harder on this than I had previously anticipated.

It’s nice to give back. I have been supporting various charities for many years and year on year I try to give more to each charity whether this is monetary support or volunteering my time. This is something I will continue with and build on in 2019.

That’s it, 2018 in review. When I look back on 2018 I do so with gratitude. Gratitude for all the amazing people in my life and gratitude for the lessons 2018 has taught me no matter how hard some of these lessons were to learn. I look forward to ringing in the New Year and seeing what 2019 has in store!

Thank you to everyone who shares this journey with me, each and every one of you have a had a positive impact on my life. A special and heartfelt thank you to my boyfriend Mike, my family and my friends for everything – you are the reason for it all.

Here’s to a super 2019 – may the New Year bring you health, happiness and prosperity.

Thanks for reading, with love,

Siobhain

x x x

Note: The system I use for my annual review is still a work in progress and evolves year on year as my own life evolves. When I first carried out my annual review I started with a template shared and used by Chris Guillebeau. If you are interested in starting your own annual review, here is Chris Guillebeau’s How To Conduct your own Annual Review. This is a great read and highlights how powerful planning and reviewing can be.

Chris’s updated annual review template can be found here – Annual Review Template, I used this initially then changed and modified it over the years. Chris is a very inspirational guy which is why I follow him on social media and I travelled all the way to Oslo a few years ago to attend his celebration of visiting every country in the world.

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ANNUAL REVIEW 2017

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It’s that time of year again, time to look back reflecting on what last year brought us and time to look forward and plan for the unknown future. Time to be grateful that we are still here to experience and enjoy life, time to carry out the Annual Review.

In the Lean/Continuous Improvement world we carry out ‘Hansei’ which is Japanese (反射) for ‘Self-Reflection’. Hansei allows us to review goals (personal and professional) and reflect on how they went to see what worked so we can build on the successes and see what didn’t work so we can adjust and change direction.

I have been carrying out a ‘Hansei’ or Annual Review for many years now and find it hard to believe this is the 5th year I have published this review online. Time really does go very fast! See Annual Reviews from past years below,

Annual Review 2013 Annual Review 2014 Annual Review 2015 Annual Review 2016

As always Mike, my family and my friends are my reason for everything. By far the most exciting thing that happened to my family this year was my younger brother Declan and his beautiful wife Aoife welcomed my gorgeous niece Ayla Danaher to the world, a wonderful addition to our ever-growing family.

Here goes, in no particular order, my Annual Review for 2017.

2017 was a big year for me in the world of Lean. I continue to work for and enjoy my role with daa. This year saw us implement Hoshin Kanri (Lean Strategy Deployment) for the first time which brought new learnings every day in terms of our Lean journey.

For my personal goals it was also the first year I used the principles and structures of Hoshin Kanri to set and monitor goals and objectives. In terms of planning, organising and changing direction when required this brought the process of goal setting to a whole new level.

One of my goals was to share information and learnings from the world of Lean. I did this by designing, creating and launching my new website ‘‘The Art Of Positive Change’ in March. This took way longer than I had anticipated but it was worth the wait as I now have somewhere dedicated to sharing information on Lean, Simplicity and Positive Change and the immense benefits they bring to our businesses and personal lives.

Another goal was to write and publish a blog post a week (52 in total). I didn’t reach this, completely underestimating how much time it takes to create blog posts and edit them. I did manage to publish 24 blog posts which is more than I have published in any previous year. So while I didn’t reach my goal I’m definitely improving in this space.

Also in March I started working with the brilliant cartoonist Andy Kefford creating a new character called Pinky, aptly named by my 7 year old niece Miah. Pinky is the star of my 26 part blog post series ‘The A-Z of Effective Change’. You can view all of the published blog posts here.

The Complete A-Z of Effective Change

This year I was reminded how much I love Travel Photography and so I will be working more on this in 2018. If you are new to my work you can view my Travel Photography images here on my website ‘www.siodanphoto.com’ and read my Travel Photography blog posts on my blog ‘The Photographer’s Guide To Travel’.

In terms of travel near and far, Mike and I enjoyed weekends away in Edinburgh, Killarney and Kilkenny, my parents and I spent a few days in London and later in the year my Mom and I spent 10 days in the amazing city of Dubai. Earlier in the year I dusted off my skiing skills and joined one of my best mates Karin Hennessy for a few days skiing in fabulous Pila in the Italian Alps.

Following a trip to Abu Dhabi with Mike in 2016 I created and published my 8th Travel Photography book ‘The Photographer’s Guide To Abu Dhabi’ in September complimenting the blog post I wrote on this beautiful city ‘The Top 5 things To Do in Abu Dhabi’.

I worked with some of my family and friends on photo shoots this year which I enjoyed immensely. It’s always a joy to shoot images of family and friends,

My Travel Photography Fine Art prints and my Fine Art Catalogue are now displayed at my friend Michelle Quilty’s newly opened business, The Tea Cosy in Ardpatrick. This makes me very proud and gives me itchy feet to do more Travel Photography exhibitions – watch this space!

Social media continues to provide a steep learning curve for me that twists and turns at an exponential rate.

I have been using social media for online marketing for many years, however 2017 was the first year I created a social media strategy as part of Hoshin Kanri (Lean Strategy Deployment). This allowed me to focus on clear goals and objectives and ensured I tracked the correct metrics and used these metrics to change direction when required.

Just like the world of Lean and Continuous Improvement, the only way to definitively know if you are improving is to have ‘fact based’ metrics. I currently track 13 metrics across 9 social media platforms. Each one of these metrics increased in 2017 which means I’m moving in the right direction!!! In saying that, growth is slow – slow but steady!

Tracking and evaluating metrics may sound like a lot of work but just like metrics in business, when you get used to setting, tracking and using valuable information from the metrics, they can become quiet addictive and it really is the only way to measure improvement accurately!

If you’re not using metrics to measure performance in your business maybe 2018 is the year that you start, they really are a game changer!

Throughout most of 2017 I continued to post daily inspirational quotes to various social media platforms which helped me learn more about posting, scheduling and outsourcing on social media.

Like most things in life, the more I learn about social media and online marketing the more I realise I don’t know. Social media changes each and every day and so there is always much to learn.

In terms of health I welcomed 2017 with open arms as 2016 saw my Dad go through his second heart surgery. As I wrote in my annual review last year – there is no greater pain than watching someone you love and adore battling an illness. My Dad’s surgery and subsequent recovery has made me intensely aware of and grateful for every breath I take and every day my family and I spend illness free.

I take both my physical and mental health very seriously as I firmly believe the popular Irish saying ‘your health is your wealth’.

Knowing what nurtures my mental health and knowing what challenges it allows me to make decisions to protect it.

To keep my mind and spirit active and healthy I read as much as I can (see my Top 10 Books of 2017 here), meditate (not as much as I would like) and journal (again not as much as I would like).

I try to eat healthy but do have a rubber arm that can be twisted quiet easily when it comes to biscuits and savoury treats. Exercise has always been part of my life but I find I need to work much harder as the years go by. With this comes an immense respect for what the human body can achieve when we put the work in! This has always been a work in progress area for me and will continue to be a focus for 2018.

Every year my goals include understanding more about personal finance. In this quest, I re-read Tony Robbins book ‘Money Master the Game – 7 Simple Steps To Financial Freedom’. Tony is a master when it comes to finance and in this book he not only shares his own wisdom but also leverages the wisdom of many of the world’s finest financial advisors to share their advice, insights and experience. Tony’s book is written in an easy to understand format for all levels of wealth which is why I liked it so much.

I have always known this but 2016 made me more acutely aware that no matter how much you earn or how much is in your bank account it doesn’t make you happy, make you a good person or heal you when you are ill and I continued to be very aware of th throughout 2017.

Just like my social media stats I monitored income, spending and savings much more than I have done in any previous years. Like many people I am not what you would call ‘good with money’ and I need to work much harder on this than I had previously anticipated.

It’s nice to give back. I have been supporting various charities for many years and year on year I try to give more to each charity whether this is monetary support or volunteering my time. I continued to support these charities in 2017 and also found new charities to support. This is something I will continue with and build on in 2018.

That’s it, 2017 was like most years, full of ups and downs, twists and turns.

Thank you to everyone who shares this journey with me, each and every one of you have a made a positive impact on my life. A special and heartfelt thank you to my boyfriend Mike, my family and my friends for making each year better than the last, you are the reason for it all.

May 2018 bring you health, happiness and prosperity,

With love,

Siobhain

x x x

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