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2018 In Review + 2019 Goals

ByCaitlin

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I hope that you all had a wonderful 2018 and a fun and safe new year’s. 2018 was an interesting year to say the least. It definitely had it’s ups and downs, but a lot happened that changed my life for the better.


Best career and life moments of 2018:

  • Started (my lifelong dream of) horseback riding lessons
  • Gained more confidence in my full-time career 
  • Acquired my first blog collaborations
  • Launched an equestrian life section on my blog
  • Had my first new car for an entire year – this is still unreal to me sometimes
  • Traveled to go Germany for work
  • Went and wrote about my first blog travel experience
  • Began working with the most incredible equine photographer, Nicole
In 2018 I realized a lot of things. I realized that…
you don’t always have to have the nice, brand new apartment and that having something simpler not only saves money but makes me happier. 
after over a year of being bullied by a manager who didn’t care about me, I finally had my confidence back at work from the support of my new manager/director/and coworkers. 
if I’m truly not happy with something that I shouldn’t settle and move on to bigger and better things.
I need to stop being so hard on myself and focus on improving things in the moment, rather than shutting down and not making the most of things. 
even though it sucks, confrontation is something that we always have to deal with.
saying no to things and keeping myself organized will help me make more time for what’s important to me: Diesel, Chandler, and myself.
I need to open my mind more and allow things to happen, instead of worrying about them or not even considering them.
I’m actually really excited for 2019. The saying usually goes: “It’s a time for new beginnings” or “new year, new me.” For me, 2019 is a continuation of 2018. I have a lot of things in progress from 2018 that I want to see through. What I’ve learned most about 2018 and some of 2017, is that no matter how well you’ve planned for things, or how much you think you know, you don’t know crap. I never thought I’d have a new car, or finally started riding lessons, or finally started to get brand collaborations. ALL of these things came when I least expected them to and they couldn’t have come at a more perfect time. 
This year, I’m excited for everything below, plus everything I don’t know yet. 🙂
  • Continuing my riding career/learning about horses – hopefully doing small jumps!
  • Growing my blog and really showcasing my passions
  • Possibly getting Diesel a friend 🙂
  • Enjoying year 4 with Chandler
  • Eating healthier 
  • Making more time for fun activities – sports, movies, etc.
  • Taking more trips
  • Trying NEW foods – I suck at this!
One last thing that I want to do this year, that I would really encourage everyone to do, is to create a happy jar. My mom told me about this idea this past weekend and I wrote it down immediately so that I wouldn’t forget. 
Grab any size jar, a pen, and cut up some decent sized strips of paper. Every time something happy/memorable/amazing happens, including the little things, write it down on one side of the paper and put the date on the other and put it in your jar. Do this every time that something happens. Then, when you’re having bad days, you will have an entire jar to look through to remind you of everything good that has happened.
I personally think that we concern ourselves with too much negativity these days (I’m SUPER guilty of this). When bad things happen it can sometimes feel impossible to see the good. That’s why this year I’m making the effort to create a happy jar, in hopes that I can combat this and stay as positive as I can this year. I’ll be posting a photo of mine once I create it and I’d love to see yours too! Post a photo in the comments below (if you can do that lol), tag me on Instagram in your photo (@sparklesandsunshineblog) on Twitter (@sasblog), etc.! I really would love to see. 
I hope that your 2019 is filled with opportunities for growth, love, and happiness. I also hope that no matter what struggles you may face in 2019, that you work through them and know that everything always works out (my mom’s go-to words).

Thank you for supporting me this year, the previous, and hopefully the year to come. I can’t tell you how much it means to me that you all have followed along and supported the vision I have. I love you all to the moon and back!