Ah drinks…Did you notice that this particular focus fizzled a bit? I learned some things about myself through this though.

Being OK with not finishing this self imposed “challenge” was perhaps a bigger win than finishing it would have been

This goal started out strong with some interesting new drinks (you can look up the Drinks tag for a few of the ones I DID TRY) but just didn’t stick throughout the year. On the surface level, I learned that in the end, I prefer simple things and I’d rather have a plain old cup of tea or a glass of wine than an eight ingredient mixed drink. I just didn’t get excited about this “challenge” I had set for myself and so I didn’t keep up with it.

On a deeper level, and I think I can thank my experience with PowerSheets for this, I learned that it’s ok to change your goals. It’s not worth it to put pressure on myself of ratings that just aren’t actually that important. I think in years past, even once I realized that most of the drinks I’d hoped to try just weren’t worth the time and money at this stage of my life, I’d have forced myself to continue at least once a week just to “achieve my goal” even though, in the end, I’m the only one that really cared about that goal in the first place. Instead, I recognized what was more important to me. The more I started really looking at our monthly budget, the less I wanted to spend money on out of the ordinary ingredients just to experiment with different drinks. The more I started paying attention to my health and self care, the less I wanted to drink empty calories on a regular basis (not that I don’t indulge in a way too sweet coffee drink now and then! or, as I said above, wine times…)

So even though I didn’t complete my focus of 42 new drinks in 52 weeks, I’m ok with that. And I’m hoping that if I pick a challenge type focus for next year that it is one that connects with deeper, long term goals that keep me excited all year long.

Did you have any goals this year that you realized weren’t for you right now? Any shifts in focus? I’d love to hear about them.