Gratitude & Goals

I wanted to share this post towards the beginning of the new year, but better late than never I suppose. This post shall serve as a reminder of the things I am grateful for and also the things I am proud of accomplishing in 2014. Here I would also like to establish some goals for 2015, and I hope that by sharing them with you, I will be more likely to pursue them.

Let’s start with looking back on 2014.

Travels 
If you don’t know by now, I love to travel. I want to see as much of the world as possible and never seem to grow tired of visiting new lands. Here are the places I was lucky enough to visit the past year:
Australia (Sydney), New Orleans, NYC, New Jersey, Los Angeles, Croatia (Split, Dugi Otok, Zadar), Italy (Rome, Florence, Cinque Terre), Hawaii (Oahu)
I feel grateful to have seen these places and spend time with friends, family, and loved ones while traveling. I can definitely say that I was able to explore and experience new cultures in 2014. Check.

Music
One of my other big passions in life is music. I am moved by music. It inspires, motivates, and simply brings me joy. My biggest accomplishment that I am proud of in 2014 was starting a band with friends and playing our first live show. I’ve been playing drums for about 3 years now and finally mustered the courage to put myself out there and play with others. Overall it has been a great learning experience — challenging, yet rewarding. I’m proud to have taken a risk by trying something unfamiliar that I was initially thought would take many more years to manifest.

In other music-related news, I was able to attend more than a handful of awesome live shows (too many to get into here — I’ll have to start a music blog someday!), but I’ll list a few of my standout favorites: Paul McCartney, NIN/Soundgarden, Smashing Pumpkins, Secret Chiefs 3, Slowdive, Melvins just to name a few. LOVE LOVE LOVE seeing bands play, and I appreciate living in San Francisco where I’m graced by amazing acts and talented musicians who often tour here.

Family
I’m obviously grateful for my entire family, but this part of the post is specifically about my little sister. She moved to the Bay Area in the latter part of 2014 (as sort of a surprise) and it’s been really cool having her around. Usually I get to see her once a year and catch up in a matter of 2-3 days, if I’m lucky. Now that she practically lives in my city, more quality time is spent together not feeling in a rush to “catch each other up” on life, but rather just chill together in a relaxed setting. I’m excited to not only hang more often but to show her around and create a new chapter of our lives together. And it’s just really nice to have a sibling close by.

Now let’s move onto my goals for the upcoming year.

GOALS for 2015!

More blogging — I say this every year, but I’ve already taken steps to improve this blog by changing the domain name and I’m feeling good about it! I plan on focusing on food and nutrition posts primarily, but may be posting an occasional lifestyle-travel-motivational type post here and there if readers seem ok with it.

Less Facebook — I really can’t say I’ll give it up entirely, but I would like to spend more time doing other more productive things.

Practice my French  — thanks to my friend and her recommendation, I’ve recently downloaded a fun app called Duolingo (https://www.duolingo.com) to help me achieve this goal.

Travel with a close friend somewhere — one of my best, best buds and I will travel somewhere this year (destination TBD). It shall be epic!

Improve on the drums — this is always going to be goal of mine for years to come. Three years in and I’m not giving up, only getting better! Practice makes perfect.

Grow my nutrition consulting business — last goal of this blog post is to focus more attention on my nutrition consulting. I’m putting it “out there” because I’d like my business to evolve and grow this upcoming year. I have already begun to work on some plans to help it get there with new ideas in the works, so I’m feeling the combo of positive energy and hard work will pay off this year.

Thanks for recapping the previous year with me and witnessing me lay forth my  aspirations for the current year. This isn’t a traditional chewgoodstuff post, but since I’m into the holistic lifestyle, in a way, many of these topics I’ve mentioned here in this post do factor into living life optimally and contribute towards my happiness, well-being, and health. Give thanks for what you’ve got and make strides towards bettering yourself so that you can help others. I guess that’s the take home message from this post. Once again thanks for sharing this journey with me. I wish you all a fulfilling, fun, and adventurous 2015!

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