2014: A Quiet Year

It’s annual round-up time. A time of reflection on the highlights and the things that didn’t go quite as planned. A time of new goals and visions for the year ahead. Here’s my top ten from 2014.

1. Made some really great connections, forged some lifelong friendships and learned to grow my business at Pioneer Nation.
2. Had two photography shows.
3. Went to my first live TEDx event in Portland. It’s pretty cool seeing it in person versus the countless videos I’ve watched on screen.
4. Celebrated one year living in Portland. Yay! I love this city and it’s quirks.
5. Met my two Australian mastermind members for the first time (after a year and a half of weekly online chats!). All four of us in one place at one time was amazing! WDS brought them and so many more people that I loved seeing. Plus all the new people I met that live in Portland and around the world. Thanks again Chris for picking my friends and also helping me achieve my third world record.
6. Volunteered a lot. Two big projects I worked on were for the Brian Grant Foundation and Women Enough.
7. Took a road trip to Boise.
8. Got my very own horseshoe on the wall at Pope House Bourbon Lounge. I missed my original quest deadline but made the second one. Just over a year to complete 50 bourbons.
9. Camping on Mount Hood and checking out Timberline lodge for the first time.
10. Went to Maui for Thanksgiving (aka Friendsgivemas)! It was great to spend the holidays with good friends and tour the whole island in the process.

It was a quiet year. A year of growth in the valleys. A year of no new countries or states but I did a lot of local exploring. I explored more spots in Oregon, California and Idaho. The good news about local travel is you don’t have jet lag or a 10 hour flight.

What went wrong?

I was supposed to go to Greece for TBEX and some of the surrounding countries but the trip just wasn’t coming together as easy as I wanted it to so I didn’t go at all. Bummer, but I did work and save some money! I was supposed to go to Africa as well but there was a death that derailed the trip, so I opted to postpone. I found out that you can delay your mileage tickets for up to a year. Pretty cool trick I learned this year. Hoping that I won’t have to use it very often, but good to know.

Next year I have to grow more in my business and add some more travel to my list. Starting with my postponed Africa trip…stay tuned for more adventures in 2015 on the blog. You can also follow my 140 character adventures on Twitter and my photo adventures on Instagram.

Wishing you a happy 2015! Cheers.