EP 65: Reflecting on 2022

Hello, Hello, hello everyone. Happy 2023 you guys. Congratulations. We have made it to a brand new year, and it is the first episode of I Have Missed You guys. It has been in a hot minute since um an episode has released. It's also been even more of a hot minute, so like a hot hour, if that's a phrase, since I have shared with you a brand new episode. So we took last two weeks off for New Year and Christmas, and then the two weeks before that I aired some repeat episodes that were about creating holiday seasons that serve you well and also goal setting. So yeah, this is the first time, I guess in about four weeks since you've had a brand new episode and I have missed it. I really have missed it. yeah, okay, so it's January. What in the world it I mean? I know that everyone always talks about how quickly the holidays go by, and just how if you was, like Halloween is here and then boom, all of a sudden, it's the brand new year. And I'm just gonna piggyback on what everyone else says because I completely agree. I completely agree. I will say I love starting a new year. I absolutely nerd out on all things resolutions, on turning a fresh, fresh page, and I really believe in, you know, optimizing and leveraging the mentality of this fresh start that we all get when it comes to January, right, And so is that a little cheesy? Yeah? Probably, But I'm kind of a little bit of a cheesy person and I'm here for it. I am totally here for it, and I hope that you are here for it. Also. I have set resolutions ever since I can remember. There's honestly, I'm trying to think back to if there's even a time in my life that I remember not setting resolutions. And I know that even when I was younger, you know, as back as high school, maybe even middle school, I don't remember, but I was setting setting New Year resolutions back then, and to no surprise, I still do resolutions to this day.

Last year was the first time that I took kind of a new to me approach on setting resolutions, and I had set resolutions in the nine areas of life that you know are suggested for well rounded goal setting. I. so those nine areas. Let's see if I can remember these off the top of my head. Personal development. I'm literally counting them on my fingers right now. Personal development, spiritual, financial, romance, family, social, fun and recreation, business and career and health. That was nine. Yes, that was nine. I'm giving myself a pad on the back for remembering those off the top of my head. Anyway, so last year was the first time that I set resolutions in each of those nine areas, and I really really liked that approach, so I'm gonna be doing it again this year. I have I started. I'll get to this a little bit later in the episode, but while I'm thinking about it right now, I started by doing reflections from two on each of those nine areas, and then um, those reflections kind of laid the groundwork for me for my resolutions. but like I said, we're going to talk about that in the second half of this episode. The f first half of this episode, I just wanted to take a little bit of time to um update you on, you know, how things are going in my life, how things are going over here at Think Happy Co. Since it has been a month that I've I've talked to you live, not live, but like in the moment, like this with a brand new episode, if that makes sense.

So let's start with just some personal Kaitlin Cuevas As family updates. As you probably know, baby James was born back in October, so at the time of this recording, he's just about two and a half months, which blows my mind. I'm sitting here at my desk or the desktop on my computer screen is a family picture and it's Ellie and James and Guppy and Oakley and myself and I'm just looking at it. And the photo was taken probably when he was three or four old, and he just looks so teeny tiny and now he is two and a half months. he's just the sweetest. We have been working a lot on his nighttime sleep. He is starting to get the hang of it, you guys. For probably the past four nights he has slept for about eight hours straight. And now that I have said that out in the world and like put it out there into the universe, I'm sure I'm going to jinx myself and tonight he'll probably sleep for like four hours. But hopefully that's not the case. Please keep your fingers crossed for me tonight. Oh wow, I really should not have said that, but anyway, So, yes, we're working on sleep. He's starting to get the hang of it. He smiles so much. I feel like I remember it taking Ellie a while to really start intentionally smiling. I think they call it social smiles. James is just filled with them, and he loves to chit chat and just make his little baby noises and it's it's pretty precious. I'm not gonna lie. Also, we are working on getting him on a schedule, which you know, I totally love, um actually believe it or not. So, like I said, the last four or five nights he slept for about eight hours. It has been for the past probably five or six days that I've really started to work on getting him on a schedule, and so I'm just saying it could be a coincidence that I started the schedule stuff with him and then he coincidentally started sleeping for about eight hours stretches, or it could not be a coincidence and he could be a lover of schedules just like his mom, and I'm going to choose to believe the latter. So, yeah, okay, sleeping schedules. And also, as of this month, he will have a nanny with him on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'm so excited because that is going to give me time to work uninterrupted, which you all know, working really really does film me up. Okay, So those are James updates.

Eleanor Little Ellie. She turned two in December and she loves James. Also, she loves opening presents. What she has gotten to do a lot over the past few weeks between her birthday and Christmas. For Christmas, Santa brought her an art cart, and wow, let's just say Santa hit a home run. Actually, I'm going to go as far as saying that Santa hit a grand slam. She is obsessed with her art cart, so obsessed we've had to actually hide some of the things that are on the art cart, like her markers and her dot paints, because she colors them on her self and it's just a big old fat mess. So now she only gets to play with those with adult supervision. But also as of this month, she will be going to Mother's day out five days a week. And I love this for her, and honestly I love this for me too, because again, that is just helping me to have some time to work and to get things done. And also it's going to help keep my house tidier, because when that girl is home all of the time, my house is a wreck. I try to clean up after her, you know, like clean up as we go. It's it's just impossible. It is literally impossible. But okay, So James Update, Ellie Update. With with her in school now five days a week and with James having a nanny two days a week, I am just so excited to be getting back into a good work routine. And actually I have been so excited about the first week of January for this exact reason. This exact reason. So if you remember, at the end of last year, I decided to leave my nine to five and moved to think happy full time. It has been such a crazy transition with lots of emotions, good emotions, sad emotions, um and everything in between. But needless to say, it is going to feel just so good to be back in a routine with some reliable working hours and I just have been so so looking forward to this.

Okay, so some more updates are house renovation project is still going on, which is comical because it was supposed to be finished before James was born. I have felt like a total crazy person with having this project going on while being in the thick of things with a brand new baby, and there have been so many times where it felt so hard. And I think part of what I've struggled with is it feels like so many things in my home don't have a place right now, if that makes sense. Like, so, the best example I can think of right now, this is gonna sound silly, but it's my shoes. So usually my shoes are in my closet, but my old closet is out of commission and my new closet isn't finished yet, so that means that my shoes are everywhere. My most frequently worn shoes are just sitting on the floor in my bedroom, and my other shoes while some of them are in boxes, and those boxes are either in the dining room, will not either some of those boxes are in the dining room, and some of them are also in our guest room slash office slash James's room. Right, so that means that James is currently sleeping in the guest room slash Oakley's office. Okay, seventy percent of the time, that is totally great, But like the other five percent of the time, it's really tough because Oakley needs to be in there, you know, for work, because it is his home office. So um, I don't know even if any of this is making sense, and I probably just sound like a total nut, But long story short, I cannot wait for the house project to be finished and for me to just put my home back together again, and for James to have his own room and for my shoes to have a place to belong again. Okay, So I feel like that's pretty much most of the Cuevas updates. We had a really magical holiday season. Ellie was super obsessed with all of the Christmas lights and the decorations that were up in our house and the decorations that were around our neighborhood. Actually, some of her new favorite words are lights and Santa and Man, which is of course short for snowman. We saw just so many friends, and we spent a lot of time with family, and I just it really was. I feel like just one of my favorite holiday seasons yet, starting even with Thanksgiving and just all the way until New Year, it was. It was such such a great holiday season. I feel so thankful for that.

Aaron Conjuran is my go to for planners, stickers, and other organization accessories. And can I tell you something cool. Think Happy is officially an Aaron Conjured affiliate. That means, when you shop Aaron Conduran via the think Happy link, this podcast benefits by receiving a small commission from your purchase. You can shop my Aaron Conjured favorite via the link in my Instagram bio or on thinkhappyco.com under the shop category. Thank you for supporting the Think Happy podcast and happy planning. The final update that I'll share with you is about think Happy. So if you follow me on Instagram then you probably already know that the Becoming Your Best You group program starts in just a couple of weeks. Becoming Your Best You is my brand new group coaching program that is going to help you move from stressed, running in circles and on empty to being in control of your life, having a plan for each day, getting through your to do list, with enough time for yourself. Inside the program, our weekly video trainings, weekly group calls with myself and the rest of the group, and of course daily support from myself, all inside of a private community. So we people are already signing up, you guys, and we're all so excited we cannot wait to get started. Doors are going to open for the public. I believe next week. Let me just look really fast. Yeah, doors for the public are going to open on either January tenth or January eleventh. Right, So I want to see you there. I want you inside of this program, starting your new year with me. People from the wait list have already signed up. join us, join us. Yes, So doors open to the public next week. I believe that's January eleven. If you are interested in starting the new year with me and setting yourself up to just have the best year possible by being part of this program, go over on Instagram and send me a quick d M. I would love nothing more than to chat with you about the Becoming Your Best You program, answer any quite stions that you have on it, and just get you all set up and ready to go.

Okay, so first half of half of the episode, check that off. Those are the updates that I have for you. Now let's move into the second part of this episode and let's start talking about our reflections. Okay. So I always find that reflecting before setting new goals is super helpful. It's just all around a really healthy exercise to practice. So you know that I am big on attainability. I believe that starting with some reflection is a great way to set just a tone of attainability when it comes to, you know, setting out to um set goals or or resolutions for the new year. So ask yourself questions reflection questions such as, what have I set out to do in the past, what went well? What didn't go well? What can I change? What should stay the same? What lessons have I learned that I can now leverage? Okay, So asking yourself questions like that are really going to help get your mind going in the direction of setting and and following, not following through just was setting yourself up for success when it comes to sustainability, when it comes to attainability, right, So highly suggest that you start with reflections before you really set in stone what your new year's resolutions are going to be. So, as I mentioned earlier in this episode, I'm taking the nine areas of life approach this year with my own resolutions, and I recently finished my reflections on each of those areas. So I'll share with you some of what that looks like. But again, before I share that with you, I want to say once again whether or not you take the same approach as I am, toe, meaning the approach of the nine areas of life, I do highly suggest whatever approach you're taking, that you begin with some sort of review or reflection. Okay, So here are my reflections from and literally right now in front of me, I have my journal, this is where, this is where I wrote it all down. So, those nine areas, oh look I had them written down here. I didn't even have to remember them off the top of my head earlier. They are spiritual, personal development, health, romance, family, business, finances, fun and social. So for my spiritual reflection, what I have here is that I could have been better. I enjoy some of the habits that we have as a family, you know, teaching Ellie to pray, saying prayers with Oakley. One thing that I wish we had done better last year was being more consistent with going to mass. For a while, we were in a really good routine, but once James was born, we totally fell out of the practice. And I also want to one thing that I've done in the past that I wasn't super great about doing last year was incorporating reading a devotional as part of my morning me and time. So that was also a note that I made on the reflections for the spiritual part of my life. Personal development. So I think that my goal was to read three personal development. Two. I read two, so not three I read to so a little bit of a win. They're not a total win. But you know, aside from that, I feel like I personally have grown a lot as a mom over the past year. Kind of becoming a mom of two, I guess kind of like pushed me into that. It's been a big adjustment. But I also feel like I have grown with sticking to my boundaries and you know, following my gut and staying strong, um, not giving into temptation when it comes to bending my boundaries or you know, not sticking with my gut. And I'm proud of myself for that. For health, So I have so much to be thankful for when it comes to my health. You know, a healthy pregnancy that will allowed me to exercise well into thirty weeks of pregnancy. I had a healthy c section, a healthy c section recovery.

Yeah, 2022 was a great year of health for me. For romance, I think Oakley and I were pretty good about going on dates and just um carving out time for the two of us. But I feel like we went through like waves of being good at it, if that makes sense. I don't think it was something we were always super consistent with. Like I can't sit here and tell you that all twelve months out of the year we were really consistent about creating that intentional time together um. And I think part of the reason for that is because with my pregnancy and you know, in my immediate postpartum phases, I was just going to bed so early, which made it tough for us to have time to hang out together after Ellie went to bed, and then once James was born, after he went to bed. So yeah, that's something that I hope can change in pretty soon here actually, since James is sleeping better now, hopefully I won't be going to bed just quite so early. And when I say early, you guys, sometimes I mean like before eight o'clock, like it's early. Okay, So family reflection, I think we've done a good job at adjusting to having to two kids. We spend a lot of time together as a family, and this is an area of my life that I'm really happy with. And I don't really think there's much I would change about it. I want to keep up, I guess with what we're doing, that's probably going to be a lot of what I focus on in the new year. And yeah, I just love our family dynamic. Not much that I want to change there. for let's see here for for our finances. So inwo we had two big things in the financial side of our life. That is the house edition renovation project that we're doing and a little thing called childbirth. So both of those were not anticipated at the beginning of two which is kind of comical because they ended up being huge parts of our year. But yeah, I guess that's the reflection part of of that side of my life right now. in the new year, we're really going to be focusing on paying off a lot of that. So we are heavily focused on that right now for business slash career, A big you know. Two was a huge huge year for me in this area of life, just being that I left um my my typical nine to five, which happened to be my family's company, and I left that to give Think Happy Co a shot at my full time work. So that was a huge huge step for me. I have a whole podcast episode on that. I can't remember off the top of my head which podcast or which episode number it is, but, if that is something that's of interest to you, you should definitely go scroll through the podcast episodes until you find it. Okay, So social side of my life SOO was also I feel like a good social I guess if that makes sense year for me, I feel like I've really started to hone in on some really healthy, positive, cup filling relationships with with other ladies and that makes me so happy. And part of what I really want to focus on in the new year is, you know, nurturing those friendships, being intentional about fostering those friendships and just um yeah, yeah, those friendships are really important to me and I want to keep things going strong in that area for the for the new year.

Shout out to all the ladies out there who I'm friends with if you're listening. Okay, fun slash recreation. So most of our recreation revolved around Eleanor. Honestly, I am totally okay with that. I could foresee this next year being pretty similar. I doubt will have any big trips. I would really like to focus on finding fun things to do, you know, around Houston and stuff like that. So yeah, I think that that was all nine areas. Let me backtrack really fast to make sure I hit them off for you. We had spiritual, personal development, health, romance, family, business, finances, fun, and social. Yes, yes, that was all of them. Okay, So I am not quite finished with all of my resolutions yet. but I can give you an idea of what they're gonna be for each of those nine areas, the first one being um my personal development area. One of my huge goals is to start putting outfits together again, so like, start actually getting dressed again. I really fell into this routine of always wearing leggings, and I love leggings, do not get me wrong, but there is just something about getting dressed every day that puts me in a good mood. It puts me in a good mental space, and that is something that I want to work on again this year. For for the spiritual side of my life, one of the things that I want to work on is researching and picking a new devotional UM and I want to start on that, and I want to start introducing that again to some of my morning me time. Now that James is starting to sleep a little bit better, I would love to get back into the habit of having some of that quiet time in the mornings. For health, really, my goal here is simple. I want to have some intentional movement at least four times per week. So for me, that's gonna look like the trampoline and the bar classes that I teach. That's gonna look like going on long walks around the neighborhood or walks at the park. Yeah, So that's my goal there for as a family. I haven't talked to Oakley about this one yet, but one thing that I'm really going to focus on is just spending intentional time together as a family. And again, I wanna keep a lot the same there. There's not a lot that I want to change. For the social side of life. Again, like I had recently mentioned a couple of minutes ago, I want to become super intentional about spending time with friends who who are encouraging and uplifting and where there's just a lot of love in that relationship. Let's see here. For for fun and recreation, one of the things that I want to focus on is finding fun things to do around where we live. So weekends at my parents lake house, going to the museums. Houston has so many museums, and a lot of them Ellie would enjoy. Also, she's been to the Children's Museum here and we've taken her to the Museum of Natural Science. She's really liked both of those. I want to keep doing things like that. exploring different parks and going to the zoo. Those are all examples of of things that I want to start taking advantage of here in Houston, and you know, using some of that as recreation time Like I mentioned. For the financial side of life, Oakley and I are going to work on paying off some of those big bills that we encountered in We love you James, we love you a lot, but also having a baby super expensive And yeah, those are the ones that I have thought about a lot. For romance our goal will probably be something around creating intentional time together. And for business it will be something around you know, growing think Happy continuing to serve you guys, to serve the

Think Happy community the best I can. So ah, man, I guess that's kind of a wrap for for the reflections and for setting goals, setting intentions. So I want to go back really quickly to what I was mentioning before I went into my own reflections. I think this is the third time I will say this on this episode. Before you start setting your intentions, goals, resolutions for please take some time to reflect on how things went for you in two believe it or not. Doing these reflections are going to help you uncover wins that you had in the year that maybe you didn't even recognize or beautiful things that came into your life that you weren't expecting. it's also going to show you areas that you can improve on. And having that are taking the time two to consider all of those different things is only going to help you set yourself up for a better new year. So after you do your own reflecting, you will feel so ready to start your intention setting, goal setting, resolution setting. And guess what, I am hosting a free workshop that is going to be all about this. That workshop is going to be on January nine and ten. On day one, you will walk away with the tools you need to set your perfect intention, and then on day who you'll walk away with a resolution or resolutions that support your intention, along with a step by step plan plan on how to accomplish or stick with your resolution. So to register, just go to the link in my Instagram bio and click workshop, or you can always just send me a d M and I will happily send you the link to register. Again, it is one hundred and ten percent free, so please join, bring your friends. The more the merrier, and man, that's a wrap that is a total wrap for this whole episode. So today we have talked about, you know, some of the updates in in the Quavis family, somethin Happy updates, the start of the Becoming Your Best You group program. We talked about reflections. We talked about some questions that you can yourself when you do your own reflections. I shared with you some of my own reflections and some of my own resolutions and goals for the new year. And again, come join me for that free workshop that's January nine and ten. Go register for that now, and I will be back in your ears next week with another brand new episode of the Think Happy Podcast. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for joining me for this week's episode of the Think Happy Podcast. If you just can't get enough, find me on Instagram at think Happy Underscore Co. That's CEO, and online at think Happy code dot com. See you next week.