Full Life Reflections

Reflections on My 2020 “Enough” Theme

Debbie Roes

January 16, 2021

Happy New Year, everyone! After the very challenging year that was 2020, I hope that this year will bring hope, healing, growth, and new possibilities for all of us. Before I dive into the new blog content that I have in mind for 2021, I want to take some time to reflect back on my theme for 2020, which was “enough.” I had planned to post sooner, but the events of the past week and a half derailed my focus and concentration, as I’m sure it did for many other Americans (and potentially those in other countries as well).

I am enough

I will be introducing my 2021 word/theme in a separate post, as one of the changes I’d like to make for this year is to publish shorter, more frequent posts (although this post is still quite lengthy – old habits die hard!). Hopefully this will make it easier for you to “consume” my writing and allow for a better flow of content, as well as more interaction for those who enjoy connecting with me and each other via the comments section. I lamented that I only published 20 essays last year (you can check them out via my archives), but I could have easily broken many of them down into two or three separate posts, so that’s what I’m going to try to do in 2021. Stay tuned for additional changes to the blog as the year gets under way.

In preparation for this update, I went back and read the post in which I introduced my “enough” theme (the last post of 2019), as well as all of the comments made by readers. The comments were so heartfelt and thought-provoking that I’ll share some of them at the end of this recap. I’ll also reflect upon my progress in fulfilling upon my “enough” theme in the key areas of my wardrobe, my home, and my self-concept.

2020 Wardrobe Goals – End of the Year Update

Debbie Roes

35 comments

December 31, 2020

In my last two posts, I gave an update on most of the goals that I set for myself for 2020. First, I checked in on my “life goals,” which constituted the bulk of my “20 for 2020″ list. Then I shared how I’ve been doing with my goal of selling some of my clothing-related castoffs on eBay and Poshmark (which was my Wardrobe Goal #1).

Now it’s time to reflect back on my four remaining wardrobe goals, which constitute the rest of my “20 for 2020.” I’m not going to delve too deeply into these goals or share a bunch of pictures, as I plan to do standalone posts on some of the included topics as 2021 gets under way. But before the sun sets on 2020 (just hours now!), I want to finish recapping all of the goals that I set for this year.

goodbye-2020

It’s hard to believe that I created these goals just 11 months ago (I went into greater depth about them a month later), as so much has happened since then. The world we’re living in today scarcely resembles the one of January 2020 and we’re all still adjusting to a new (and hopefully temporary) way of life. I continue to stand firm in my dislike of the phrase “new normal” because I don’t want to believe the changes that we’ve experienced will be permanent. However, I hope that we will collectively emerge from the current state of chaos better in some ways, especially in terms of our priorities and the way we treat our fellow humans and the planet.

Selling Clothing Items Online – December Update

Debbie Roes

12 comments

December 10, 2020

In my last post, I gave an update on how I’m doing with most of the “20 for 2020” goals that I set for myself back in January – and later revised in May, after it became abundantly clear that this year wasn’t going to go at all as planned. I probably should have divided my last post into at least two parts, as it was a long one that covered all of my goals related to health/personal growth, writing/work/productivity, family/relationships, fun, and other miscellaneous objectives.

The only area that I didn’t cover last time was my wardrobe, so that’s what I’m going to delve into now. However, in the interest of avoiding “marathon posts,” I’m now going to wisely divide my wardrobe goal review into two or three parts (we’ll see how it goes…). Today’s post covers my first wardrobe goal: “Sell designated items on eBay or similar site.” I wrote about this topic twice back in September, once right after I first listed thirty items for sale and again a few weeks later after I had learned some key lessons that I wanted to share. It’s now over three months since I started selling online and closing in on the end of the year, so it’s a good time to reflect back on how selling my wardrobe castoffs has worked out for me.

There are lots of ways to sell clothing items online these days.

20 for 2020 “Life Goals” – November Update

Debbie Roes

20 comments

November 25, 2020

It’s hard to believe this, but it’s been over six months since I last posted about my “20 for 2020” challenge, so it’s high time that I checked in on it again. It’s also rapidly closing in on the end of what has been an extremely difficult year, so I’m going to start doing some “wrap up the year” types of posts on various topics. This particular update will be presented as a two-part series. Today’s portion will focus on the non-wardrobe related goals within my “20 for 2020” (basically, the rest of my life), while later posts will cover my wardrobe, shopping, and style focused objectives. Let’s dive in!

About the “20 for 2020” Challenge & This Update

As a reminder, the “20 for 2020” challenge is a goal-setting framework introduced by writer and podcaster Gretchen Rubin, who started this novel take on New Year’s resolutions back in 2018. Rubin created this approach because many people have negative associations with the standard yearly “resolutions” and she wanted to make the goal-setting process fresher and more fun. There are various ways to create one’s yearly list (you can see some suggestions here), but I opted to separate my goals into categories to make sure to address the key areas of my life.

Because 2020 is what it is, I revised my initial “20 for 2020” list quite a bit in early May. I needed to remove a few of my goals that focused on travel and socializing (better luck next year, I hope…) and I also chose to pull out some tasks that didn’t really resonate with me any longer. We all have changing lives and shifting priorities, so it makes sense that we may need to shuffle our goals around from time to time. I don’t believe we need to adhere to goals just because they felt right at the time when we set them. It’s good to be flexible and make changes when our lives, motivations, and interests shift – and we all know that 2020 has been a year of unpredictability and change!

Seven Months – and No End in Sight

Debbie Roes

52 comments

October 24, 2020

Just over seven months ago, the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV2) was declared a global pandemic. A few days later, the governor of my state (California) issued a “shelter in place” order that still remains in effect today.

People are now getting out and about more often and more businesses are open, but the virus case count, hospitalizations, and death rate remain high and are actually escalating as we move into the cooler months. Any hope of this crisis dissipating in the near term seems to have been dashed at this point. Who knows how long this will last and how devastating it might be?

Early on in this crisis, I wrote two posts related to what’s going on in the world and how to stay sane:

“Enough in a Time of Chaos”
“Staying Sane in Difficult Times”

I also touched on how I was feeling a little bit in another post that was mostly centered on wardrobe issues. Since that time (June), I haven’t written about the pandemic at all. There have been two reasons for this…

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About the “20 for 2020” Challenge & This Update

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