Month-in-Review Highlights: December 2022

A last walk along the lakefront to send off 2022. Lake Geneva, Lausanne, Switzerland. December 31, 2022.

I postmortem each month shortly after it ends, reflecting on what happened in general and, more specifically, in the context of my goals. Though I don’t share all my insights here, I have made it a practice to share at least one key highlight or insight. (To read previous months’ reviews, click here.)

In the year ahead, I plan to change up this monthly postmortem a bit, broadening it to focus on personal experiences and moments from the month—brief highlights—rather than solely on personal accountability for my goals progress. However, the goals-accountability aspect will remain my main purpose for this category of entry.

As nearly no one reads these monthly postmortems but me, anyway, this little evolution won’t matter to almost anyone but me. Still, the change will help me make these posts a little more interesting (even to me) and allow me to expand them beyond vague references to things achieved and not achieved.

For this post, though, to keep me on track in terms of the 2022 program, I’ll stick with the soon-to-be-old format.

How did I do against the goals I set for my 2022?

Overall, I did pretty darn well—if I do say so myself.

The major goals I’d set that I cannot call “achieved” didn’t end up making sense with the rest of the program and the timeline for other projects underway, so I’d jettisoned them during the year (but kept them on the list for reference). The minor goals that I can’t check off the 2022 program feel minor enough for their lack of completion not to bother me. I’d earlier in the year decided to sacrifice most of these minor goals for the bigger priorities, anyway.

Even for the major goals I can’t call “achieved,” I can say that I made big strides toward achieving them. The “miss” doesn’t really feel like a miss, in these cases.

One of my major objectives in 2022: Shift work and career priorities to lift the foot off the gas when it came to my marketing agency, FrogDog, in favor of more time and energy for my true (and longstanding—and long neglected) passion: fiction writing.

Though shifting into a lower gear for FrogDog after twenty-five years of making it my near sole life focus (for better and for worse) caused me no minor amount of mental stress—and a lot of associated efforts around making and then executing decisions about what to prioritize and how to make it all work—I did make it happen.

By the end of the year, I’d discovered an almost entirely new Leslie. I can hardly recognize myself in this person who has such energy, optimism, happiness, wellbeing, and equilibrium.

Turns out allowing yourself—and having the luxury of—the time and the space needed to do what you love helps your mental and physical health. Who knew? (Yeah, everyone. I hear you.)

I wrapped a 2022 that was much more psychologically sustainable in terms of business for FrogDog—and with a novel manuscript for which I’ll seek agent representation in 2023.

As I’ve written several novel-length manuscripts but have never taken one all the way to the point where I felt it ready for representation, making it here is a massive accomplishment for me. (You can even check out my new author site—along with information about the novel—here.) This novel may not find an agent and may never see publication, but I’ve gone further with my writing this year than ever before in a lifetime of writing (and writing dreams).

By the way… if you know any literary agents, I’d love an introduction.

But I digress…

Aside from the writing, I worked hard in 2022 to find more play in my life, to approach the world with less stress and anxiety, and to rebalance my mental and physical health with nutritious food and varied exercise and activity.

Finding this balance included continuing to improve my French language skills, so I could build more of a social and cultural life in a francophone world. As I’ve already crossed all the formal language-learning bridges, having passed the level at which classes take place and achieved what’s generally considered fluency (though it feels anything but to me), continuing to improve has meant finding French-only volunteering opportunities, going to the theater and to other cultural events in French, and joining activities and groups attended by francophones. I still have a distance ahead to feel confident in French and a long way to go when it comes to building social connections in this area—in French or in English—but just getting to this doorway and passing through it felt like another big milestone.

I’ve set my goals for 2023 and have a new slew of challenges ahead, but I can honestly say that I enter the year for the first time in a long time with a feeling of excitement and balance—and less stress and anxiety—than I can remember feeling in a very long time.

Happy 2023, everyone!