Month-in-Review Highlights: February 2022
A gift from a friend posed and photographed on my desk while thinking through next steps in a project. Lausanne, Switzerland. February 7, 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 my January goals reviews, I trend toward thinking that I started off the year so strongly that I’ll accomplish everything I laid out for the year well before twelve months have passed.
This leaves February—or, at best, March—to show me my hubris.
This year, as in past years, January started off with a bang and then February came along to toss molasses in my path and slow me down. I still made progress across many of my objectives, but not at January’s pace.
Despite the feeling of spinning-wheels I suffered at midmonth, I can at least say that I took several needed steps forward—especially when it comes to my professional goals. I kept my eye on the prize (or, rather, the self-imposed deadline) of reaching a big milestone before the end of the month. And though I’d hoped I’d hit it with more time to spare than I managed to make happen, I did, indeed, hit it. And that felt incredibly good.
On other fronts, I got back on my game with French-language learning, returning to much more active reading, writing, listening, and conversation, including my regular classes with a private instructor to work on my weak spots.
Also, with the long-awaited faltering of the latest COVID wave due to the omicron variant, I feel a little more confident moving out into the world to meet people, including native French speakers, and to try more activities in French. I took a pottery introductory course one weekend morning (all in French) in Lausanne and spent time with someone I met in Paris in July when we visited Avignon late in February. (True, we spent about half the time speaking in English—but we stuck to French for the other half!)
On into March, for which I have a new slew of things to get done to stay on track with what I’d like to accomplish this year. Whereas I somewhat took it easy on myself in 2021, I set the bar a lot higher in 2022—so I have a lot to keep me busy, engaged, and growing.
The good news is that I feel a lot of excitement and interest around the new challenges I’ve set, which makes a massive difference when it comes to doing what’s necessary to achieve them.
I hope your year has treated you well so far.