With the year coming to a close, I’ve been seeing a lot of the typical end-of-year quotes and ‘new year, new me’ pictures floating around social media, and it’s made me reflect on this past year and all that I’ve learned, all that’s changed and all that’s still to come. Today I thought I would share some quotes that I’ve heard over the past 12 months that I’ve found have resonated with me.

…to wait around.

Sitting around and hoping that things will happen the way you want, when you want them to happen and who you want them to happen with doesn’t work. The only way to get what you want is to show that you want it, put a plan in place, and work for it until you achieve it.

…to not spend time with the ones you love.

My immediate family lives quite far away from one another. I have a brother who lives in Edmonton (30 hours from Sudbury), my parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles live in Hornepayne (8 hours from Sudbury), my oldest brother lives in Cambridge (4.5 hours from Sudbury) and my sister and younger brother live in Sturgeon Falls (1 hour from Sudbury). Until I moved away from home (and even more so now that I live alone), I didn’t realize how important it was to spend as much time as possible with my family and close friends!

…to be wondering “what if”.

I was the friend that always missed out on things because of work. My friends would often make plans and I wouldn’t be able to make it because I had picked up an extra shift or I agreed to work longer than expected because someone had called in sick. Making my friends and family a priority, as well as my own happiness (and sanity, if we’re being honest!) has been the best decision I could have made this year.

…to think that money is everything.

I wrote a blog at the end of the summer about what I learned during the summer of 2016 and I mentioned this point within that post. I consider myself to be a bit of a workaholic; I love to work, I love having my calendar filled up, and I love making money so that I have less to worry about. But what I’ve come to realize over the past year is that money isn’t everything. And if you look at money as being everything, you’ll miss out on the opportunity to make so many amazing memories with those who matter most.

…to not live it exactly as you want.

This is a quote that I saw earlier this year that has really stuck with me. Whether you do the right thing or the wrong thing, someone, somewhere will judge you for it or criticize you. Keeping that in mind, you might as well do what you want and what you feel is the right thing to do, regardless of how you think others might feel about it.

 …to waste it on hating other people.

This is probably the hardest thing that I’ve faced this past year: letting go of grudges. I am in no way, shape or form, saying that I’ve mastered the art of letting go of grudges, but I will say that I’ve gotten much more comfortable with the idea that there will be people in my life who do not serve me any good. I’ve also gotten used to the idea that not everyone will have my back and there will be people who are out to ruin my day. But life is too short to dwell on those who don’t do you any good to have in your life!