The Other Side of Life 24/7: The Cynical Girl: 2013 Accomplishments

Saturday, December 28, 2013

The Cynical Girl: 2013 Accomplishments

2013 Accomplishments

Posted: 27 Dec 2013 03:45 AM PST

Olympics-swimmers I always end the year by writing about my accomplishments, failure, regrets, and resolutions.

Today’s post is about accomplishments.

I did a ton of fun stuff in 2013. You want a list?

Well, I raised money for animal-related charities. Spoke at Harvard. Ran up the John Hancock building in Chicago. I ran a ton of half-marathons. Ran my first marathon, too. Worked with friends to help them build their businesses. Continued building my own business. Spoke at some interesting events around the world. Spent quality time with my husband over the summer. Traveled to great places and hung out with awesome friends. Had fun. Ate too much. Drank too much. Went hiking in a forest — on a vacation — for the first time ever. Didn’t die.

But my biggest accomplishment for 2013 was the harmonization of my life.

I have a weird life that is constructed like an Olympic swimming pool. There are lanes. People don’t touch one another. And there are reasons why my life is structured in a very orderly and uniform way.

But something changed, this year, and the lanes started to overlap. For example, my husband and I began hanging out with other human resources bloggers and their families. Former HR colleagues became clients and friends. People from opposite sides of my life fell in love. And I became friends with new people and stopped liking the original people who introduced me to my new friends.

It was good and weird.

And (oh yeah) there were times when it was messy, too. Like anyone, there are certain things about my life that I would like to keep private. Some readers became aggressive. Some fans became a little too eager. I had to disconnect from individuals who couldn’t reconcile how they knew me in 2003 versus how they know me in 2013.

But it’s all good.

I don’t mind managing multiple personalities. I don’t mind the swim lanes, either. But it’s nice when I can stop worrying about the crumbling infrastructure of my stupid existence and start thinking about harmonization.

So that was my major accomplishment in 2013.

What was yours?