Did we meet our 2016 goals?

As this year draws to a close I thought I’d look back at the goals I wrote in January this year;

Win into Grade 4

For obvious reasons, no. An injury in February saw Guinness’ agility career come to a close. While it would have been better if it hadn’t happened, I have no regrets about how anything played out. It doesn’t matter to me that we only got to Grade 2. What matters is that I now have a fully recovered, fit and healthy dog and we had fun competing and still have fun in life together.

Yes! I loved it! I had such a blast camping with friends, plus having my first “agility camp” experience. Oddly the first agility show which I camped at was one that I didn’t compete at, but Guinness and I still had fun sharing a tent and a weekend together, plus he got lots of lovely off lead walks and a little tiny bit of agility play.

Go camping with Ash to 2 new places

This year Ash worked a busy job for 6 months which gave us very little weekend time away, and then when he did finish we have just been so busy and therefore have not been camping at all. We did however go for two lovely holidays with family, plus a few short breaks ourselves and one with friends, but in the comfort of holiday cottages rather than our tent.

Climb 1 new mountain

While we discovered a few new trig points I couldn’t class them as being on top of a mountain, so no.

Complete a 5k charity race

I’m actually quite annoyed about this one as no I haven’t, nor have I been jogging regularly in order to get my fitness back up to 5k. While not having time is a bit of a lame excuse I genuinely am very busy and often spend 5 nights of the week out of the house. Once we have moved house next year my plan is to use the land and go out with Guinness for frequent runs and build up to 5k fitness.

Create an organised personal portfolio for dog training records

The reason behind this was to structure and track Guinness’ agility training, so with the injury and therefore lack of training this didn’t happen. Although I still could have tracked his fitness training I feel that the intended purpose was no longer there.

Put away £100 a month for saving

I have been a lot more on top of my finances this year and while I may not have done the strict £100 per month I have been happy with my overall money management.

Well unfortunately quite a few of those weren’t met, but circumstances and therefore goals are changing all of the time.

So let’s look on the bright side and reflect upon what I have achieved this year…

A fit, healthy & happy dog

As I said before, our agility career may have ended, but I feel that Guinness is currently in the best shape he can be and as protected from future injury as possible.

A new career

My dream has come true, my hard work has paid off and each weekday I wake up looking forward to doing a job I absolutely love. Ever since high school, when I knew I wanted to work with dogs, my personal and professional choices have been gradually building up to this moment. I am tremendously proud to be doing what I do.

Snowdon… again

For the third time in my life I climbed the highest mountain in Wales. I know some people do that sort of thing every week, but personally I’m proud. Plus I navigated all by myself (yeah I know it only consists of following a path).

Friendships

This year I have made and grown some fabulous new friendships, plus kept old ones going. It may sound daft and of course it’s not a “goal”, but I think it’s important to take time to see those people who you love and stay connected with them.

Buy a canoe & a mountain bike

We may not have been camping, but Ash and I have certainly had our fair share of adventures this year as we bought an inflatable canoe and spent the summer using it, plus bought and used new mountain bikes. Gotta make the most of our youth!

New house!!!

Something absolutely frigging amazing and completely unexpected is that me and Ash are moving in to our own house!! It may be through his job but still, it’s a place of our own that we are going to have a level of financial responsibility over and I couldn’t be prouder or more excited. As we get the keys this month I will take it as a 2016 achievement.