2019 Year in Review and/or Advice on Goal Setting
In an effort to tally up and provide you dear subscribers & readers a fancy Top Ten / Best Of / Girl Gotta Hike Year in Review 2019 (of which, there is one, at the bottom of this post), I couldn’t help but think about all the goals I had set for the year that I wasn’t able to accomplish and opportunities that I missed out on. Once I saw so many unchecked boxes left on my to-do list, I started to go down that rabbit-hole of negative feelings, and the not-good-enough, not-productive-enough, should-be-better-at-already, negative-feedback loop kicked in. Visions of ways I want to refine and improve upon my hiking and event schedule, be more timely and frequent with my social media and blog posts, offer more trips, create video content – it all started swirling in my head and I began to feel defeated.
To pull myself out of it, I started to think about all of the amazing hikers I met and had the privilege of leading this year (over 100, wahoo!) Thinking about the smiles on those hikers faces when they reached a viewpoint or got through a challenging section of trail unscathed, made me smile too. I realized how many questions I was able to answer about hiking, about what to wear and how to get there, which resulted in more people enjoying the outdoors. I added up all the trail miles you achieved (1,067), the events Girl Gotta Hike was invited to attend (9) and through which, the new experiences I helped provide to curious New Yorkers. I thought about all the times that I really did not want to get up and crawl out of bed on a weekend to get outside (at least 10), but felt 100% better when I did. And it absolutely warms my heart to know that hikers who have been out on Girl Gotta Hike trips have developed amazing friendships off trail as well.
To top it off, I learned how to record, edit and publish a podcast, Girl Gotta Hike got written up on the NPCA’s national blog, and I gathered with friends in North Carolina (twice), Maine (twice), Vermont and New Hampshire for outdoor photography projects that I am so very proud of! One of which was published in December and two of which will be published in 2020 – stay tuned! All the while living, working and commuting in NYC.
And holy smokes, I met, hugged and clinked wine glasses with Cheryl Strayed!!!!! When I add it all up, who cares what I didn’t have time to do?!
It’s so funny, the resolve to get rid of our old habits and make room for new ways of being is always strongest when the calendar turns the page, even though we can and do make change many times a year. It seems like there’s no better time than the beginning of a new year (or decade) to jump-start your life and become the person you always wanted to be. The ability to start getting up at 5am every day to workout or to put in two hours on that personal project before heading off to actual work for the day is so palpable. The desire to start meal-planning and cooking for the week on weekends is real. The revelation that if I just make Mondays the official day of the week to tidy the apartment, then it won’t feel like such a burden and it will free up so much other time to make all other goals come true, comes on with such hope and vigor – that I finally feel like I’m starting to get a handle on this life-business.
And of course, a few weeks or a month into the new year, and I start hitting the snooze button, which leads to falling behind on a few goals and feeling bad about my lack of commitment to myself. The “I would be so much farther along with this Guiding Business / Podcast Hosting / Photography Career thing if I could just stick to the plan already” script starts churning away and I end up feeling defeated and depleted.
Nobody wants to feel that way. I don’t even want to write about it ‘cuz it’s making me feel so icky. Nevertheless, it happens. So instead of creating some grandiose, pages-long must-do list that brings me down, my resolve for 2020 is to start tallying my accomplishments on a much more regular basis. I want to end my days in a positive light, to give myself accolades for what I did do, not to beat myself up for what I didn’t. I mean, of course I’m going to continue adding items to my goal-list, but by celebrating my accomplishments along the way, I truly believe I will have a whole lot more success in achieving them.
So 3 cheers to what Girl Gotta Hike ACTUALLY accomplished in 2019!
• Girl Gotta Hike Hikers hiked in all 12 months – through icy winter and sweltering summer conditions! (And lovely spring and fall days too)
• There were 112 participants of the 12 Monthly Public Transit Series Hikes
• GGH hikers represent diversity in background and in age from 20 years old to mid-60’s!
• 24% of Public Transit Hikers were repeat hikers & 1 hiker came out on 6 hikes (Abby, you rock!)
• 80 miles of local trails were hiked on Public Transit Hikes in NYC, the Hudson Valley, New Jersey and Long Island
• 1067 total miles hiked by GGH hikers – amazing!
• 6 forms of Public Transit were used to get to trails – NYC Subway, Metro-North, NJ Transit, LIRR, Rockland Coaches, NY Trailways
• Introduced overnight, beginner backpacking and private hiking trips to the mix
• Continued collaborations with Outdoor Fest & Mappy Hour - including the Annual Campout, Story Slam & overnight trip to the Catskills where four Catskill 3500 Peaks were bagged
• 45 GGH hikers reached the highest peak in NYC
• Met & worked with new partners from Merrell Shoes, 718 Cyclery & Gossamer Gear
• Taught classes in Backpacking 101 and Outdoor Photography
• GGH hikers got free stuff! Boots from Merrell, trekking poles from Gossamer Gear, beer from Sierra Nevada Brewing
• Volunteered with National Parks Conservation Association and Harlem Valley Appalachian Trail Association on National Public Lands Day, National Parks for All People Workshop and HVATC Trail Days Annual Festival
• Attended the NPCA Centennial Gala and was written about in NPCA blog
• More than doubled newsletter subscribers and Instagram followers
• Started a podcast and released 4 episodes (available on spotify, itunes or wherever you get your podcasts)
• Met, fumbled for words and gave “Wild” author, Cheryl Strayed a GGH t-shirt
All that and GGH Founder Melissa only got her car stuck at one snowy trailhead in Vermont (albeit twice). Can’t wait to see what happens in 2020!
Special thanks and shout out to all of GGH’s favorite scouting and backpacking friends and family — Emma “Sprout”, Sarah “Harvest”, Angela, Diana “Whim”, little Rowan and my dad, Mike a.k.a. “LongTime.” Logging miles with y’all is the best.
