“Sometimes, you have to look back in order to understand the things that lie ahead.”
― Yvonne Woon

Each month, I set aside time to reflect on the previous month: memorable moments, lessons I learned, how I spent my time, how I’m different, who/what I’m grateful for, improvements for next month, and goals to work toward. I try to be intentional in my personal development, and posting each month is a way to keep me accountable (it’s also built into my favorite planner, which is a nice reminder 😉 ).

Three Lessons I Learned:

• You have to make the best of crappy weather. Sure, sometimes it’s nice to just sit inside and read all day (guilty), but when it’s cold/foggy/rain a lot, you can’t let it stop you. Just dress accordingly!
• We can’t forget our history. Spending a day at Auschwitz was eye-opening. Sure, I’ve read about WWII and the Holocaust (I even took a class on it in college), but actually being there brought a whole new weight to what happened. Seeing places like Auschwitz and Birkenau force us to face (to the extent we can) the immeasurable suffering that others have gone through and understand the role completely normal people played in allowing it to happen.
• Acknowledging your fears and specifically naming them can help you overcome them. Since moving to Italy, I’ve found that I have had so much more anxiety than I used to. While Joe was gone for a few weeks and it was literally just me and my thoughts most of the time, I tried to understand where that fear/anxiety was coming from and work through it. That and a lot of prayer.

Top 3 Highlights:

• Explored San Marino in my first solo trip of the year.
• Spent time in Krakow and got to see tons of cool stuff.
• Wandered Vienna’s Christmas markets with my newly returned husband.

What big lessons have you learned over the past month? Share in the comments below!