Last year was not what any of us expected. I used my planning system, which I recently published as the book The Year You Want, and then I had to reevaluate my goals, plans, and projects several times throughout the year. Despite the fact that I didn’t achieve many of my original adventures, I was able to replace them with new adventures, and I’m super satisfied with how the year turned out.

Travel adventures

Original plans: walk the Camino Portugués and the Camino Inglés, then write books about my adventures. COVID made the Camino Portugués impossible (I was booked to go right before we went into lockdown), and the Camino Inglés unpalatable (I meant to do this in the fall, which was in between lockdowns, but I had no desire to get on a flight at that point).

Updated plans: I went on a spectacular two week camping trip in Wiltshire and Sussex instead of walking the Camino Portugués. I ended up walking almost exactly 150 miles, which is what I would have walked on the Camino. I had such a good time, and I plan to revisit some of the places I went in 2021.

Instead of walking the Camino Inglés in the fall, I decided to walk the Ridgeway. I originally planned to do this in spring 2021, but I bumped it up in my plans. I didn’t want to get on a flight and travel internationally, but I felt safe and comfortable to travel within England. This meant that I was able to get a head start on the second edition of my Alone on the Ridgway book, which will be released in 2021.

Outdoor adventures

In addition to the above adventures, which both took place in the outdoors, I signed up for two walking ultramarathons for 2021, which meant that I needed to start training longer walks. I extended my day walks, and I completed one 35K (21.7 miles) and one 40K (24.8 miles) walk before the end of the year.  This was a very different experience compared to my usual day walks or long-distance walks: I moved at a faster pace, I took fewer rest breaks, and I carried an ultralight pack with just the bare essentials.

I absolutely loved these long walks. In both instances, I started just after sunrise and kept going after sunset. While I’m still getting used to being comfortable walking in the dark, I loved being out all day long. My next walk is 45K (28 miles), and I can’t wait. Prior to these walks, I thought I had seen every single trail in my area. But in stretching my day hikes to a new level, I’ve discovered many new trails within walking distance from my home. That’s because “walking distance” from home has a new meaning now!

I also got back into running. I used to be a runner: first a road runner, then a treadmill runner. But strangely, never a trail runner. In 2020, I got into trail running, and I did my first 10K trail race in mid October, then a half marathon just two weeks later. I love trail running. Remember what I said about expanding my sense of “walking distance” from home? With trail running, I can go so much farther than I can when I’m walking.

As of now, I’m up to 30K (18.6 miles) in my running training. It gives me such a great sense of freedom to know that I can cover these distances. And it’s a huge shift in mindset: so much more is possible now!

Creative adventures: books

My original publishing calendar looked like this:

• Publish 2nd edition SDW – April
• Finish project – new editions of all mindset books in ebook/print/audio/workbooks
• ITCT – Spanish edition + Spanish workbook
• Planner

Instead, I ended up publishing the following books in 2020:

1. Alone on the South Downs Way
2. Business Beliefs
3. Business Beliefs Workbook
4. Business Blocks
5. Business Blocks Workbook
6. Business Visibility
7. Business Visibility Workbook
8. Business Intuition
9. Business Intuition Workbook
10. Business Mindset books 1-4, ebook box set
11. Add More Adventure to Your Life
12. How to Practice Self Love
13. How to Practice Self Care
14. Develop Your Own Inner Compass
15. How to Let Go of Toxic People
16. Into the Woods Short Reads books 1-5, ebook box set
17. The Year You Want
18. El año que quieres (The Year You Want, Spanish edition)
19. Si los árboles hablaran (If Trees Could Talk, Spanish edition)

This, along with Michelle Kulp’s online course and book 28 Books to $100K: A Guide for Ambitious Authors Who Want to Skyrocket Their Passive Income By Writing a Book a Month, has inspired me to write 12 books in 12 months in 2021.

Creative adventures: podcasting

As usual, I published one podcast episode per week throughout the entire year, not missing a week. I was tempted to list every single episode here, but I won’t. If you want to see what the topics were, you can find them here: https://www.hollyworton.com/podcast/. I made a slight pivot from general personal development to talking about personal growth through outdoors adventures, which is much more aligned with what I’m doing and where I’m going in life. I also started to bring guests on the show again, which has been fantastic. I’ll be continuing that in 2021.

I was also a guest on a few podcasts:

• The Creative Penn with Joanna Penn
• Beauteous Me with Jamilly Whitfield
• Books and Travel with Joanna Penn
• Three Things I’ve Learned with Susan Dolci: Sharing the Stories That Shift Our Souls
• Petite2Queen

Creative adventures: blogging

I started working with a blogging coach this year, and she really helped me to get clear on what I wanted to write about. She also inspired me to write over 30 blog posts this year. Again, I won’t list them here (thought I’m tempted to do so). You can find them here: https://hollyworton.com/blog/.

The year I wanted

While 2020 certainly did not go to plan (my original plan), I was able to pivot, and reevaluate, and create a new plan. This is important: none of this would have been possible without a plan: I had a list of goals and projects, and a strategy to complete them. And then I updated that strategy throughout the year.

Want to make sure you have a 2021 full of the types of adventures you want to experience? Buy The Year You Want (link below). 

Related reading

For years and years, I just let life happen to me. Sometimes life was good, sometimes it was bad. Then I made some major life changes, and in 2011 I trained as a life coach and learned the power of setting goals, planning projects, and creating an actual plan for my life. And that’s when I really started living. Life got better and better, year after year. And now I’m excited to share my process with you.

This workbook is how I create the year that I want to live. It helps me to imagine my best lift and design my ideal year, so I don’t leave my life to chance. There are two parts to the workbook: first, we evaluate the year that’s just passed, so we can see what went right—and what could be improved. Then, we plan all the little details of all the things we want to experience in the new year. We plan projects, we set goals, and we create a plan to achieve them.

Are you ready to stop simply existing, and start living a fulfilling life that’s full of joy and adventure?

You can start at anytime of the year. You’ll simply adjust it to evaluate the last 12 months of your life, and to plan the next 12 months—whether that’s in December, March, July, or September. The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll be living your ideal life. Buy this workbook today and start planning your joy-filled future.

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Thank you!