My 2017: Achievements and Failures – How achievements can turn into failure

Since joining #Steemit last week I have been pondering what I would/could contribute, in such ponderings I stumbled across @anomadsoul and ‘My 2017’ focusing on the year that was, looking it from different angles each week. @anomadsoul will choose a new subject weekly for you to participate in. This week’s subject is ‘Achievements and Failures’ of which I have decided I am adequately skilled enough to attempt a post.

For the full details on how to submit your post click HERE

#MY2017

Where do I start… 2017 has been an amazingly successful year for me. Full of achievements and milestones. What’s better is that I see it as the beginning of an even more successful happy positive and productive future. Focusing on the things I forgot about myself. The things I used to do before I got sick, the dreams I had and the things I was going to do with my life. In short I stopped the finding excuses why not and started doing instead.

#Achievements

Nothing like a good competition to stir the story writer within you… I have wanted to write my story and start a blog since first receiving my ileostomy back in 2007 but always found an excuse why not too…

Long story short, I bumped into a product rep that told me I should submit my story to The Great Comebacks Awards – an award for those who have overcome the challenges of living with ostomy surgery.

As challenging as it would be to rehash some of my story, if there was ever going to be a subject I could write it about, this would be it, so in true fashion that reminded me of my university assignment days, I waited until the last moment to submit my story. Finding out early January that I had been shortlisted and was one of five finalists. #Achievement1

As part of being a finalist I had to submit a video of my submission. If you want to check out the video you can HERE

What I didn’t realise when I committed my story to writing was how therapeutic it was going to be. I cried and I laughed. I remembered things I had deliberately forgot and in doing so I pulled all the pieces of me back together again. Not the same me a new improved grown me, one I could accept. #Achievement2

And then to my surprise I won! #Achievement3 From that my confidence soared, if someone found value in my story then others may too and that is how 2017 became my year of #acceptance and with that acceptance came the #courage to share my story with the world and finally start my #blog InsideOut Ostomy Life. #Achievement4 All with the aim of inspiring others to live life to the fullest, never take it for granted and know they are never alone in this.

Since starting my blog I have gathered quite a loyal engaged following across majority of my social media channels. #Achievement5 Which led to me being nominated and then endorsed for the ‘Rookie of the Year’ Award from WEGO Health a global patient advocacy forum based in the US. #Achievement6 Again to my complete surprise I was selected as one of the five finalist’s #Achievement7 and amazingly I won. #Achievement8 Resulting in a trip to the US, involvement in a global health summit and awards evening complete with required speech and live Facebook feeds. A thrilling yet terrifying adventure.

#Failures

Where are the failures in this you may ask, here are some that I consider failings, while one is somewhat out of my control all are connected and as we get closer to 2018 I will continue to work on what I can change and not focus on what I can not.

#Failure1
My body is a constant worry and even though I treat it with as much love and kindness as I can muster, when put under pressure it can fail me. I’d like to say not often but 2017 has been an extra challenging year in the wellness category. I continually struggle between all the things I would like to be doing and what I can actually do before all my spoons run out.

Image Credit

#Failure2
I use exercise as a stress reliever so when my body fails me my mind tends to follow and fail me too. Bringing on anxiety, depression and panic attacks. I isolate myself to the house and lose all motivation to do the things I love. I then punish myself for all the things I should be doing that I am clearly not. This is a cycle that is unimaginatively hard to break but overtime it gets easier to recognise the signs and minimise the impact it has on me.

Image Credit

All in all, life is a series of #achievements and #failures, so long as we celebrate the achievements and learn from the failures then we are failing our way forward towards more achievements to come and that is win.

As I’m new I would love you to check out my #introduceyourself post to find out more @insideoutlet or click HERE