I’ve got some big announcements for you this time around. My word for this year is MANIFEST. It’s something I have been good at doing haphazardly, so I am planning to focus on doing it with intention. I have this feeling in my bones that this year is going to be my year.

It seems I am doing these #TransformationTuesday check-ins every few months or so, but I really would like to delve into the process of change more. If people are actually following along, that would motivate me to share more of it, so please comment below if you are interested in more specific topic posts, rather than just updates. Also, please let me know if you are receiving any inspiration from this as I am sharing with the desire to actually help others.

Mind & Business

Since my last #TransformationTuesday post, I am happy to finally announce that I took the test for my real estate class on New Year’s Day and I passed with flying colors! Now, I am much closer to securing my real estate license. I just need to pass the state test and secure a broker sponsor. (I plan on writing a post about the licensing process in Florida, once I have completed it.) I also signed up for some real estate seminars and workshops, which I am hoping will help me become more familiar with real estate investment.

Another major announcement is that we designed a new visual brand for my site and social profiles, and I am making the official rebrand announcement tomorrow on my 40th birthday! You may notice that we have already begun the changes to this site. I took the steps to ensure that all my handles now match to @heatherlopezceo I purchased HeatherLopezCEO.com, and finally was able to get HeatherLopez.Com too! Tomorrow, we will be updating other profiles to better reflect my blog and personal brand. I’m throwing a virtual birthday party/ relaunch party for myself and will be checking on via lives on different social platforms throughout the day. It’s a new year, a new decade and the entry into my 40’s, so major changes are afoot! A vision board is in the works.

I hosted another successful event with Nissan in November, and this time my husband actually shot the video and edited it. It was a step out of his comfort zone, but something I feel he needed to do as well, so that we can create better videos together. Now he wants to create a media company to offer our services for other business owners. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned before that he is a graphic designer and video editor.

I took a videography class in the Fall, but there are still many other classes I would like to take to better my content creation skills. My husband is not always with me at events, so I need to be able to do better myself. Photography is definitely an area I need to focus more on. I took the video camera and the DSLR for a Disney event for the first time, so that I could begin practicing creating better content that doesn’t rely on just my phone. As in most things, the key to getting better at something is to actually practice.  Thanks to some gift cards I received over the holidays, I was able to upgrade my Samsung phone and pick up a Chromebook to run around with. I think these will help with creating better and faster content too!

As for books, I hate to admit it, but I haven’t been reading as much as I’d like to. I’ve still got plenty of reading material to go through, I just need to get back into reading everyday. Right now, my favorite book has been “Just Us Girls” by Brandi Riley, which I received for review. It’s really been a great way for my daughter and I to connect.

Body 

This is an area I have dropped the ball on somewhat. My husband took on some freelance work in the evenings, which has thrown off my schedule. We both want to get back to the gym, so we’ve been planning on how to best do that especially now that the kids are back to school. We’ve still been eating healthy on most occasions. Despite my lack of exercise, I still have lost some weight thanks to our diet. I’ve been letting my roots grow in to see how much gray is coming in, though I may just cave and touch of the roots when I can get a chance. I really like how my hair looks with the blonde highlights. (It takes several hours to do my hair in the salon, so that’s like an appointment I’d really have to fit in somewhere.) I’ll be in my 40’s now, so there are some things I will need to begin focusing on health-wise. I started taking better care of my teeth, and I will be scheduling a mammogram as a follow-up to my biopsy several years ago.

Spirit

My grandma passed away in November, and we are still going through it. There are still so many loose ends, and my grandpa is not in the best situation. Things have taken on an element of negativity, especially with all of the family fighting. It can be easy to forget to stop and pray about the situations that are taking place. But, I did have my mom apologize to me and she did spend some time at our house while she was down. Before then she had never been to my house, nor spent more than an hour with my kids. That was encouraging. My sister is having a baby boy and plans to name him Phoenix. She actually contacted me, in case I’d have an issue with her choosing that name since my son’s name is Joaquin. (Joaquin Phoenix). Before this, we hadn’t been communicating much. And there has been a lot of things happening as of late that could’ve really broken my spirit, but I won’t let them. I need to strengthen my spirituality more, and do have some books I can begin reading to help aide me in this area.

Environment

We’ve made some strides in my daughter’s room. She recently turned 12, and now her room is slowly beginning to look like a preteen lives there. We still have to get some of her excess toys out though. We moved a lot of things in the garage, so now there is open area that we may be able to use soon. My closet is another story as it still needs a lot of work. I tend to hold on to clothes I like, even when they have stains and holes. I need to cut things out of my life that no longer serve me. And we moved two of our chairs into the living room to make up for the missing couch, but we hope to replace it soon. In my office, I’d like to finally hang up the pictures and wall calendars. I’d also like a new office chair as my current one is war-beaten.  I would also like to decorate my bedroom, if my husband will finally let me. I have a vision for a color-scheme and everything, but he’s so picky about any decor I try to bring into the house.

As you may have noticed, I am trying to include categories. I think I can go a bit deeper with individual posts in these areas. Do you have anything you are working on for the new year? Tell me more in the comments below.