62: 2024 unfiltered: What I nailed and what I failed

In this episode, I’m reflecting on the past year with an honest look at what worked, what didn’t, and the lessons I’m taking into 2025. If you want to hear an unfiltered episode on what I nailed and failed in this past year, you'll love this episode. 

This episode is an opportunity to reflect on the year’s wins and challenges and consider what changes you want to make in the year ahead.

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Website: jordangiberson.com
Instagram: @jordan.giberson

Transcript

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Just getting honest with yourself and writing these things down, and then your personal growth highlights. Like what are some things that you feel like are just highlights for you. Some things that you really want to focus on this next year. If one of those goals is moving abroad, then let me be the first to tell you. I'm so happy you're here. Hey, my name is Jordan Giberson. I'm a Texas girl living and thriving in London. The best thing I've ever done? Moving abroad, hands down. And I'm passionate about helping others do the same. Are you curious about finding a job abroad? You're in the right place, friend. I'll teach you the tried and true secrets of how to make moving abroad a reality for you and how to live a fulfilling life once you get there. We'll cover topics like choosing the best visa for you, how to get a job offer in another country, how to get over your fear of moving abroad, and how to live a life you love once you get there, this is The Move Abroad Podcast. Hello, and welcome to another episode of the move abroad podcast. Today, I wanted to do an unfiltered review of the past 12 months. So it's going to be just a little bit of a recap of the year, but more than that, it's kind of a time capsule and just a moment to pause and reflect and just to get a bit of a behind the scenes, look into my life and what life looks like abroad for me. So I'll tell you about what worked, what flopped and the surprises that caught me off guard this year. And then the lessons that I'm bringing into the new year. So I want to see how this goes. It might be a new tradition that I do every year, just to kind of recap the year, as I said, it's a bit of a time capsule, which I do love the idea of that. But just to evaluate just the wins and challenges and everything in between. And hopefully to inspire you to do the same for your year. So grab a cozy spot and we'll go ahead and get started. So I'd love to start off with what I nailed in 2024. So I set five goals for myself at the beginning of the year, and I mostly accomplished them. I was actually pleasantly surprised whenever I looked back at the goals that I really did mostly accomplish those things. And I think I'm not normally a goal setting person, but I think that me, physically writing things down kept me really focused on what was most important to me instead of kind of getting sidetracked with different things that come up. So what happened with these five goals? Because this is not a normal thing for me. But why I set those five goals was I ended up doing a trip to Cape town at the beginning of last year. So I actually arrived on January 1st, 2024 in Cape town. And I originally was planning on being in Cape town for two weeks. And I loved it so much at the time. I was really burnt out and just not my best self. And I remember sitting on a beach and Cape town and crying for an hour, and finally getting honest with myself about what I needed to change. So long story short, that two week trip, I ended up extending my trip because I loved it in Cape town so much. I extended it for another two weeks after that I believe. And then I still wasn't ready to leave whenever my flight was coming up. And so I extended my flight for a second time. So instead of staying in Cape town for two weeks, I ended up staying for two months because I was so in love with it there. But anyways, I ended up having five goals. One of them was to build stronger female relationships and to build those friendships up one was to focus on romantic relationship in a way that's sustainable for me, because I love to serial date and then be done with it for a very long time. And I was like, no, I want to be consistent in that. I wanted to, you know, build up this community of people that wanted to move abroad, but in a way that felt good to me. For, I wasn't burning myself out. Like I had done the year prior and to launch my first course, which I ended up actually launching a workshop instead. But we'll see what happens 2025 might be launching a course that will help you be able to move abroad to Europe, which I feel really excited about and really excited about the potential of helping more people be able to move abroad this upcoming year. But my goal was to launch the course, but I ended up doing a workshop instead, which I still feel proud of myself for doing that. And just building more community. And I also said I don't do overwhelmed because that was a problem from the year prior was I was just, you know, pushing myself to try to you know, accomplish a lot in the year, all by myself. And I realized that what I was doing was not sustainable and why I ended up in Cape town being extremely burnt out and even to take a long break with things. And now I feel like I am a lot more sustainable in what I do and you know, how I'm able to help other people move abroad, which is awesome. So that was the first one was setting five goals for myself. And I honestly really stuck with them. So it makes me excited to set goals for this year because I'm like, well, if I set the goals, then I feel more pressure there's I think there's a pressure and a power in writing things down. So I wrote down those goals and I would encourage you to do the same as well, because I think there's power in writing it down and even more power and sharing those goals with people and saying them out loud to multiple people. It kind of keeps you accountable. And I think just hearing it. You know, in your own ears or seeing it on a piece of paper really helps you to actually accomplish those goals. So that was the first one for me. Another thing that I felt like I really nailed last year is I kept family my most important priority. So I normally go back home to Texas twice a year for about two weeks, two to three weeks, depending on the time of the year. And what's going on. And even though I live far away, I still wanted to keep my family number one priority. And last year in September, my grandma passed away. She was very old, lived a wonderful life. She was 98 years old. She lived a lovely life but it was still, you know, a surprise whenever she passed. We didn't know when she was going to pass away. And I ended up, you know, finding out that she had passed away and, I live so far away and my family was telling me, oh, you don't have to come. You know, you're really far away. The flights will be expensive. Like don't feel pressure. And I was like, you know, what,, what is my priority? Is it money? Is it time? Is it. You know, being able to work and get things done that I was planning on doing that week. And I was like, no, my number one goal is family. And I told myself that whenever I first moved abroad, that I wanted my family to be the priority. And no, I will not be able to attend every single birthday, every single holiday. It's not possible because you know, I'm building my life somewhere else. I'm living somewhere else. But I want to be here for the big things and the things that are most important. And I want to be here for my family. Whenever I need to be. So I made it a priority. I literally booked my flight in the evening. I think it was a Sunday evening and I flew out on Monday morning and I'm so thankful that I work for a company and a manager that was really understanding of that. It literally messaged my manager Sunday night and I was like, so I won't be working tomorrow because I'm going to be a flight. All I'm going to be on a flight all day long. And I'm hoping to take a couple of days off and she was super understanding, which I'm very thankful for that, but I'm proud of myself for, you know, keeping my family, the most important priority, because work was really busy. The flights were, you know, a bit expensive. But I had asked myself. You know, what is my main priority and what I regret not going. And that was a big priority for me. And a reminder to myself of, you know, what are I first moved abroad that I wanted to keep that a priority. So I'm proud of myself for doing that. So that was the second one is keeping family my most important priority. Number three was, building sustainable systems to help you be able to move abroad. So, like I said, I got really burned out from the year prior and if I get burnt out, then I can't help anybody. So whenever I got super burnt out at the end of December in 2023, I told myself that I really needed to build up ways to be able to help you move abroad in a slower and more sustainable way for me, so that I can continue to help you be able to move abroad. So some things that I put into place in this past year in order to keep a sustainable amount of work and not get burnt out. I started working with a virtual assistant in May. Shout out to Lee. You are the best. I started doing the weekly podcast again in July, first of this past year. So I've been keeping it up, doing a weekly podcast, and that is my priority. I want to make sure, I stay really consistent with you guys who are faithfully listening every month, every week. So I need to be faithfully putting out podcasts episodes. So I make it a priority every single week to send out a podcast episode to help you. you know, encourage you to be able to move abroad and learn different pieces about moving abroad, like, you know, building friendships about visas, etc. So that was a priority for me. And I got it back up July 1st and I've been proud of myself for keeping that up and I fully intend to keep it up. Like I said, it's my biggest priority to always make sure that I get that done. So that's another thing. And then started Pinterest in July. I started doing that. So I could reach more people and help more people be able to move abroad. And I started emailing you again. So we just had more communication between each other, starting in August. I started that up again and then I started doing Instagram in September. What's we'll talk about that in a little bit. But that was another thing that I started up and I'm trying to just, you know, keep things sustainable so that I can help you be able to move abroad because if I get burnt out, then I can't help anybody. So there's not point in doing that. So I need to make sure I'm keeping everything sustainable and building sustainable systems, which I feel like I was able to do this year. So I feel really happy about that as well. And the fourth and final thing that I feel like I really nailed this past year was that I hosted a workshop. So I hosted a workshop to help you guys get confident about where you wanted to move abroad and be able to get confident about which visa you needed to be able to get there, to be able to move to Europe. So I did a workshop move to here at pal to choose your destination and secure the right visa. So I was so proud of myself for getting that out there and just starting to help more people be able to move abroad. It was my goal in the air to do a course by I ended up doing workshop. So I was super proud of myself for doing that. And then maybe we'll have a workshop coming up in 2025, but I felt like those were the four things that I nailed. I set five goals for myself at the beginning of the year, and I mostly accomplished them. I kept my family the most important priority. I built sustainable systems to help people be able to move abroad. So I didn't get burnt out. And I hosted a workshop, which I felt really good about. So those are the things that I feel like I nailed now. This is where I feel like I failed. So I feel like there are two main things. I feel like I really failed this past year. One of them was that I didn't travel to Europe as much as I wanted to. I didn't do a good job of planning or initiating any European trips, which I want to do more of next year. I feel like I kind of went on other people's trips and where other people wanted to go to, which I loved. And I love the I have the opportunity to travel to European countries and be able to travel with my friends that are doing their trips. But I feel like I kind of miss solo traveling a little bit in Europe, so I might try to do. Trip or two next year by myself to places that I've really wanted to go to or see if I can, you know, rope some people into going with me. We'll see what happens. But this past year, I did go to Madeira Portugal, Ghent, Belgium, Amsterdam, Netherlands lake Garda in Northern Italy, Venice, Italy, and antique France, which is really close to nice. So I did actually go to a lot of locations and I know that I'm very lucky and I'm in a great position to be able to go to that many places. Not many people get to go to that many places. In a year. So it is actually crazy that I got to go to that many places and countries. But I feel like the year prior actually went to more places because it's just so easy. I mean, I know this is, this is really a bit of a selling point for you. I mean, if you want to move to Europe, what's so great is that the flights are so cheap. Just travel in general. It's a lot easier to get to other European countries because they're so close and the flights are quite inexpensive. Or if you're going to do a train, which I actually prefer, if I'm able to. You know, the trains are fairly, they're not super expensive. So I feel like, yeah, I feel like I didn't do that enough. And I want to try to do more of that next year. So I feel like I can do better next year. The second thing that I feel like I failed and I will say this is a bit more of a failure is that I didn't document my travels and what I was up to enough so that you can get a better idea of what life abroad looks like. I will say it is a balance of trying to enjoy time where you're at, but also need to get content because I need that content in order to connect with you and get you pumped for your potential life abroad. Because my goal here is to inspire you. Get you excited. Get you to realize that it is possible for you to be able to move abroad. And I want you to fill excited and feel like it's possible to move abroad this year, if you want to. So I really want to show you the highs and the lows of life abroad, so you can see what your life might look like, but I can't really do that unless I document those things and share it with you. So I feel like I didn't do a great job of doing that this past year. And it's something that I want to focus on more, but I will say, I feel like this is one of my weaknesses. So to give you a bit of context. My personal Instagram. I have not posted on my personal Instagram since 2015. It's honestly embarrassing. Like the photos that I have on my personal Instagram. They're old and. Like 2015 is quite a few years ago now. Right. So it's quite embarrassing. And I honestly get so embarrassed whenever someone's like, oh, like what's your Instagram? I'm like, I like, I don't really want to share my personal Instagram because it's dead. I haven't posted since 2015, but I'll share my business one, if you want to check that one out. So if you want to learn about moving abroad, then you know, you can check out that one. And I do share a bit about my personal life and stuff on stories and things like that. But, anyways, it's I'm saying that to tell you that it is not my strength. Like posting stories, thinking about, you know, taking videos for content. You know, developing the content. It's never been my strong suit, but I know that I need to do that in order to share what my life looks like and, or to inspire you, get you excited, teach you about visas, teach you about moving abroad and help you be able to get there. If that's one of your goals, which I would assume if you're listening to this podcast, that it is one of your goals, you know, so I need to, in order to help you, I need to be better about documenting my travels, sharing my experiences in life and London. What my life abroad looks like. To inspire you and help you be able to move abroad. So I feel like I didn't do a good job of doing that this past year. And like I said, I was proud of myself for getting my Instagram back up and running in September. I started doing, you know, a few posts and sharing stories again. But I feel like I need to build a system around that. Just like what I've done with everything else and the podcasts and things like that. So that I can build a sustainable way to be able to share content with you, to inspire you and help you be able to move abroad. So that is one of my goals and something that I feel like I failed at last year. So I shared with you what I nailed and what I failed, but I also wanted to include some personal goal highlights. So these are a bit, these are obviously, you know, a bit more personal. One of them, I was like, I don't know if I really want to share that, but yeah, well we'll go ahead and dig into it. So the first one that I wanted to share was that. My main focus last year. And I figured out that my main word for last year was relationships. I focused on building my female relationships. This is going to sound really weird. So brace yourselves. Beginning of last year. I had what I called a hit list of three girls. Where I found these three people in my life, you know, it's difficult to find people that you click with, you know, It's hard to find people that you meet the feel like, oh, I could be really good friends with you. I feel like we'd really click and really hit it off with friendships or, you know, with people that you meet in a romantic setting or whatever it is. But I feel like I had these three girls that I really want to build relationships with. And I feel like I did a pretty good job of doing that. I feel like I could do better, but of course, you know, It's a balancing act of balancing work and balancing, you know, podcast and balancing your social life and traveling and family and all the things. So there's a balance to everything, but I feel like I did a pretty good job and I want to continue doing that and focusing on the relationships that I feel like are that I could build a really strong relationship with these specific people. So anyways, I know it's super weird, but I had a hit list of, three girls that I was trying to be better friends with. And I feel like, that's something that I'm going to continue doing next year, but that was a goal that I had set. Another thing was I want to plan more things ahead of time, and I feel like I did a really good job compared to my normal setting. You know, setting up one on one time with people and group activities with people, I feel like I did a lot better at kind of planning ahead. Whereas I feel like I tend to be a bit more like spontaneous in my weekend plans, but in London, if you try to be spontaneous with people, they're like, oh, I'm sorry, I'm booked out for the next three weeks. Like try me in four weeks. So you do have to plan ahead a bit more. I feel like in London. But I feel like that's something that, you know, I did a good job was planning ahead and having those, you know, plans set in my calendar. Another thing was I focused on meeting new people. I feel like I really focused on that last year. So I went to single events. I feel like probably once per month or something like that, I go to a lot of networking events. I normally go one per month. I have gotten a lot more involved in work and try to build relationships with people, my office and going into the office a bit more consistently to build those relationships and meeting up with people after work from the office. So I've been trying to cultivate a bit more of a my work friendships, if you will. I also joined an all girls WhatsApp group called the sisterhood, which is with a bunch of women in London who do fun activities. So people will plan group activities or say, Hey, I'm going to this pub, or I'm going to this park at this time. And people will join in. So I feel like that was also a really great place to meet more people and just get out and you just never know who you're going to meet or what you're going to learn from the people that you meet, even if you don't want to build a relationship with them. So I feel like I did a good job of doing that last year and it's something that I want to maintain next year. And I feel like the other thing. So that was, that was one of them was, you know, my main focus last year was relationships. And those were the ways that I was building relationships. So the other thing, and this was the one that I was like, this is a little bit personal, but it is something that I am focused on this year. And I probably won't go into too many details on this one, but this is a focus for me on the personal side was I feel like I'm finally open to finding my person. I feel like for a very long time, I have been. Very much in single mode and wanting to just build my career and just have fun traveling and doing solo travel and, you know, moving abroad and building my life abroad. And I feel like I'm finally open to finding my person. So I've been, you know, Against dating seriously for a very long time, just because, you know, I was like, I don't want someone to ask me what I'm doing on a Saturday, or like check up on me every day or another. Person's just going to slow me down. Which honestly was how I thought about things, but I feel like I've shifted a lot in this past year and a half years or so. So that's something that I really want to focus on as well. I actually, for those who solve the email and the social posts on this, I actually fell in love with this year and it didn't work out. And I feel really excited to, you know, Continue looking for people and just being open. And, my goal is to go to at least one single event per month, and I go to networking events and there's potential to meet people there and just getting out and just. You know, any time you can introduce yourself to new pool of people. I think that's a positive thing if you're also in the same boat as me trying to find your person. So yeah. I'm finally open to finding my person. And I feel like I want to build a sustainable way to continue to meet new people and, you know, See what happens. That's probably the most personal one of the group. And I was like, if, I don't know if I want to do that one, but I decided I wanted this to be an unfiltered. And kind of getting it all out there type of podcast episode. So yes, that was one of them as well. And then two more that I feel like were kind of my personal growth highlights of the year. So, the third one is I feel like. I've always wanted to live alone. And I am finally accomplishing my goal of living alone. I've been living in the same plat for five years. And in August of this past year, our landlord told us that we needed to move out so that her son could move in because he got into Imperial college in London. So he will be moving into the flat with some friends. So we got kicked out and I had to find a new home. So I secured a new flat in London. That will be the first place that I've had on my own. It's 30 seconds from the river and it's right on a four mile running loop that everyone in London does. Anytime you meet a runner in London and they're talking about their favorite running spots. This loop on the river is a constant trend that people go to. So I'm really excited about that. And there's a bunch of rowing clubs that are nearby. I was on the rowing team in college for, I think it was two and a half years and I loved it. And I've always thought about joining the rowing club. And now it's literally like a 32nd walk from my house, maybe one minute from where I'm going to move into. So I'm moving in at the end of January, but I am so excited to make it the cutest girliest flat of my dreams, and finally accomplished my dream of living alone. So it's always been a goal of mine. I've lived with two other girls since being in London and two of them have become best friends of mine. I'm actually going to a wedding for one of them coming up soon. And the other one is probably my closest friend in London. So it's been a wonderful experience and I've been able to invest a lot of my income, which has been wonderful. So this will be a big financial change for me to go on my own, but I'm absolutely pumped my Pinterest has never had so much attention. It's had so much attention recently, the number of pins that I've put up from just, you know, couches and design things and blah, blah, blah. So I'm so excited. So that was the third personal one. And the fourth one. You know, my personal growth highlights is that I've become a lot more reflective and I action things that I can do better constantly. So I feel like I've always been a pretty reflective person, you know, reflecting on my life and things I want to do better. And just on kind of what's going on and being honest with myself about how I'm feeling and what I'm thinking and things like that. But I'm also pretty hard on myself and I will absolutely kill myself to do the things I feel like are best for me. But I now reason with myself more on what sacrifices I make to get the things that I want and whether it's worth the level of sacrifice that I make in order to get those things. So the example is that in 2023, I absolutely killed myself trying to do everything. And so nothing was done well, which didn't serve me. Well, it didn't serve you well as a listener of this podcast. And it didn't serve my family or my friends while either because I was so spread thin with my corporate job and trying to maintain the podcast and social media. And I was building the website. My website, Jordangibberson.com. And that took a lot of my energy. And I was trying to, you know, build my friendships and trying to come back home to visit my family. And it was just so much, so I have been really focused on trying to be more reflective and actioning whenever I realized that things. Are not as good as they could be and actually taking action to make it better. So I reflect often about what's going well and what's not, like I said, so that I can make changes before waiting for a breaking point. I feel like that's what happened. You know, the year prior was that I waited for, I knew things were kind of bad and that I was struggling to get everything done and to like, maintain. You know, social life and et cetera, et cetera. But, I waited until I hit a breaking point. whenever, I was crying on the beach in Cape town. And I was like, not ready to get back to my normal life. And so I stayed in Cape town for two months, which was wonderful and I loved it and I have no regrets. That was one of the best trips I've ever done. But that was also healing time for me, because I had gotten burnt out the year before. So, yeah, I've been more reflective and I action things that I feel like I can do better. Somebody once told me that the only thing in life that stays consistent is that there were always be change. And that is just the most true statement I've ever heard. So the only thing that is guaranteed in life is that there will always be changed. Everything is always changing and I think everything is always evolving. You know, including the things that are best for us. So I think we need to constantly take inventory on where we're at emotionally, professionally, financially, spiritually, physically, just getting honest with ourselves on where we're at and each of those separate areas of our lives so that we can take action to make changes that our future selves will think us for. And I feel like that's been a really big focus of mine. That's been a personal growth thing for me in this past year is being really, really honest with myself and really honing in on what is working and what's not, and constantly reflecting on those things. And reflecting on this past year and thinking about the year ahead for me and for you, I think, you know, Setting goals, I think is a big thing that people do in the year. But I feel like thinking of a least one or even three or five or however many things you feel like is practical, but setting practical goals for yourself. And reminding yourself of those goals and reflecting on them. And I really want to reflect. Quarterly. And I feel like I did that more, a bit more organically. But I do want to actually set a reminder in my calendar on a specific day to say, this is the day where I'm going to go back to those goals that I set and see how I'm doing. And I'm not setting a lot of really, I am setting some specific number goals, you know, those smart goals that people set. But I think, you know, It doesn't have to look like that. So, yeah, I think I just ask you to reflect on your goals. If you could do this whole activity yourself as well. I think that that would be a really great activity. I actually outlined. January, February, March, April, all, every single month. Like what happened that month? Just to remember, because I feel like it's you think you remember. And you can go back your photos, some things aren't going to be on your camera roll. Like the fact that I launched workshop in November that would not be in my camera roll. So I feel like actually writing it down and remembering the year and reflecting on it, if you haven't done so already is a really great exercise. And then to outline what you nailed this past year, what you failed at this past year, just getting honest with yourself and writing these things down, and then your personal growth highlights. Like what are some things that you feel like are just highlights for you. Some things that you really want to focus on this next year. If one of those goals is moving abroad, then let me be the first to tell you. I'm so happy you're here. I'm so happy that you're listening to the podcast. I'm happy that you are taking action. Just the fact that you're listening to this podcast episode right now shows you. Shows yourself that you are serious about this, that you are really contemplating this, and whether it's a good move for you in your life, whether you know, this is the year or whether it's something that you want to prep for the following year, or maybe something that you start actioning towards the end of this year, so that you can move abroad the next year. But I do think, you know, just getting honest with yourself about when you want to move abroad, what date you really want to move, where you want to move to and which visa you need. Those are some of the first steps that I always say are best to focus on whenever you're looking to move abroad. And there's so many other podcasts episodes. If you haven't listened back to some of the other ones, just to start, you know, educating yourself on. You know, the steps you need to take and starting to get a bit organized to figure out what your steps will look like. So I just want to say, I am your number one cheerleader. I love my life abroad and I love it whenever other people, you know, are like-minded. You know where it, same, you know, if you want to move abroad and that's a goal that you have, then it takes a certain type of person to have that desire and want to move abroad. So I congratulate you for wanting that in your life and I, you know, feel excited for you and the potential of that actually happening this year, because you can absolutely make it happen this year, if you want to. So with that being said, I just want to say thank you so much for listening to this episode where I got a bit honest, on, you know, what I feel like I did while what I felt like I failed. And you know, some of my personal highlights of the year and I would encourage you to do the same. I hope it encourages you to do the same. And, yeah, just thank you so much for listening to another episode of the move abroad podcast. I'll catch you here again next week. Same time, same place. I'll catch you then.