Zaneta Baran

I was actually really excited to write this post. For a few years I have been writing birthday blog posts every year. It is such a great experience to read it back and see how my life has changed, if my focus was where I wanted it last year and to see if my plans came to reality or not. So today I would like to share with you past year experiences and my next year focus. Let’s go!

Ah by the way, that’s the post from last year, check it out, how much my perception of life has changed!

What has happened in the last year?

Well… as everyone knows 2020 is a special year, the pandemic has happened and the whole world slowed down for a while. It was an interesting experience to be part of this kind of historical moment. Our life hasn’t been particularly impacted. I have been working remotely like always. We just spent a few months closed in our new renovated house – not bad. We had a balcony, a big garden to walk around and a family close to us. We slowed down, we were chilling, barbecuing, playing games.

Career

While writing this post I left this section last because I don’t really know what to tell you. My priorities have changed totally past year. I don’t really feel a need to try to get into another level of my career path. Like I don’t feel it is a priority anymore. I am still happy to work in IT but I also started paying more attention to what I really wanna do in my life. First of all I really appreciate life after work, I put proper barriers where the work starts and it finishes and when real life is taking first place. I also started looking more inside me, what I really enjoy. My conclusion so far is that I still love the topic about human performance, I just changed an approach and I call it Optimal Lifestyle. It festinates how we can improve our body and mind and be simply happy in our life. I also love interior design and investments into old places. So I am planning to have some side projects into this direction as well. That’s pretty much it about my career, it just plays a different role in my life now.

Do you wanna learn more about my career, check out one of the blog post in Woman in Tech.

Travelling

Despite pandemic we actually have been travelling quite a lot this year. In January for Zyd’s birthday we visited Amsterdam, Holland. We had such a great time over there with my brothers. Then we got a chance to visit Budapest, Hungary for a weekend by car and the pandemic happened 🙂

After a few months of quarantine, we visited Zakopanem, a mountainous area of Poland where we basically were eating, chilling, walking. Then we had a wedding of my cousin in Nysa, Poland where we rented a lake house and had definitely so much fun with my brothers and cousins. Afterwards, we went for a week-long fight camp in Szczyrk, Poland, it was the time when I decided I needed to lose some weight ha ha.

We also went for #workation in Zakynthos, Greece where we spent the whole week and I realised it is a great way of working. Then we had SPA weekend next to the border with Germany where it came up that the place is full of old people, like it was them and us – two couples, we had so much laughter. Later on we had communion of my godson in Nysa again and lake house again. And finally Beskid Na Drzewie – an amazing house tree in the mountain area of Poland, a cute and chill place for a couple. We spent a weekend there for my birthday.

I have already only visited 17,48 % of the world!

Physical & Mental Health

Let’s start from the physical aspect and the fact that it is pandemic time. For a few months we have been eating, chilling, no exercising, it was crazy unusual time. So you can imagine I gained a few kilograms, lucky at some point I moved my ass and started working out again. So writing this blog post I am back into my previous better shape ha ha. I started doing regular workouts again and introduced a little bit more yoga into my life.

For mental health, it is part of my Optimal Lifestyle project. I am still fascinated about it and I realised I moved into another level. I deeply analyse my reactions and emotions. It is also a kind of new lesson for me. Since I came back to Poland I need to face my old memories, experiences, feelings. I ran away from it almost 10 years ago and now I need to face it again. It is a great experience actually, I feel like I am developing even more and it is amazing to see this progress. 

Lifestyle

Not so many big events here. We are still engaged, we are still trying to organise our wedding, more about it in the section below. No babies planned yet ha ha. We moved into a new apartment of course which we love, seriously! You need to check out our Interior Design series, where we are showing each of our makeovers. We also definitely changed how we live.

First of all, slow living. I have changed my priorities and I appreciate life much more now. I wanna enjoy every moment out of it. I don’t run anymore, I don’t wait for anything now. I appreciate the seasons in Poland and these transitions into autumn now. 

I also got into a minimalist topic, since we started decorating our place we were really considering having only the things which we need and which are functional. We also look for natural materials and good quality elements. For example, I totally remove polyester from my wardrobe. Our environment has a huge impact on our life so we want to take care of ourselves in this way. And that’s also part of my Optimal Lifestyle project since it covers all aspects of our life in a holistic approach. 

Check out my optimal lifestyle tips and much more on IG @zanetabarancom!

What about my plans from the previous year?

It is the time for checking out previous year post and seeing how my plans impacted my real life.

Apartment renovation – I will not lie to you that it will not be my focus. Of course, it will be! I am about to create my first project, my first home and I am super excited about it. I will put energy into it and most of my focus.

Of course it was my focus. I spent almost a year renovating our apartment. It was such a stressful time but I also loved it. It is such a great feeling to create something by yourself. And the effect was really surprising in a positive way.

Wedding preparation– this one which I always dreamed about – beach wedding. You know, I never wanted to get married but I always wanted to have a beach wedding. I loved the idea about tropics, palm trees, white beach and turquoise water. My dream is coming true and we are having our marriage celebration in Boracay, Philippines! That will be one of my main focuses also!

Ha ha, that’s a funny topic. We have moved our wedding into 2021 just after my birthday last year. We just decided that all our focus and money were going into the house, so we wanted to have more time to enjoy wedding preparation another year. And it was a great idea because then 2020 brought pandemic and in April when our wedding was supposed to happen, it was the momentum of the start of the COVID. Anyway, it looks like we will be moving our wedding one more time, since the world still fights with the virus and it is not that easy to travel. Currently if we would like to go to the Philippines, we would have to have the two weeks of quarantine. It doesn’t make any sense, we will not be able to sort out all the stuff which we need before the ceremony. Then in this case, we will have to move the wedding again, for the times when the world will come back to normal.

Health – I am planning to focus on my general health, I wanna check up my body, fix my smile, get proper preparation for future plans about babies, improve general health.

This point is still in progress. I am about to remove my braces and we will be finalising the fixing of my smile. I also did a few medical exams and am planning to go to the doctor at the end of October. I still wanna do a lot in this area, so this point will keep going.

Enjoying our home – I wanna enjoy moments in our first home. I am saying first, because the next project will be house on the beach in the Philippines. Meantime however I wanna enjoy our new home, I wanna chill in front of TV, I wanna work in my amazing home office, I just wanna enjoy our time together.

Ha ha, that’s another funny one. I was wishing to have time at home and man, I got it a lot ha ha! A few months of quarantine, barbecues, Netflix, chill, board games, talks, puzzles, cooking, baking… that was good time. Seriously, we actually were really lucky to move into new apartment before the whole pandemic thing has started.

What will be my focus on the next year?

• Wedding? – I have no idea. Seems like we will postpone it again, but the whole preparation can still keep going. So I am leaving this point here, why not.
• Slow living, minimalist, natural, taking care of myself and my emotions – that’s my favourite topic now as you could see in the Lifestyle section. For the next year I wanna keep focusing on it and involving my life more into it. I also wanna focus on developing even more my awareness of the emotions and feelings. I definitely wanna get better at it.  
• Courses and skill improvements in practice – I realised that because of many events in my life past few years I didn’t really develop my skills in the way of actually joining some courses. I read a lot of books and articles, but I didn’t really invest into any paid courses and that’s what I wanna do. I already started with some materials about business online. 
• Slaughter house renovation – I have been thinking about this point for a while. Gym project is more Zyd’s project but I cannot resist that I am fully involved over there as well. I am the main investor ha ha and interior designer. We are taking it easy, we are doing a lot of things by ourselves and saving money for our next investment in the Philippines. I am again excited that I can convert old into new. 

That’s pretty much for today. I would be more than happy if you could write a few words for me in the comments below. And well… Happy Birthday to me! 

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