As the holiday craziness winds down and I take a breath to look forward, I have to admit, I’m pretty stoked about 2025.
A few years ago, my friend Natalie (a woo-woo guru) introduced me to a new way to think about New Year’s Resolutions. Instead of a long list of to-dos, she spends time reflecting on her year and envisioning what she wants the next 12 months to look like.
After creating my first vision board at her dining room table, I realized that choosing one word to guide my year allowed me to feel excited instead of overwhelmed. Here’s what I did:
2022: Me
After my first son was born in 2019, I was running a company. My second son followed, my mom had a medical scare, then COVID. I realized I had spent years allocating my time to others’ needs and had missed my own. I didn’t have clothes that fit. I didn’t have many friends. I wasn’t doing a great job with my own health. After spending a year prioritizing me, I finally felt like myself again (complete with new jeans!)
2023: Now
I’d been putting off a lot of things I wanted to do because I had young kids. “Maybe one day I can…” was probably the most repeated phrase in my mind. In 2023, I vowed to just do the things I wanted to and see what happened. Turns out it was fine, and as a bonus, my sons now have a community of folks who care for them, not just me.
2024: Fun
Confession: this is not my default state. But after years of The Grind (at work and at home), I introduced “Saturday Socials” (doing something fun with friends every Saturday), fell into a great group of new parent friends, and started going to dance class. It worked – 2024 was a lot of fun.
2025: Contentment
Life has dished up quite a bit these past few years – some welcome changes, and some less so. Right now, my family is healthy, the business is growing, and we have a great group of friends. This year I want to set aside the “what’s next” mindset and just soak up the good that’s already here.
Every year when I go through this process, I’m amazed at the insights I derive. In fact, the 3 mindsets I’m changing next year was our 2nd most popular read in 2024.
If this sounds like it could be helpful to you, we created a 3-page resource to walk you through the process. Shout-out to Natalie, the original inspiration for this. If you want to read about how this process helped in her negotiation, you can see her story here.
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