Reflecting on 2024 – the good, bad, all of it. Stepping into 2025 with goals and aspirations. Let’s get into it!
Before we get started, this piece is a blog version of my podcast episode. You’re welcome to listen to the episode here! I’d love for you to give it a listen!
In a recent blog I wrote, I summarized 2024 in three words. The three words I chose were co-existence, priorities and space. I won’t go into depth as to why I chose these words today, but I invite you to read that blog to gain further context on this piece.
Rather, I’ll be unpacking 2024 as a whole. What happened throughout this year? Were there any learning lessons? Did I accomplish my resolutions or goals?
Then, I’ll share my insights on 2025, such as goal-setting, intentions, and aspirations. Maybe this reflection will help you reflect too. And remember, reflecting doesn’t have to happen at the end or start of a new year. You can always reflect at the end or start of a new day. Let’s go!
Twenty Twenty Four
I had a lot of optimistic feelings at the start of the year. I was feeling like myself again, preparing to become more social in the new year and overall confident in myself. I’d just turned 24, won a skincare giveaway, which who wouldn’t love! I was feeling good.
My intentions for 2024 was to slow down. It was my slow girl era, I called it. I’d done a lot the last several years up until 2024. I needed to take a breather. Unlike previous years where I was constantly on the go, with a new profession or milestone, I wanted to focus on everything and everyone I already have in my life. However, it was the complete opposite.
I was ready to tackle 2024… rather, it was ready to tackle me. Month after month, which it sure did feel as though the months flew by, I seemed to have some new issue. Our families experienced losses in February and May, then, I, a friend in August. From traveling to and from our hometowns to our home, life got busy. Not to mention, work and the workload of our own home (chores, keeping up with a toddler’s fast growth spurt, keeping our romantic fire alive, you get the gist.) We were surviving week by week. Maybe that’s how the months flew by as quickly as they did.
Work-Life Balance
First, let’s discuss work. This whole work-life balance was not balanced. While I know many people don’t believe in a work-life balance, key word, balance, as it should be more harmonious, compared to a balanced scale, I’m going to compare it to a scale in this scenario.
As time passed throughout the year, I struggled with “choosing one or the other.” Again, like a scale, I was too far on one side than the other. I couldn’t find that line, or the perfect match of weights. All I felt was the entirety of that weight, like Rock Lee’s ankle weights from Naruto. I was moving slowly, all while my mind was moving quickly.
I felt as if I was choosing work rather than spending time with loved ones. It was my work schedule that didn’t quite work with others’ traditional 9-5 on a weekday. I work Sundays and my partner works Saturdays. Can you imagine trying to fit in time for family or friends? I haven’t even touched the topic of travel – the preparation, travel time, and more.
This, as I mentioned before, was the opposite of what I pictured this year would be. I wanted to spend more time with loved ones, but I couldn’t. This was a major learning lesson for me. As much as I wanted to share what I love with everyone I love, I knew that wouldn’t be at all possible. I couldn’t be in two places at the same time. Yet, I was trying so hard to be.
I needed to accept the truth of my lifestyle or make a change. I often asked myself the questions,
Am I in the right spot? Is this where I’m supposed to be and what I’m supposed to do?
Did I make the right decision? How will I go forward?
What else can I do?
Healing
It wasn’t until the middle of the year that I started to heal from this. There’s more that I’m not mentioning, of course, but I needed to heal. I felt confident in myself and I was ready to get out there again after having a little one. I recognized that I missed the kinds of relationships I had pre-pregnancy. I talk a bit about this in episode 3, which I’ll link in the show notes. I felt lonely, even if I was surrounded by people.
Going forward, I had to come to terms with where I was with some of the relationships in my life, including myself. Some relationships were nonexistent. Some were hanging by a thread. Others were just as they were before the birth of my daughter. Few were up to date. I prioritized who would continue to be in my life and who no longer would.
As for myself, I really learned how to set boundaries. I’ve set space between myself and others. I’ve limited the amount of space I gave to others and that of what I held for others. It was time to let go, even though I wanted so badly to make some things work as I intended at the start of the year. I talk more about the concept of space in my blog summarizing 2024 in three words, as I mentioned earlier in this podcast. I have it linked in the show notes.
I learned that grief and happiness can co-exist. This, too, I talk about in that blog. I was bouncing between times of gratitude and light, to times of dullness and pain. It felt weird. It was odd. How can two opposite concepts live and breathe at the same time? What do I do and how do I move forward?
As I healed, I turned inwards.
What do I want?
How does that make me feel? How do they make me feel?
How does my body feel and what do I need?
I no longer cared for anyone’s thoughts, feelings or whatever else they had going on. I was prioritizing myself and my space. I chose myself and fought for me.
Happy Moments
Aside from the busyness of time, emotions and all else, I lived. I traveled to Florida with my little family. It was our first official family trip on a plane. I traveled to Las Vegas with my partner. We got to experience “couple things” where we didn’t necessarily have to care for another person. I even spent time with myself this year and if I’m being honest, spoil myself a little… or a lot. It opened doors for me.
I celebrated birthdays, graduations, marriages, anniversaries, and more. I have a job that pays for food and a home. I’m a mother, experiencing life all over again. I’m learning all there is to love and self-love. I’m re-discovering myself in ways I haven’t. That’s life.
Twenty Twenty Five
Stepping into 2025, there can be nothing and no one to stop me. Truly, I believe we are the only people who can stop ourselves from anything. This year, I am focused on three words – foundation, health and discovery. These words weren’t hard to think of. They were the first that came to mind and the only ones that spoke the loudest.
Foundation was a word that came up a few years ago, probably 2020 or 2021. It certainly made sense then in that circumstance. It made its way back this year. With the chaotic, organized, mess of 2024, I recognized that I needed more stability – in many areas. This new year will be the building of that foundation. I won’t share too much into these words and how I’m interpreting them, but I will one day.
I’m looking forward to taking care of my overall wellbeing, especially in a way that I haven’t before. Sure, I have a daily self-care routine and weekly self-care routine. I seek opportunities for massages, acupuncture, lessons, and other. But I’m really hoping to dive deeper into something else entirely. I want to tap into my younger self, while exploring the new. I want to take care of my body, as it does so much for us. I want to ease my mind and soul.
The last five years, I was in a new role of some kind – college graduate, wife, daughter-in-law, mother, career titles, and more. I often felt that I carried these hats everywhere I’d go, switching as I went along. With these hats, people often forget my age. They had expectations of me based upon all these titles. This year, I want to strip away the titles or at least lessen the pressure of them, because even yet, pressure is a privilege. It’s a privilege to carry these titles and duties. However, what more is out there that I have yet to explore? What can I discover and who will I become? That’s the purpose of this focus.
In addition to the three words, these are my affirmations of the year:
Trust and believe in yourself.
Practice gratitude and compassion.
Give yourself grace and time.
Forgive yourself. It’s okay.
I hope that going into this new year, you remind yourself of those affirmations. As we wrap up this piece, here are a few questions to ask yourself.
How was your 2024? Did you reach any goals you set? How’s your 2025 plan, or no plan, coming about? Let me know!
