At the start of the year I keep a mini tradition and commitment to myself. In recent years, I assign a word for the coming year ahead, to reflect back on as the year progresses, as a simple reminder of good intentions and staying true to my vision – as when we set resolutions they tend to shift, alter or have a tendency to fade away after January. Last year, my word for 2024 was Optimism.
Grow: my word of the year for 2025. I’ve been letting the word come to me naturally through reflection, meditation and light journalling, and haven’t found a more prominent one that comes to mind.
My time towards the end of 2024 were particularly challenging for me, mostly a battle with my own anxiety and mindset, there were weeks when my hope and optimism shrivelled, after a hard working year with mixed results, I still felt unworthy and stuck repeating the same old patterns, discouragement roaring at the door, and unable to see in the darkness I self-created or take in the successes or any wins however big or small. Revolving thoughts playing on repeat in my mind ‘Why am I still doing this?’ or ‘I can’t’ or ‘I am not intelligent enough.’
I feel like peace and contentment won’t last unless I’m consistently learning, feeling out of my comfort zone or growing. We have a tendency to keep chasing ‘more’, when the things I have today that keep my life joyful are things I would have begged and wished for years ago.
After sharing some thoughts with a trusted friend, she unexpectedly sent me a book ‘The Rested Soul’ by Tessa Afshar, and most oftentimes with books, I will read a chapter that have lines that strongly resonate with what I need to hear:
‘Life has a way reducing us to our ‘I can’t’ places…often we are reduced by life’s hardships we measure our ability by our human timeline and arrive at the conclusion that we can’t.’
‘Don’t measure your future by this present experience. Get ready to grow…The last 30 days, weeks or months don’t rule your life. They don’t get to dictate your future.’
The last 30 days or 30 years don’t rule how our future will unfold. I’ve been using the past as a prediction tool, and now I want to reevaluate to let go of this unconscious pattern.
In November ’24, I started doing more public speaking, I had got on to a government funded course teaching me creative business skills (a win for 2024). At the end of the course I gave a 5 min presentation about my freelance business and how the course had helped me with my confidence and networking.
The following week I hosted my own 30 minute webinar teaching SEO to new people and extended networks I had met through that course.
From putting myself out there from 5 mins to 30 mins in a short space of time – both of those experiences taught me a lot, it was out of my comfort zone and scary but I felt like I was reaching a ‘growth point’ each time I did those things. Like signalling to me to go and do more things that feel scary.
In December, I also gave myself a challenge to start recording social media videos of myself talking to the camera sharing knowledge on a topic I know well.
looking ahead - one of my goals for 2025
No matter the content, I want to try more public speaking in 2025, it is a skill I would like to get better at, whether it’s to present to people live or just record videos on my own and get to a point where I don’t experience a mini panic attack and it feels more natural and flowing, to face it head on, here I am, regardless of judgement.
conclusion
To recap, this year, my word is Grow, and I must emphasise, I mean grow in a controlled sense. To give myself mini challenges throughout the year at a sensible pace, without heavy reliance on results, healthy routines and no burnout or pressured human timelines.
I hope you enjoyed this post, feel free to share your word of the year and reflections in the comments.
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