Reflections on 2024: A Year in Review

“And with that, the 2024 season comes to a close…”

I’m sure we’re all seeing the year-end reels. And while I didn’t post one this year, I do love a good reflection back over the past 365 days. What worked well and what didn’t? What do I want to carry with me into the next year and what needs to stay so I don’t keep dragging the same baggage with me? (It’s far less flashy than Spotify’s wrapped, to be sure.)

However, as I sat down to write this out, I realized that I was struggling to formulate my thoughts around the year. In my 2023 year in review post, I broke down the “wins” and the “lessons learned.” I thought about doing the same thing for 2024, but frankly, this year didn’t feel like it held too many wins.

Or maybe there just weren’t too many “public” wins?

Most of what I consider “a win” from this past year, was behind-the-scenes stuff. Learning to make sourdough, slowing down (again and again and again), unplugging more, redefining what I want out of life, rethinking what success looks like to me, etc., etc.

I thought when I started 2024 that it would be a huge business-building year. (My word for the year was literally “build.”) But instead, my intuition started giving me nudges that building the business I had planned wasn’t the right path. I also ended up getting super burned out on social media and watched my creative sparks completely dry up. By mid-year, I found myself accepting a new office job. Not quite the year I had planned 365 days ago!

Additionally, maybe it’s the simple fact that I’m getting older, but almost everything from this past year felt like a lesson learned. As the old Albert Einstein adage goes: “The more I learn, the more I realize I don’t know.”

So, this year’s reflective post is a bit more rambly. A little less “here’s what I’ve figured out” and a bit more “I still have so much to learn.” And another reminder to myself that the best years are met with a decent dash of white space.

In Reflection…

I still think 2024 was a year of building, but not at all in the way I had planned. I thought I’d be building a business, but instead, I’ve been building a slow and steady life. A meaningful one. A peaceful one. One that doesn’t require constant going and working and striving. I now have set work hours and can enjoy freedom outside of those hours.

And maybe this is what I was meant to “build” in 2024 all along? (Another God wink that He tends to work in mysterious ways.)

I also ended the year finding time to write creatively again. This was a joy I massively missed in 2023 because I was too busy trying to build a client base and a following. I even managed to finish a course on the discipline + practice of writing from Hannah Brencher that I purchased years ago and never got around to completing.

Additionally, around my birthday in October, I started placing a larger focus on my health. This was something I always wanted to focus on but I neither made the time nor had the bandwidth to do anything about it.

More than anything, 2024 taught me (YET AGAIN) that I can, in no way, predict the future. This is both scary and freeing. I can do my best to set my sights on a target, but that doesn’t mean I’ll reach the target or get there on the roadmap I’ve created. I can either fight this or learn to surrender a little more, leaving room for hopeful expectations that things will turn out the way they are meant to, despite my meticulous planning.

Looking forward to 2025…

As I’m entering the New Year, I have to say, I don’t have any massive goals or plans or audacious ideas in the works. If anything, this year I plan to simply dig into the practices behind the things I’m focused on.

For instance, writing is a joy and a fun hobby for me. But that doesn’t make it any easier to physically force my butt into a chair and crank out a few words for publishing/sharing. So instead of focusing on some massive goal around writing, I think I’ll just lean into the daily practice of sitting down and actually doing the work.

Additionally, as I continue to focus on my health, I’m not looking at some “end goal” off in the distance. (I don’t even know what that would be?) I’ll just look at the daily habits and planning that will keep me healthy: Workouts, a lunchtime walk, whole foods, better sleep, etc.

Other rambling thoughts on the New Year:

Throughout the end of 2024, I distanced myself from social media. It was much needed, but now that I’ve had some time away I’m ready to try it again. Except I plan to come at it differently this time. More being myself and less content planning and reels. More sharing what I’m writing and learning, less advice-giving. And for sure, less consuming and less pressure to constantly show up.

I’m also more focused on creativity now than ever before. I’m learning that I can share in overflow instead of attempting to simply do what others are doing. The spur in creativity has also changed my writing (or again, is this just part of the aging process?) I can see that my older posts were more advice-driven. Now I feel as though I write with more “here’s where I’m at” without needing to pretend I have all the answers (See: Albert Einstein quote from above).

I don’t know where all of this will lead me, but I see the specks of creation over consumption finally shining through, and this is likely the first time I’m seeing that balance turn in a positive way compared to other years.

Wrapping Up.

I have a lot of unknowns going into 2025. This past year was another reminder to leave my hands open a bit more. 2024 also reminded me that there is so much more to life than what’s right in front of us. I tend to put a lot of stock into the small things when in reality, those things won’t matter a day, week, or month from now.

Back in July, I wrote in a journal entry to myself about the future in which I said, “I’m not going to try to plan it out. I’m just going to live it.”

I think this accurately sums up my hope for the year ahead. More living, less planning. Cheers to 2025!