I’ve got three questions for you to ask yourself that will help you reset for the upcoming year so you can flourish and thrive.
It’s likely that the answers to all of these questions will pop into your mind quickly, but you may want to do some journaling or thinking about them more in depth.
The questions give us a chance to clear the clutter—both physical and emotional—and design a life that feels aligned, intentional, and exciting.
What are you tolerating? Can you make a change to improve or remove it?
One of the things I’ve been tolerating is worn out undies. I placed an order the other day and will clear out my dresser drawer to get rid of the old and make room for the new 😉
I’ve also been tolerating the dirty garage refrigerator. A bucket of water and a cleaning rag could take care of that.
You may have big or small things pop in your mind. If you’re tolerating something big, you may have to tackle it from more than one angle and it may take time. It’s so worth the work though!
What experiments do you want to run in 2025?
In 2024, I ran my YouTube experiment.
This year, I’m experimenting with teaching three classes for high school students. I’ve done two in a semester before, but this is the first time to do three at a time.
I’m also experimenting with places to teach and share about positive psychology. I’m teaching a class at the Lexington Senior Center in January.
I’ve also been experimenting with a new and improved evening routine. With the holidays though, nothing has felt routine for a while, so I’ll need to get back to my plan this week.
What are you looking forward to in 2025?
If you don’t have anything to look forward to, it’s time to do a little work. A few years ago, our family went through a rough patch (a bit of an understatement) and I really had trouble looking forward to things after that season.
Letting myself anticipate good things again has taken some work. I’ve had to be intentional about planning things and then actively looking forward to them.
I don’t have anything big on the calendar yet, but I do have some smaller things planned that I’m anticipating. In fact, I like the idea of doing lots of smaller adventures this year instead of a larger trip or event. We’ll see how it plays out.
What about you?
I’d love to hear what thoughts came to mind as you answered these questions for yourself. I’m especially interested in what kind of experiments you want to run and what you’re looking forward to. Share in the comments!
In November I went to a community open house for service organizations in our area. I went with the intention of gathering information for possible places to volunteer. Knowing that Nov. and Dec. would be busy with holiday things and my daughter coming home from a semester in Spain, I wrote a calendar trigger for January to spend some time looking over the brochures I collected, praying where God would have me serve. I want to make a short list by the end of January and then start trying some things out in Feb. to figure out where I fit in.
I'm really looking forward to April 26th. Two of my children with be graduating with their undergrad degrees. Andrew's degree is in Exercise Science. Nadia's degrees are English-Creative Writing and Spanish. Andrew plans to pursue training as an EMT and to see what opportunities are available to him at the hospital he currently works. Nadia will finish her master's in Spanish. My oldest also tuns 25 on April 28th so we'll just do a lot of celebrating that weekend.