I don’t do New Year’s resolutions. They are so pointless – if you want to change something about yourself you don’t have to wait until the new year!
Instead, in recent years I’ve chosen a special focus for the new year, expressed in one word, aka a Word of the year.
- For 2022 (I think?) I chose CALM – to learn to stress down and focus less on things I can’t control.
- For 2023 I chose JÄVLARANAMMA – to keep up the good work in the gym and push myself more to get stronger. It became a year when I needed all that JÄVLARANAMMA simply to go through life with my sanity intact!
- For 2024 I chose JOY – as a contrast to the miserable 2023.
2024 was much better than 2023, and definitely brought a lot of joy, but it was a messy and exhausting year. You can read more here, but generally I had a lot of inner struggles and slipped back into a lot of negative thinking patterns. During the year I’ve come to understand myself better which is good, but generally I’ve spent way too much time in my own head, and during 2025 I want to come out of my shell and back into the strong attitude I had when I turned 50. Life is short and we need to be out there living it!
I was inspired by Deb with the word THRIVE, and by Jenn with the word WORTHY (which I meant to use as in self-respect), and I thought of Sue’s blog post series about being an active participant in life, and the word PARTICIPATE came the closest to what I had in mind. I also thought of the word BOLD (also inspired by Deb), and SHOWING UP – a concept rather than a word.
It took a while, but finally the perfect word appeared – the word that collects everything under one roof.
Some people have described me as “gutsy” and I can agree with it to some extent. I’ve been travelling solo when I was younger because my friends didn’t want to or were unable to come with me. I went to work as an au-pair with almost no money. 6 years ago I quit my nursing job that I used to love but later made me sick and miserable, and I moved to Ireland to escape long icy winters. Here while surviving the pandemic, I started studying for a new career, and in my free time I spend time in pubs singing for an audience.
But in reality I still have a lot of fears. I enjoy all the things I do, but many times I’d prefer hiding in a corner because I don’t feel good enough, like I don’t fit in anywhere, and it’s preventing me from truly enjoying all the good things in life.
My word of the year for 2025 will be COURAGE. It will be very much related to showing up despite imperfection, and truly participating in life.
I need courage to…
- believe in and respect myself
- stop thinking I have to fit in
- just show up, be myself and enjoy the ride
- believe good things can happen
- embrace that what-ifs can also mean… what if I succeed and everything goes well!
- allow myself to fail and be imperfect because that’s life and how we learn and grow
- show up more on social media and on the blog
- show up more with my photography and other creative projects even if I feel mediocre
- push harder with my insecurities in the gym (waving hello especially to the heavier squats and deadlifts)
- go hiking again
- and a lot more!
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
Winston Churchill
Misc goals
As always, I have some various more specific goals I will work towards, and some of you know what the main one will be..
- Strong feet! I’m tired of stupid injuries and will do everything I can to build strong feet, strong hips, good balance and stability and everything else that help me walk and hike injury-free. I’ll write more about this shortly.
- More music practice and confidence in music. I’ve said this for a few years but haven’t set up a solid routine. This year I’ll make a routine for music practice and I WILL get to the “Black mountain rag” on the guitar and be able to sing “Walk on boy” in A minor (this is important because it’ll enable me to learn Doc Watson’s guitar fill which doesn’t work in the Em shape!).
- More photography, and to work more on my photography skills. I need to get back to taking photos daily! And with the new camera and the technical limitations out of the way, I have no excuses to not work on the more artistic skills such as composition, lighting and use of natural light.
- Keep up the good work in the gym, become more confident and make more progress with strength and muscle mass.
- Get back to walking 10k and beyond. Yes, after my recent foot injury I have to start from scratch but that’s what it is and at least now I’m generally stronger than I used to be.
- Get my whiskey blog up and running again. It’s been silent for way too long.
Do you have a special focus of the year? Please share your thoughts in the comments!
I’m sharing this post in a special link-up hosted by Deb, Sue, Donna, and Jo.
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