I have set intentions through the #oneword project for over a decade now. Rather than set a million resolutions that I tend to break within the first month or so, instead, I use words to create intentions for my year. I take the last few weeks in December and reflect on the learnings of the past year, and decide what is needed as I enter into the next. The past two years my word was clarity. I make better decisions when I am clear about what I want or need, or what needs to be done. Clarity has served me well. But the lesson of 2024 has been the value of time. Time is the ultimate commodity, more valuable than any thing or project. I have come to realize entering into a new decade that my time in the work force will be limited. I have always identified my life through my work, but now I realize in this next phase, I have new adventures to create, and new passions to follow. My word of 2025 is simplicity, honing in on who I want to become and how I want to spend my time.
So how does this new stage in life relate to simplicity you ask? It means that I can’t do the really important things if I don’t create space for them. I can’t bring in new, if I continually hang onto the old. That is not just things, although downsizing is a goal for this new year, it more importantly means prioritizing what will make the biggest impact. In work. In home. In relationships. In life. Simplicity is more than just taking things away, but more about coming to discover the essence of things, to keeping only what and who truly belong.
There are many ways to create more simplicity in life. This past week I have been dumping emails and unsubscribing from nonsense. If you haven’t take the time to do that, I highly recommend it. There is a lot of unnecessary noise in your inbox that you simply can block or delete, and it is quite freeing. While happily unsubscribing, I found the link to this page. For almost four years I have kept this page silent. I was busy, I am still busy. I debated deleting this entire blog. After all, simplicity is the goal, why hang onto this space? I only found it because I got the bill to keep it going in my email, and I thought, ok, this is the year to delete. I had decided once I logged in, I would reflect, and then ultimately shut it down. It took a minute. I had to reset the password. Yes, it has been that long. And I thought, ok, time to let this go. But then I looked the past entries, and thought, there is something here. A history. A story that needs to still be told. This is the space where my passion lives. This is where I have spent various times in my life telling stories.
I have every intention this year of creating a new story. So let’s keep this space, for one more year. Let’s see if writing here again brings the joy it once did. I am not doing this for anyone other than myself. I am not sure even who will be reading this or the direction the entries will take me.The past pages have been all about empowering other voices, and now maybe, the voice that you will hear is mine. The person who is looking to find life outside of work,to still fight the good fights, and to manage life in her sixth decade to do things while time and health allow it. Let’s see where this goes. Together.