2025: until they get punched in the mouth

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I made it through 2025!

Every new year, in place of making a list of resolutions, I choose a word to focus on. 2024 was depth. 2023, Consistency. 2022, less. 2021, glow. 2020, mental health. 2019, community. In 2024, some time in mid-November, I had already decided upon the word I wanted to select for 2025: strategy.

2025: the strategy that wasn’t

Selecting the word early didn’t make a difference, because before that Thanksgiving my family was dealing with a health crisis that escalated in December. By January 2025 I was on the phone with healthcare facilities daily. To get my mind off of the weight of the situation I was making joy by planning a friend’s wedding. What I wasn’t doing: writing a blog post about strategy.

I’ve got 750 first-draft words on a post I started and left behind on February 2, 2025. I got hit with cervical radiculopathy two weeks later. It should be called redic-ulopathy because the pain was unheard of and I had three numb fingers on my left hand—with no direct injury, mind you—for eight weeks. Simultaneously I was dealing with the pain of an interior design scammer. Oh, yeah! And the whole thing had the backdrop of Trump’s America and the impending doom that comes along with that.

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2nd, 3rd & 4th quarters

I wrote plenty about my oldest son moving out in the 2nd quarter of the year, then fell into a debilitating grief. In the third quarter I hit rock bottom from said grief and began climbing to the other side but in the fourth quarter I slid into a bit of a midlife crisis.

😮‍💨.

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By the end of the year, when my thoughts meandered toward the intention I had made for the year—“strategy”🙄—I was reminded of that old Mike Tyson quote.

woulda coulda

The me that set that intention intended to have a firm grip on where I was headed next—building something I could be proud of outside of the domestic sphere. First, figuring out what “success” meant to me in that arena and what it would look like based on the day-to-day lifestyle I wanted to lead.

This Is Strategy by Seth Godin was my ceremonious first book of the year, but in all honesty, 59 books later, I should ceremoniously re-read it.

I read The 1-Page Marketing Plan in late November. I have not yet filled out the page in its entirety. Four days before the end of December, I listened to Cal Newport’s Reinvention in Four Months Plan. Did I think I was going to make a strategy in the clutch? I plead the 5th.

non-strategic

On the contrary, what has worked out best for me this year has consistently been the opposite of strategic. It’s been whims, trusting my gut. It’s incidentally, through the gifts of the thrift, rediscovering Taoism. When I stopped trying to force a new path and instead allowed the path to flow with me.

I’ve noticed when I stop white knuckling my plans, accept what comes along, and trust my intuition, everything flows into favor.

I’m pleased with the speed in which things are growing: a nice, even-keeled pace.

tactics & systems

One of the reason I wanted to focus on strategy was because I was consistently dreaming up tactics instead of an overarching plan.

An artist in my residency cohort mentioned using Asana for her tasks—software I used in the past with a client when I was blogging for businesses. I’ve begun using that system to keep up with additions to my website, applications for galleries/residencies/festivals, and other pursuits. This system has yielded much success.

My art business mentor and friend suggested an inventory spreadsheet, and I’ve determined the data I want to keep measured and have been working through that process.

These are not strategies, they are systems. But that’s a step above and beyond having random ideas that I wasn’t implementing all the time.

going forward

I have made progress toward more strategic planning, and it’s something that will be addressed more this year, though a new word and intention awaits.

This New Year is a reset like none other in the past. I was culling my playroom the other day and I realized I never did the task last year—there was an ornament shoved into the bottom of a toy bin from last Christmas. That task could have been done a year ago, if things went differently.

This year was pummeling me with punches through its entirety, and a few weeks in advance. I took hits, blocked others, got knocked down, got back up again. Maybe it was silly to think I could make a plan while I was getting hit in the mouth.