My Year of Ease

My word of the year, my goals & my vision board!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

My God, do I love a new year. Forgive me for sounding so starry-eyed but… isn’t it exciting to think about everything to look forward to? Daydreaming of the possibilities. The romanticism of a fresh start. Some pep-in-your-step motivation.

Call it cliché, call it naïve. I will stick to my own script and simply call it fun and exciting.

The idea that this is the universe giving you an opportunity to embrace whoever and whatever the hell you want for this next trip around the sun.

My Hope for 2025

In 2025, I am embracing a year of settling in and simplifying. To be blunt, I wanted that to be what 2024 was too and well… it just didn’t turn out that way (ha ha 😅). So let’s try again? No reason not to, right?

The past 5 years have been a glorious and beautiful whirlwind of job changes and moving and marriage and home-buying and more moving and giving birth and learning how to raise tiny humans.

I’m ready to catch my breath.

A year with no big life changes. No big plans. No big lofty goals. Just simple day-to-day stuff for 365 days! The old-me would find it boring. But current-me craves that monotonous magic.

This is why I have chosen ‘ease’ as my word of the year. And the word works two-fold!

First, there is ‘ease’ as the noun.

Definition: absence of difficulty or effort.

Then there is also the verb.

Definition: make (something unpleasant, painful, or intense) less serious or severe. Second Definition: move carefully or gradually.

I want this year to feel ‘at ease’. Not straining myself with extra efforts. For any aspirations I do have this year, I want to ease into them. Easing my body back into movement that feels good. Easing into motherhood and new routines with two children. Allowing myself to do things that make it all feel easier in general, despite maybe it being an extra expense or some sort of “shortcut.” I’m throwing away my arbitrary rules and personal judgements in my effort of ease.

My 4 Goals of 2025

I’ve followed Kate Eskuri’s Goal Setting process for 5 years now because it’s fun and it works! One aspect I really like about it is that she has you narrow down your goals to 4 “domains” - because we can do it all, but we can’t do it all at once. Realism matters.

For me, 2025 is really focused on two specific areas, with each having two “subset” areas.

Health & Relationships

Health: Physical & Mental

• Physical Health: I want to feel strong and at home in my body again after giving birth twice in two years. I want to enjoy running again and go to hot yoga classes and just feel at home in my own body. Get to know the new one and treat it with respect. And to be honest, lose some of the baby weight.

• Mental Health: I started this journey in 2024 and want to continue it because taking care of my mental health just makes my life better. I show up better for myself and for everyone around me. I want to continue therapy at least twice a month and dedicate one hour a week to some sort of “me time.” In an effort to make it sound more fun/less rigid, I’m calling it “my weekly solo date.”

Relationships: My Marriage & Friendships

• Marriage: After giving birth to our second daughter, my husband and I are exhausted by the end of the day. One night I looked at him before I went to bed, as he was about to stay up with Lyla and I told him I miss him. Despite us both being home all day LOL. I know that a strong marriage helps provide a sturdy foundation for our family. I don’t want to lose sight of that when raising kids. My goal is to have two date nights a month with him. One at-home and one out of the house.

• Friendships: One of the hardest parts of moving to North Carolina has been not having my close friends nearby. It’s been sort of an identity crisis if I’m being honest… I moved to a new state without friends, without my family, and a remote job. I love my husband, but I want a life outside of him too. I miss girls nights and belly laughs and just general friendship in my life!

  I have a vivid memory in 2024 when my friends Jill and Bre visited us for Charlie’s first birthday. We all went out for mexican food and there was a moment I laughed so hard I had tears in my eyes. I couldn’t remember the last time I had a moment like that with friends. I miss that feeling. Virtual friendships are wonderful because we have texting and FaceTimes, but I miss the in person connections. I want to try and create and build those somehow where I live. I’m honestly not sure how to go about that soooo… wish me luck and if you have any advice, please give it to me. For real.

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I’m wrapping it up by sharing the vision board I created that represents all the words I just wrote above. I love using Pinterest to find the images and then Canva templates to put to together. Easy, peasy & fun!

What are your hopes and goals for 2025? Do you have a word of the year? I’d love to hear about it. :)

Wishing you all a happy, happy new year! Thanks for reading!