This post has been a couple of weeks in the making. It seems when you start tracking more of what you get up to in a year there’s a lot more to talk about! Here’s my 2024 year in review!
2024 Word of the Year
I stuck with the three words premise again for 2024. One word just doesn’t feel like enough, you know? Here’s what I went with:

Anew
I knew I didn’t want “new” or “renew” as a word. I didn’t want “re” anything, to be honest. This wasn’t about rehashing old stuff but rather starting fresh. Anew felt poetic, an artistic expression of getting another chance to try again.
Ease
I initially thought about “simplify” but I realised I wasn’t trying to simplify anything but rather find a way to do things that came easily to me. It felt like it fit well with anew and enough as well.
Enough
A repeat from 2023, I still very much was of the mind that “enough” was all I needed to ask for, that I wasn’t trying to achieve impossible things like a 6 or 7 figure revenue. I also liked the alternative meaning of being enough and so I decided to keep it for another year.
I’ll talk about these words again a little later!
2024 Goals
This is the bit where I shake my head ruefully at all the big dreams I had at the start of 2024. I’ve made no secret of the fact that this was a year that didn’t go to plan at all so prepare yourself for some abject honesty right here!
The goals I set for 2024 were, in no particular order:
- Consistently pay myself a salary of $4000 a month
- Complete the first draft of my novel
- Blog once a month
- Improve website SEO
- Rewrite home page, about page and work with me page
- Re-do focused sales pages for main services
- Create the About Page Copy Kit and release
- Visit a gallery/museum once a quarter
- See at least 2 shows/gigs
- Read 50 books
- Hire a VA
- Reintroduce the Inner Strength Project
- Finish the Magic Message Bootcamp course
- Get Moxie properly set up and fully working (and close down Dubsado)
- Set up a print store on the website
- Create a copywriting portfolio page and up to 6 case studies for it
- Build out SOPs
- Guest on 4 podcasts this year
- Start doing yoga
- Walk for 15 minutes a day
- Hire a cleaner
- Go home for Christmas 2024
This is always an interesting moment for me. Of course I’ve been looking at my goals from last year in the last few weeks as I looked forward to planning 2025, so they’re not a surprise to me now. But I find myself looking at them with both surprise at the things I did manage to achieve and sadness at the (many) things I didn’t.
Some of these goals were pulled in straight from 2023 too, and they still haven’t been done. But we’ll get to all of that in a minute.
Here’s what actually happened
No messing, let’s recap it all.
January
The year started off with sickness (not me—my poor Mum and Stu!) which was a bit stressful. And now I’m looking at my journal, I see the first prickling sensations of money worry kicking in with the business. I literally wrote waaay back in January:
“I’m having a bit of a panic at my lack of bookings again. Literally nothing booked for Feb as yet even though I’ve got a couple of proposals and an invoice out. It’s so frustrating. People seem to be really hard to pin down at the moment and I don’t know why.”
Reading that did make me sigh. That really was the beginning of it all and the year wasn’t going to get much better for the most part.
BUT, it wasn’t all doom and gloom.
I had a couple of podcasts I guested on go live in January.
First up was the Business First Creatives podcast with Colie James, a podcast I’ve listened to for quite a while now because Colie is so personable and easy to listen to. I pitched her with the suggestion that it was possible to put creativity before business and talked about how I have prioritised my own creativity over the last year or so.
The second was The Messy Middle with Toni Rosati. This one was all about talking about my late-diagnosis of ADHD and what that meant for me. I’ve never really discussed it with anyone outside of my close friends who are also neurodivergent before so it was interesting to hear her perspectives on some of my experiences.
I also recorded two more podcasts that month as well.
I was invited to speak at the Introvertpreneur Summit in April, which I was super excited about.
I launched my Home Page Copy Review lead magnet which quickly picked up traction (and learned some valuable lessons around putting out a personalised lead magnet that I’ll talk about soon!).
I also got to write some glorious words for a wonderful woman in Scotland that month, helping her to finally refine what her business was all about and make a big, brave leap into independence.
And, of course, the biggest highlight of the month was being able to write two very special words on the final page of my novel. “The” and “End”. I wrapped up the first draft with 97, 968 words of a story that was all mine and came out of my head. A very proud moment indeed!
February
February is always a tough month for me mentally. The short days and usually incessant greyness and gloom have an impact on this sun-loving woman! But I did manage to find some joy in the month.
I released my first ever $9 digital product—an email template that made some sales right away.
I recorded another podcast as a guest, as well as starting to record episodes for the Creative Reboot podcast (the podcast I co-host with the lovely Carla Watkins).
The lead magnet I launched in January was really taking off, thanks to a few amazing people sharing it with their audiences.
I went to an afternoon tea networking event and won the grand prize—a beautiful tea set from Wind Sips tea company.
Stu and I took the afternoon off on Family Day (a stat holiday here in BC) and went to a place called Steveston for lobster rolls and a walk along the seafront. It was cold but wonderful.


I was able to give blood for the first time outside of the UK! Up until recently, having previously lived in the UK meant I was unable to donate blood overseas due to the risks of CJD (or Mad Cow Disease) but the ban has finally been lifted so I was super happy to get straight back into blood donation again.
March
March was a momentous month for me. Wow, that’s a lot of alliteration right there.
But it really was. It was the month I got to go back to writer’s retreat in the UK, after missing it and being devastated about that back in 2023.
This was the first long haul travel I’d done in quite a while, though, and it was a real shock to the system. I remember, after not getting a wink of sleep on the overnight flight to the UK, thinking I’d finally found my “why” with my business—to start booking long haul flights that were not in Economy anymore. That flight was rough. So rough, in fact, that I haven’t stopped talking about it since so that should give you some idea. I don’t know if this is a sign of how airlines are making it worse or if it’s more of a sign of my age and tolerance to it!
But I digress… March wasn’t all about a crappy flight.
Writer’s retreat was wonderful. We stayed at a gorgeous place in Yorkshire because one of our group had not long had a baby so we chose somewhere close to her home so she could come in each day but be able to go back to her family in the evenings. I haven’t been to Yorkshire for many years. I’d forgotten how beautiful the rolling hills and views were. I’ll be honest, there wasn’t a huge amount of writing that took place during the retreat (some, just not… much) but I did make a start on editing my novel. We also had a wonderful day wandering around York, where I’ve never been before. It’s a super old city with a street that looks like a real-life version of Diagon Alley. Between that and the delicious cake I had, it was a great afternoon!






What else did March bring? I got my second tattoo—a semi colon on my left wrist. My desire to get it came about after some work I did with my therapist. I won’t go into details but it definitely brought some stuff up and putting this mark on my body was a way to help me deal with my thoughts and feelings around it. I liked its double meaning to me as well, given that I’m a writer.
I had some great projects in March too, least of all a fabulous copy intensive with the lovely Emma Cossey from Freelance Lifestyle. This was a bit of a wow moment for me, it has to be said. I’d been following Emma on socials for quite a while and was very aware of her community so when she reached out, I did have a bit of a fangirl moment and got all excited about the fact she wanted me to help her with her words! I’m excited to say it’s led to more collaboration with her since, too. But I’ll share more about that shortly.
And the podcast episode I recorded with Inkpot Creative (called The Unexpected Entrepreneur) went live in March, too. This one was talking all about brand voice, which is definitely one of my nerdy topics I love to get into!
April
I had my first Canadian job interview back in April for a social media specialist role. While it didn’t result in a job offer, I was reassured when I saw the position go straight back out to advert again so I felt like it wasn’t a “me” thing rather than maybe they were looking for a bit of a unicorn! It was weird and good to have the interview experience though, although gosh, I’d forgotten how nerve wracking they could be and how much I detested the “what’s your biggest weakness” question!
I had a wonderful full day photo shoot in April—capturing a variety of amazing classes and scenarios for an art community. It was a solid 8-hour day and I was absolutely shattered at the end of it. It was a reminder of what weddings used to feel like and I definitely knew I’d need a lie down afterwards. Thankfully, I was smart and made sure I stayed well hydrated through the day, which definitely helped. I was super proud of the images though! There were some challenges but I think we did good!




I took part in two summits in April, which was a first for me. I’d done bundles in 2023, but this was a new experience putting together a short talk and delivering a video for each of them. I got some great feedback though and some new subscribers to my mailing list from that experience. And my podcast episode for the Introvertpreneur Podcast with Tara Reid went live this month. We chatted all about how to use your words to help with being visible when you’re introverted. It was a lot of fun!
Oh, and April was the month I got myself a reMarkable 2 tablet and it has been the most amazing thing ever! I honestly feel like I should get some kind of commission for this (I don’t) but I can’t extol the virtues of this product enough. Honestly, it has been a huge game changer for me and has changed the way I work over the last half of 2024. I love that it’s connected to wifi but you can’t access the internet on it. I love that it’s all my fifty nine bajillion notebooks all in one slender space. I love the pen and how it writes and that I can flip the pen over and use the other end to erase things. I love how it has changed the way I think because I’ve gone back to handwriting thoughts and ideas instead of just mindlessly tapping words onto a screen (there’s actually science to confirm how our brains work differently when we write versus type, I’m not making that up!). I love that it helps me read more actively because I can pull ebooks and pdfs into it and highlight sections and make notes as I read. I love, love, love the reMarkable 2! And I also loved that it was a 100 day money back guarantee, which was the deciding factor for me as I figured I could give it three months to decide. Truthfully, I knew on day one I wouldn’t be sending it back.
April was also the month I got to really get my teeth into my new copy audit service. They’re so fun to do and I know my clients get a lot from them.
May
Early in the month I got to tackle a VIP day for a wonderful accessibility consultant here in Vancouver. It was actually a super interesting experience because it taught me how much I didn’t know about accessibility from a copywriting and websites point of view. I learned a lot from the client while delivering her new copy for her website!
I worked with a new VA this year too, starting in May. I kinda loved how I found her and I wish I could have kept working with her but I had to cut back on spending the latter part of the year. But I stumbled on a directory of VAs one afternoon and her post stood out to me, least of all because she was Canada-based but mostly because she had a background working in the emergency services. It was definitely the thing that first drew me to her! Anyway, Danielle really helped me get my social media into some kind of order so I’m incredibly grateful to her for helping me to do that. I hope I get to work with her again at some point.
Ohhhh and May was when we also had a glorious evening seeing the Aurora Borealis in our skies one Friday evening! Like nothing I’ve ever seen before!


We went and watched them at Harrison Hot Springs, a lake about 15 minutes away, and it was the most incredible light show. Definitely something to be remembered.
June
As the first half of the year came to a close, it felt like things were really just starting to get going in some ways. The second half of the year was definitely the busier half in terms of activities and travelling!
Started out with a pool party, which was a lot of fun. It was great to get out and socialise with some fellow business owners and enjoy the sunshine!
I got to work on a VIP day with a returning client, which was a lot of fun. She used the time to have me re-do one of the main pages on her website as her business was taking a new direction.
In June, I also got to go into Vancouver and see Hannah Gadsby in their show ‘Woof’ which was a definite highlight of the month!
I was fortunate enough to be selected to take part in the mentoring program with WeBC and was paired with the very wonderful Catherine McCourt from Fearless Future. The program gave me 6 months of mentoring sessions and it couldn’t have come at a better time in all honesty. Again, more on this shortly!
I dabbled in submitting a recording for some advice for new freelancers this month which then appeared on The Freelancer’s Teabreak podcast with Emma Cossey. It was actually a really excellent episode with loads of great tips offered so if you’re a new freelancer, it’s well worth giving that episode a listen!
We had some health stuff to deal with in June (the husband this time!) and I spent a lovely afternoon creating images of my novel’s characters so I could put them up in my office and give me a visual reminder of who they are as I worked through editing the novel. And we also applied for our Canadian citizenship this month!
July
I do love BC in the summertime. Lazy days spent at farms and in gardens is quite an enjoyable way to pass the time! On Canada Day we went to Tuscan Farm Gardens, which is an annual visit for us now to see the lavender fields and enjoy their delicious lavender scones and lavender lemonade. This year did NOT disappoint but I really must get their lavender scones recipe. They’re amazing!
I jumped into a wonderful copy strategy session early in the month with a woman who did so many things in her business that she didn’t really know where to position herself. It was so awesome to ask questions, let her talk it all out and then pull some key threads and thoughts together and help her find some clarity. I definitely want to do more of those sessions!
My podcast episode about finding freedom after moving to Canada went live on the Be Free With Lee podcast. I had so much fun recording that podcast. Lee asked some really great questions and it was really freeing, opening myself up to her.
I also recorded another podcast this month which would go live later in the year.
July is when life as fish owners also began and what a ride it has been. I swear, I’ve never been so overjoyed and frickin’ destroyed by such tiny creatures. Learning how to run an aquarium is hard and I’ve learned the people in the fish shop don’t give you good advice, at least, in our case! Without going too much into it, we’ve had to learn a lot and fast because fish get sick really easily and it’s quite tragic seeing them die!
Ohhh, yes, July was also the month Creative Reboot got a little airtime. Carla and I were invited to be interviewed on BBC Radio Essex to talk about our podcast and it was awesome. I don’t think I’ve ever been on a live radio show before. It did mean having to get up and be on Zoom for 6.45 in the morning, but it was so worth it. Sadly, they don’t keep the recordings live on their website so I don’t think we have access to it anymore to even share it with you! But it did happen, I swear. I have one very terrible screenshot to prove it!

After months of struggling, I finally hired someone to help me get Moxie set up and July was the month I was able to finally close down Dubsado and move on with my new system. And I also dabbled with setting up a Facebook Ad, following a course and doing things properly instead of my usual “Oh let’s just hit the boost button and see what happens” and it was actually pretty effective! It’s definitely made me more confident to try and do more of them as and when I need to.
I wrapped up the month with another copy audit for a UK client and then it was time to welcome our first visitor of the year! My lovely friend Helen arrived right at the end of the month.
August
Aaaah, birthday month. The first two weeks of the month were spent entertaining Helen. We took her to lots of our favourite spots and had a great time showing her how wonderful BC is. Definitely trying to persuade her that a move out here is a good idea.


I had another job interview this month, this time in person at a bookstore which I thought I would be perfect for. I even wore my book dress for the occasion! Turns out that wasn’t enough though and I didn’t get offered the job, sadly. Still keeping my eye out though.
In August, we were also invited to take the citizenship test so we did our reading up and took the test as soon as it was open. Passed first time, woohoo!
My lovely mentor, Catherine, invited me to be on her podcast this month which was wonderful. I had a great chat, talking about how I went from being a paramedic to running a copywriting business.
On a more personal note… August was when I had a huge breakthrough with my therapist and I finally felt like I’d escaped the clutches of the ambulance service, once and for all. I won’t go into too much detail, but suffice it to say it was a truly beautiful experience and I’ve been carrying the feeling along with me ever since then. I do feel like a very changed human being!
September
So, September! This is when things started to get… interesting.
The first thing I really started to notice in September was how I always seemed to be saying “How is it already this month?” Honestly, I found it a really annoying and repetitive thing to keep saying. I knew I wanted to do something about that.
The second thing that was starting to become apparent to me was that I had some things to think about when it came to my business. I didn’t really know what that meant or looked like yet, but it would reveal itself by the end of the month. But I’m gonna make you wait a minute for dramatic effect…
We had our 11th wedding anniversary at the start of the month. 11 years! Still mad to think I’ve been married to Stu for over a decade.
I also got to take part in an ADHD writing workshop which was incredible and so inspiring. Possibly also the catalyst for some of the realisations that came later in the month? Who knows.
I guested on the Finding Your Way Through Therapy podcast with Steve Bisson, sharing my experiences about being a paramedic, the impact it had on my mental health and how I finally found my way to a creative career.
Work wise, I did some retainer work with one of my long-term clients and did another great photo shoot on Vancouver Island with a returning client who I always adore working with.




And at the end of the month, Stu went back to the UK for a couple of weeks and I booked a West Coast writer’s retreat with my lovely friend and fellow writer for March 2025!
But you’re just waiting for the big reveal… right? It definitely won’t sound as exciting as I’m making it out to be here, but I had a moment during my copy coaching session one morning during the month and I made this statement:
“I think I’m just ready to burn it all down, to be honest.”
I was talking about my business, for clarity. But it was weird in that it wasn’t a dread statement. There was no negativity behind it, or desperation. But I felt like something was adrift and that in order to find out what that was, I needed to burn everything down so that the good stuff could start growing again. If anything, it felt super hopeful but I knew I had to explain that because saying you want to burn your business down and start again can sound quite dramatic, can’t it?!
Making that statement, though, started a really interesting few months of thinking and visualising and planning and it ended up making me so excited for 2025 that I went out and bought a planner… in September!
October
The biggest and best thing of the year happened in October…
My sister came to visit!
Honestly, this was so unbelievably exciting. My sis lives in Ireland and we hadn’t been together in person since my graduation in London in 2022 and she hadn’t yet visited us in Canada since we’d moved here in 2019 (because of you-know-what in 2020 obvs). Having her here to visit was so needed.


I love how our relationship has changed over the years. I often explain our early childhood relationship by sharing the story of the moment I first saw my sister as a tiny baby, hours after she was born. I was 6 years old, almost 7, and had been yearning for a little brother so when I got the news I had a sister, well I was pretty disappointed, I won’t lie! But when I got taken to the hospital to meet her, I have a very distinct memory of standing at the side of her crib and peering over it at this tiny dot of a baby and the first thought that entered my head was “I hate you.”
I know, not a great start. And I’m convinced our sizeable age gap had an impact on our early years. By the time she was old enough to want to play, I was hitting early teens and not interested in playing with a little kid. As she moved past the playtime stage and into the grouchy teenage phase, I was out the other side of it and hard eye-rolling at the teen drama of it all. And I left home at 19, so I missed living with her through her teen years entirely. It wasn’t until we were both in our 20s that I think we started to really get to know each other.
So yes, I thoroughly enjoyed having her visit and showing her some of the sights around here. She was also just coming off the back of a very busy couple of years, having just completed a Masters and then buying and renovating her first home. So she really was looking forward to recouping in nature, breathing in big open spaces and taking a break. I hope we gave that to her in spades!
The latter half of the month brought with it some more health challenges which brought me down a little bit. But honestly, I really only want to remember the good stuff because that really was a highlight for the year for me.
I did also squeeze in a short headshot session later in the month, along with some great meetups and ooh, ooh, OOH, the event of the year which was the big second hand book sale I’d been waiting for since the start of the year! You may or may not recall, 2023 was the year of the self-imposed book buying ban. So when 2024 came around, I was excited to start book buying again. But I ended up not buying a single book until October! (And then I went ahead and bought about 20.)
And October was the month the podcast I recorded with Emma Cossey for The Freelancer’s Tea Break went live. In it, I talked all about my personalised lead magnet and how I email my list three times a week. I think it went pretty well and I really enjoyed sharing some data around what I’d done.
November
First up, the last podcast I was involved in went out for the year and it was Katy Calls BS with Katy Miller in which I talked about the bullshit of having to sound a certain way in your copy to be considered “professional”. It was super fun to chat with Katy and I’m pretty sure we talked about a whole bunch of copywriting stuff along the way!
November was a huge month from a personal point of view, too!
First, we travelled to New York City to spend a long weekend with our friend for her 40th birthday celebrations. I wrote a blog post about that trip.








On arriving back from New York, we went straight into our oath ceremony and officially became Canadians!

Unfortunately, we did both get sick after coming back from NYC which led to being sick for pretty much the rest of the year (fun!).
But I did also manage to book a website copy package while I was enjoying the sights and sounds of the Big Apple.
December
December really was very much a wrap up and rest kind of month. I did a copy audit right at the beginning of the month, but otherwise followed my “no client work” rule for the rest of the month. Which was actually lovely because I spent a lot of time thinking about stuff, wrapping stuff up, prepping stuff for the new year and just generally getting myself in order. There’s nothing quite like a digital clean out to make you feel fresh and ready!
We spent December doing some Christmassy things to get us in the spirit—heading over the border with our new Canadian passports to go to the Seattle Christmas Market, then doing the Vancouver Christmas Market the following week, followed by a wander around Van Dusen Gardens and all their gorgeous lights.


And that about rounds up the year!
So what about those goals then?
Well, let’s start by covering what I didn’t achieve, shall we?
I didn’t:
- Pay myself a consistent $4K a month salary
- Blog once a month
- Improve website SEO
- Rewrite any copy on my website
- Create the About Page Copy Kit and release it
- Visit a gallery/museum once a quarter
- See at least 2 shows/gigs
- Read 50 books
- Reintroduce the Inner Strength Project
- Finish the Magic Message Bootcamp course
- Set up a print store on the website
- Build out SOPs
- Start doing yoga
- Walk for 15 minutes a day
- Hire a cleaner
- OR Go home for Christmas 2024
But I DID:
- Complete the first draft of my novel
- Hire a VA (temporarily!!)
- Get Moxie properly set up and fully working (and closed down Dubsado)
- Create a copywriting portfolio page and up to 6 case studies for it
- Guest on 4 podcasts this year – in fact, I blew through this target and appeared on 10!
Some thoughts on all of this…
Revenue
I made no secret of the struggles I was having in getting clients in 2024 to my mailing list and on social media. But I quickly learned that it wasn’t just me and I’d say a hefty percentage of businesses struggled with income last year. I’m sure there were people who still did well but even those who admitted to maintaining a consistent income often also admitted that it was lower or slower than in years gone past.
While I haven’t yet figured out the specific numbers, I know it was a pretty bad year in terms of my business because there were some months I wasn’t able to pay myself a salary at all, and I sadly couldn’t keep my VA on beyond 4 months of working with her due to cash flow issues. I had to do a lot of trimming back to keep things working.
I did have some casual work to keep me going a little bit (I proctor exams for people who require additional accommodations) but this was irregular work. I did also get more serious about looking for part-time work this year, although I’ve yet to find anything. Still looking!
Website Traffic/Analytics/SEO
I put out a grand total of six blogs last year, including my two review blogs at the start of the year. While that’s better than 2023’s effort, I would still like to be a little more frequent than that, if possible. That being said, the posts I did put out were pretty meaty posts with ‘Is Your Home Page Holding Your Website Back?’ clocking in at just under 5000 words, ‘What’s Your “You” Factor?’ coming in at 2900 words and ‘Breaking the Rules: When and How to Bend Grammar for Brand Personality’ was around 2200 words. So okay, I guess I’m good with fewer but longer blog posts, especially as I want to properly tackle rewriting my website this year.
According to Google Analytics, it was a quieter year for visitors to my website but the most popular pages were three of my older blogs and the landing page for the Home Page Copy Review freebie, so I’m good with those!
I still get the majority of my traffic to my website through organic search so I’m happy that my SEO is doing something. I’d like to definitely get more focused on that in 2025 though.
And it seems social media still only accounts for a small percentage of traffic to my site, with a total of 333 sessions across Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn versus around a 1000 from my mailing list. Definitely not going to feel guilty about reducing my social media efforts going forward!
Mailing List
Speaking of the mailing list… Here are the numbers I tracked in 2024!
I sent 150 emails throughout the year, not including responses to home page copy requests and some short sales sequences.
My average open rate, according to Mailerlite, was 40%. My average click through rate was 2.3%. And my favourite statistic… I received 221 replies over the course of the year.
I started the year with 1193 subscribers and finished with 1322 subscribers. It did climb higher than that but I did some clearing out of inactive subscribers a few times through the year, preferring to stick with lower numbers but with better engagement. In all, I had 594 unsubscribes through the year.
I could nerd out on this topic for hours! It’s definitely interesting to see that my three a week emails still aren’t scaring people off. But I definitely want to make more effort to grow this list even bigger this year.
Self-Development & Personal Goals
I set quite a few personal goals for myself in 2024, which I didn’t quite achieve. I’m not quite sure why that was in all honesty. Maybe I got a bit distracted by the lack of work and trying to keep my business pushing on? It’s possible. I’m actually even starting to wonder if that would account for me getting sick at the end of the year and maybe what I experienced was a burn out of sorts? Interesting, I hadn’t considered that!
That being said, I did make time for rest and did go out and do things. I just seem to have fallen flat on booking things to go and do. I think 2025 will be better for this though. As part of our citizenship, we actually got an annual pass for free access to a bunch of museums and galleries all over the country and I fully intend to make use of that!
And while I didn’t read 50 books, I did manage 34 (I think – book review post coming soon!).
Lessons learned
It wouldn’t be a review without learning a few lessons along the way, would it? Here are the things that come to mind…
Anew, Ease, Enough
I really loved ‘anew’ and ‘ease’ as words for 2024 but I now feel like ‘enough’ held me back. I got so hung up on the idea of “not needing millions” and just aiming for enough that I now wonder if that stopped me from pushing and striving to do better than I did. Not in a hustle culture kind of sense, but maybe ‘enough’ capped a ceiling on my beliefs and efforts? Anyway, I’ve decided I don’t need to be thinking about enough any more.
Given my burn-it-all-down moment in September, I feel like ‘anew’ really came through in the latter part of the year. And while I had different intentions for ‘ease’, it came through in ways I didn’t expect—namely in my mental health journey, which I now have a lot of appreciation for.
All in all, two out of three ain’t bad and I shall remember these words with fondness!
Getting Back to Centre
My therapy breakthrough just before my birthday in August was really quite a moment that I never want to forget. I literally had the most incredible feeling of calm that I could specifically visualise (and still can) and when my therapist suggested I might have found my centre, I exclaimed “I have a centre?!” Seriously, I was the most zen I think I’ve ever been in my entire life. And it was glorious and has changed me in many ways.
The second half of the year was very much influenced by and inspired by that moment and I believe I’m putting in practices now that will keep that feeling present in everything I do going forward. I love that I now have a very distinct and clear visual that can put me back to centre whenever I need it too. It feels like an important skill to have developed!
A Seasonal Approach
I’m making it my mission to notice the passing of time more this year and one of the ways I’m doing that is by taking a seasonal approach to life and business. I got very into learning about the pagan festivals that coincide with the seasons and farming calendars at the end of 2024 and I used this to put together a planning document that formed around those festivals and seasons.
I’m really excited about this intention I’m setting myself and I’ve got some great books to read around it. If this is something that interests you, I’d start with the book Wintering by Katherine May which is where I first started to get a sense of this idea of seasons.
It’ll All Be OK
I had a piece of advice delivered to me at just the right moment this year which I’ve really taken to heart. A client, who’s also a coach and very insightful person, said to me ‘It’ll all be ok, whatever happens.’
What was interesting is that this is a piece of advice I’ve heard many times before. I’ve told myself the same thing before. But the fact this line was delivered at just the right time, just around the time of my therapy breakthrough, made it land a little differently and I found myself inherently knowing, deep within my bones, that this was a true statement.
I knew I’d been through rough times before, some of the roughest times actually, and yet here I still am. And I took that advice right into my chest and held it tight because I knew she was right, it will all be ok, whatever happens.
On a personal note…
The Novel
The biggest achievement of the year has to be tapping out ‘The End’ on the first draft of my novel. I ended up with a manuscript of around 97000 words in rough draft form, which I’m super proud of! I took some time away from it in February and then started working on edits from March. I’m still working my way through but it’s getting to a point where I’m ready to deliver it to some beta readers and take the next step! Exciting!
Travel
In March I travelled to the UK for writer’s retreat and kept it very much to a short trip with a tiny bit of time to catch up with a few other friends before I headed home.
And then our only other trip was New York in November. So two short trips this year!
But we did also have my friend Helen to stay for two weeks in August and my sister came for two weeks in October, which is as good as going away, right?
I am excited about this year though as I’ve already got two trips planned, with a third one in the works so far!
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And so wraps up this year’s review blog post! I feel like these posts get longer and longer but I do love doing them. They help me to realise and learn a lot of stuff as I work through them. Hopefully they’re as interesting to read! It’s a tradition I plan to keep up, anyway. Even if it is just for myself!
If you’re interested, though, here’s where you can read the last six posts: 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018