Tag: Life

Goodbye 52! A Game-Changer of a Year That Almost Broke Me

It’s the start of my personal new year tomorrow.  I turn 53 on the 7th.   Yip, that is quite a daunting number, but I still maintain that my 50s will be my best decade yet! The “yet” part is very important in that sentence.  I believe that each decade thereafter will be even better than my 50s.  This really helps me look past the number and just be grateful and proud that I have reached it. 🙂  

52 has been the year that nearly broke me, but by God’s Grace, I am still standing and excited about 53.  That’s because it wasn’t all bad. 

Here are my top 5 highlights of 52:

  1. My son was made a school prefect.  It was a great example of how he set himself a goal and did what he needed to do to achieve it.
  2. My son received a subject award for his favourite subject for the second year in a row.
  3. I pushed through my fear and appeared on morning TV twice to do a product promotion.
  4. I learned to ask God different questions to understand what I needed to change to stop certain things from happening in my life, and I did get some answers.  They were definitely not revealed in the way I anticipated.  In all honesty, I also didn’t know how He would answer, but the way He did just wasn’t what I was expecting. 😅
  5. My team at work did me proud with the way they showed up this year.  We had a tough year, but they brought their A-game every day!  I am so proud of them. 

Oh, and a bonus one- I found a new mystery and suspense thriller author.  Her name is Stacy Green, and I am currently reading her Nikki Hunt series. You know you are enjoying a book when you are late to work because you lost track of time while reading. 😂

The lower lights…sigh. 

While I will only mention two, the reality is that these experiences ran back-to-back and spanned over a six month period. 

  1. Going through the process of reapplying for your job.  The stress was worse than I imagined.  I thought I would be ok but nothing quite prepares you for it.
  2. Getting in my own way time and time again. Then God showed me that this is what I had to stop doing.  Sadly, I had to witness someone else doing it to understand my own actions.  It was painful to watch, but now I am aware of how I create my own pain.
  3. There was a third experience. I won’t talk about it except to say that it reinforced my belief… No weapon formed against me shall prosper. God has got my back all the time. 

At the end of it, I am so grateful to have made it thus far.  I am thankful that my son and I had a roof over our heads, food on our table, clothes on our backs, a reliable car to get us from A to B and love in our home.  I had friends, family, and colleagues to support me through it all. Most importantly, I had God going before me every day. 

Photo by Anna Bratiychuk on Unsplash

So cheers to 52. 🥂 Thank you for the lessons and love.  Welcome 53!  Show me what you got! 💃🏽

My Word for 2026

This morning I came across a post on LinkedIn by Daniel Pink. He was sharing a little wisdom about choosing a word for the year. You can watch it here. If you have been following me for a while (Thank you!) you know that this has become a regular practice for me. I highly recommend it and here is why.

Why Choosing a Word of the Year Can Be a Great Idea

I have had a word every year for four years. Each year, that word acts as my north star. It keeps me focused and intentional on the behaviour or skill I want to build. You can imagine the effect this practice has on you. By the end of the year, the word and the behaviour or skill become a part of you. I continue refining the behaviour or skill whenever I acquire new information or feedback.

Think of it like this:

  • Your vision is a themed Lego set
  • Your word-of-the-year is a numbered packet set in the themed set’s box. Every year, you open a new packet, build it and attach it to the prior year/s part.
  • Once you have completed the original set, you add complimentary pieces because you are always growing and evolving.

How do I choose my word of the year?

While I do have a personal vision, I don’t plan my word of the year. I build as I go. My first word of the year was “Intentional”. I completed a Mind Power course with Robin Banks. This course is based on John Kehoe’s book of the same name. It made me realise that I live my life like a blade of grass in the wind. I say I want to do someone or something, but my actions do not match my words. I spent hours reading books and watching YouTube videos, understanding what it means to be intentional. I picked up tools and tricks to remind myself to be intentional every day until I became unconsciously competent at it.

I have spent a year working on being more productive. One on reducing clutter in all areas of my life (I need to revisit that one. 😅) My word for this year is Wellness. It really helped me be intentional about improving my health all year long.

My Word of the Year

So what’s my word for this year? It’s “Act”. I have always been an accumulator of information/knowledge. Acting on this information has not been a strength. In 2026 I want to change that. I want to step out of my comfort zone, experiment more, and have fun doing it. I know it will be stressful for me and it will be exciting.

So…what’s your word for the year? Have you already adopted this practice? If yes, what are some of words you have chosen over the years? How did it go?

I’ll leave you with a great quote from Emma Chase in the image below. Ultimately, life is a journey. So, don’t forget to enjoy the ride.

Image: Canva

Thanks for popping by.

Don’t forget to be amazing!

Gratitude for Rest – Day 12 2025

Reflection

It’s not that often that I find myself absolutely exhausted but this year I experienced it far too often. Last night I was just too tired to even think of writing. This morning I woke up feeling a little unwell, still exhausted and my body felt like it had been hit by a train.

No doubt, it’s a sign that I need to rest more often, given how much more stressful work in particular has become. That’s exactly what I plan to do this weekend. Sleep, potter around the house and garden, read and watch a bit of TV. My body and mind need to unplug for a bit. I might consider a walk along the beach as well just to clear my head. An added bonus is that I have taken Monday off and Tuesday is a public holiday so it’s an extra long weekend for me. 💃🏽💃🏽

How do you unplug and unwind?

I’ll leave you with Anne Lamott’s words of wisdom on rest.

Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.

— Anne Lamott

Image:Canva

That’s it for today. Bye for now 🌼