I started 2025 in the fetal position.
I had a beautiful and restful holiday season, perfectly balancing extroverted time filled with socializing with introverted calm + cozy time at home as a family.
And then I had my own “are you friggin’ kidding me right now” moment. Things seemed to be going along in one direction and suddenly they were going in another.
My clients have these moments all the time and it’s what drives them to seek out the kind of services I offer professionally. I think it’s important that I keep it real – I have my own “are you friggin’ kidding me right now” moments too. We all do!
Someone reminded of the Cognitive Triangle last week as I complained about how 2025 started for me. What it boils down to is that the only things within our control fit into the Cognitive Triangle – our thoughts (mindset), feelings, and behaviour (actions). Everything else we only think we have control over.
Instead of blasting headlong into this year, I’ve chosen to digest and integrate the lessons 2025 has already taught me. I generally don’t buy into the New Year, New You message, but this “are you friggin’ kidding me” moment reminded me that it’s time for me to focus on Renew You. That lesson has become abundantly clear.
That’s usually what life’s challenges have to offer us – they present the opportunity to write the next chapter from a new perspective.
I’ve spent every morning in January in stillness, enjoying candlelight until the sun is fully up. Instead of my usual and well-honed journaling routine, I’ve been meditating. One morning when I opened the Insight Timer app to choose a meditation, my inspirational message was:
“In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.”
(Sir Frances Bacon)
Ok universe. I see you.
Life feels heavy and so many people I speak with are tired of being given opportunities to build resilience, to be strong, to put into practice the lessons we’ve learned from life events.
But this is the human experience, isn’t it?
We don’t get to order from a menu exactly what we want as part of our human experience. We can’t upsize the moments we want and downsize the moments that we don’t. Our path isn’t always clear, and it’s often filled with so many obstacles that we start to wonder what kind of karma we are clearing in this lifetime.
The duality of the dark + light, the introverted + extroverted, the go + the stop…it’s part of the journey. Where we have control is always our mindset, our feelings and our actions.
Mindset. Feelings. Actions. Breathe that in.
In addition to appreciating my slow, dark mornings, practicing stillness and meditation, I’ve given myself the space to be very flexible in my business for the entire month of January.
I’m focusing more on making nourishing meals + snacks and putting the kettle on for tea. I can’t help it – it’s in my prairie girl DNA.

I’ve been more present and available for my family. I am taking deep breaths of fresh air – sometimes while watching the birds in my yard and sometimes on a slow walk. I’ve chosen movement opportunities that feel soul filling and I’m writing more, even if what I’m writing is for my eyes only. Practicing self-care has been a top priority, as has been doing things with my hands. This has taken the form of baking sourdough and working on knitting a pair of mittens. Very Hygge, right?
Hilariously (and in total opposition to this Hygge energy), I spent my last work week of 2024 on prednisone for a persistent sinus infection that plagued me for much of the fall. For five days, I felt like I was moving at warp speed and in what my family has jokingly been calling my week of prednisone panic, I wrote my 2025 strategic plan for my business. This is another thing I’ve given myself the space to revisit throughout the month of January, and I’ll be lacing this with gentleness and ease. It’s not that my plans won’t happen, it’s that I’m giving myself the space to re-evaluate what matters most. Already I’ve identified that I planned WAY too much, biting off more than I could chew before the calendar had even flipped to 2025.
What 2025 has taught me already is that sometimes we are pulled back before we can launch forward – just like an arrow is drawn back in a bow. I could leap right into the year ignoring all the signs January has gifted me thus far, pick up my plans and push forward, feeling behind from the get-go because I’ve missed a month at my desk. This route feels like it’s destined for feelings of guilt + shame, a mind filled negative self-talk, and taking so much action it leads to burnout. Or I could reflect, refine + realign after this period of restoration. That feels like meeting hustle with heart.
Keeping with this bow + arrow metaphor, I’ve just learned from the google gods about the importance of nocking – the act of placing your arrow on the bowstring. You see, a well-nocked arrow balances perfectly on the bow, creating an optimal foundation for the shot. When positioned precisely, there is a seamless energy transfer that dramatically enhances both power and accuracy.
I jokingly said to my daughter earlier this month that I’m doing a thing this January where I try to survive every day of January, but now I know what I’m doing is nocking my arrow before letting it fly.
So instead of staying in the fetal position, or leaping into my previously made plans, I’m taking the lessons from this “are you friggin’ kidding me right now” moment and alchemizing it into landing a bullseye.
I’d love to know - how are you nocking your arrow this month to prepare for success later in the year?
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