How My 2024 Goals Went and the Goals I’m Setting for 2025
Before sharing my 2024 goals, I want to tell you a story about how they came to be. The last few years, I’ve been struggling with a chronic health problem. I was very reluctant to have surgery, but no matter how many different opinions I got, they were all recommending I have surgery. So on December 20th, 2023, I underwent surgery. Everything went well and I had a great recovery for the first few weeks. I threw away my inhalers. I was hopeful the issue was in the past. But by mid-January, all of my symptoms came back. I had to get a new inhaler fast. While this was emotionally devastating, it lit a fire under my ass like I’ve never quite seen before. On an overnight decision, I stopped eating the majority of regular foods. I tried a variety of extreme diets in an attempt to alter my symptoms. And I did notice a difference on the carnivore diet. I was eating ground beef, steak, and avocados for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Anyhow, I want to paint this mini picture of what was happening in January 2024 and what continued to happen throughout all of 2024 for me. It was a year full of the pursuit of regaining my health. I ended up working primarily with functional medicine doctors to find an answer and experienced phenomenal personal growth.
2024 Goals In Order of Priority
✓ I will find new doctors and run more tests
✓ I will buy a home with Trace
✓ I will get engaged to Trace (we also got married in 2024!)
✓ I will remain dedicated to providing the best possible care for Remy's health: knee surgery, weight loss
✓ I will establish a new workout routine that I love to do regularly
✘ I will write and pitch bylines
✘ I will edit my manuscript and return it to agents
✓ I will build Feminist Thriller Club with tastemaker content
What I learned from achieving (or trying to achieve) these goals
I learned that it’s ok to set goals that are primarily personal. My top 5 goals were all related to my personal life. And 2024 ended up being a year devoted primarily to personal endeavors. We put an offer in on our house at the end of January. We closed in March. We’ve been doing huge DIY renovations since we moved in. Over the course of 2024, I devoted a large amount of time and energy to it. Getting the right mattress and sheets. Changing light fixtures. Hiring a painter. Playing interior designer room-by-room. Purchasing a new rug. Helping Trace rip out wall-to-wall carpet everywhere. Laying out row-by-row over 1,000 square feet of new hardwoods that we installed ourselves. When I say this was a huge year, it was.
Another personal milestone that was way more time-consuming than I realized was getting married. We got engaged in April and got married in an intimate ceremony with 25 guests in October. I didn’t hire a wedding planner. And while it was a small wedding, I’d say this was like having an intense and annoying part-time job throughout the entire summer. I’m not a fan of event planning or back-and-forth emails with vendors. But it turned out amazing and now that I see the photos, I’m really proud I achieved that this year. I only wanted to get engaged this year, but we ended up married, too. It was the most perfect day. I’m really happy with that.
My dog, Remy, had knee surgery on February 1st and it was a grueling recovery. For three months, I had to lift her every time she had to pee to help her in and out of the house. She’s a 55-pound dog so this is no small feat. Being a caretaker to any type of creature that needs so much help is hard work and emotional. I’m proud of her recovery. She’s more playful than ever before and can go on the longest walks of her life. Not bad for a 10.5-year-old dog. She also lost 5 pounds this year and is off all forms of medication.
Next, in 2024, I became a person who has to work out regularly to feel my best and for the first time in my life, I find it very rewarding mentally and physically. I do Align Pilates with Bailey Brown at home several days per week. I also lost 10+ pounds this year without it being a goal.
While all of this was happening, I was going from doctor to doctor and running very time-consuming at-home tests. I tested my gut health, my cortisol levels, mycotoxins, etc. I was shipping health labs from my house to various facilities across the country. I was looking into going to Mayo Clinic (I didn’t end up going, although I did get an appointment). It wasn’t just the time that this all took, it was the mental energy.
Every single day of 2024, I worked on my health.
I worried. I researched. I read books. I went to the library. I meditated. I took days off to rest to help my body in any way I could. I’ve never needed to put my health first in this way and it was challenging. I went to Madison by myself for a trip and was so exhausted by the experience that I cried on the drive home mourning that I didn’t have the energy to do a simple one-night trip by myself. I haven’t had a sip of alcohol since 2022. There are so many changes in my world that I could go on and on. But the morning after our wedding, I received positive test results that indicated a likely cause of my health problems: mycotoxins. The treatment plan is 6-12 months and I’m currently on it. I’m seeing improvements but there’s no guarantee it will work. So when I set out to find new doctors and run more tests, I did indeed fulfill that goal.
What I learned professionally in 2024
I built Feminist Thriller Club as a creative project only to realize I didn’t want to spend time on it. I’ve done that many times with projects and I’ve learned how to cultivate more resilience about this. That’s all it ever needed to be: a knowledge-building step on my path forward.
I did publish one byline this year. However, I didn’t pitch myself for this piece. And when it came to pitching myself, I found myself not making time for it. 2024 didn’t end up being the right time for me to focus on this goal — I let this fall to the wayside in an effort to prioritize everything else. I’m proud of my ability to prioritize what really matters: my health and personal life over work.
And last, I did edit my book quite a bit, but I never returned it to agents. I sat in a big pile of questions when it came to my writing career this year. I had so much momentum in 2023 when I went to NYC and had 12 agents interested. Then my hope in the book faltered. I’m still unsure if I’ll pitch it again or just move on to book #3. But I learned to sit in this mystery and discomfort without feeling bad about it. This is just a natural part of my process and you know what? I wouldn’t want too many things to happen in one year and I think buying a house, getting engaged, getting married, and working on a health issue was enough for me this year. I had to learn how to give myself a lot of grace and patience. I wasn’t able to “do it all” and I think it was a better year because I learned to slow down and rest more.
My 2025 Goals
I have five goals this year (in order of priority):
I will continue focusing on my health in hopes of a full recovery in 2025
I will write a new book
I will continue updating our home with Trace and record the process on our YouTube channel
I will write on my blog and send out my newsletter regularly. As of writing this, there are 1,150 readers
I will pitch bylines to leading publications like The Cut, Elle, etc.
Now that I’m married, living in our home, and on a treatment plan that seems to be working, I have a lot more time and space to work on my craft again. My main priority is my health but the other four goals are all related to my career again which feels good.
Words of the Year
In 2024, my word of the year was Devotion. I was devoted to myself, my health, and to Trace in new ways as his fiance and then his wife. I was devoted to our home. I was devoted to Remy and Hunter (our dog and cat) as their mom. And devoted to keeping up a creative practice, which I did in my own small and large ways this year.
In 2025, my word of the year is Nurture. I like the idea of nurturing myself even more, and leaning into my role as a nurturer in our home. I also like the idea of nurturing my role as a writer, and my relationship to readers. What if I just want to nurture better connections with the readers I already have? What if everything doesn’t have to be about growth, scaling, or even making more and more money? I’ve been pondering on the idea of “enough,” satisfaction, and gratitude for all the blessings I already have. Lately, everything I have is already more than enough and I’m glad for this internal feeling. I am grateful to my family and my husband, Trace, for providing so much security and happiness in my life that I have the freedom to blossom in new ways.
Do you have a goal-setting practice? If so, I’d love to hear from you about your 2025 goal. You can message me here.
