A New Year to Pivot

Usually at the end of a year, most people take time to reflect on unmet goals, things they “shoulda, coulda, woulda” over the past year.

As I look back on my 2024, there are plenty of things that I could do the same; look at my regrets, and start to get uneasy and depressed about what I couldn’t or didn’t accomplish in 2024.

But what’s the point in that? What is that going to serve for me – or even how is wallowing in regrets going to serve you?

God has granted me the gift of life and breath now ( and I’m eternally), so I will continue to look forward to the great things I can do in my life this year and how I can help others with what I know and can do.

Instead, I can take stock of what worked well, what I accomplished, and what I need to pivot and execute better in this new year of  2025. This is what I do as an educator each school year, might as well put it into practice for my own self.

If you didn’t know, I am an educator (high school history teacher) during the day and your Learning Experience Architect by ‘night’.  At the end of each school year, I look at all the projects I administered and facilitated. Depending on the timeframe, I pivot, tweak, and reframe them hopefully to get better results.

Sometimes, the projects I give to my students are complete trash and others are succesful. But those that are trash, do I completely toss them aside?

Nah, they may be good ides but just need to be tweaked and re-assigned. Also, would I say that my entire teaching year was a complete wash?

Hell Nah!

My classroom is seen a safe-space and a place of learning for my students and it takes a lot of hard work and planning to create an atmosphere like that. So with the effort of pivoting I do in my teaching, I need to apply the same practice to my personal and business life.

And you can do the same for your personal, professional and business life as well. It’s all about acknowledging that you made it through the past year, assess it and pivot to a brand new year!

Here’s how my 2024 went:

• Nominated for 2024 Teacher of the Year for my school
• My youngest son graduated to middle school
• My oldest son excelled in 8th grade.
• Started my learning design and solutions company and personal brand (well the websites are up and running).
• Enjoyed my brother getting married and their wedding ceremony.
• Mangaged my health and time better.

These were big accomplishments for me because I made a concious effort to balance my work life and personal life last year. I was intentional in doing that because I noticed everytime I was bring home paper to grade and experiencing high amounts of anxiety, especially around quarter ending when grades were due. The anxiety was definitely NOT healthy for me and began affecting my health.

I was able to use some time to put towards goals that I want to accomplish on my time and not anyone elses. One of those was making my classroom a true learning experience rather than just a history class — and based on my nomination, I see I was able to accomplish this especially based on what my students tell me.

My sons being able to function well in middle school and perfom well despite setbacks in math, I am truly a proud mama for that.

They pushed themselves to make sure they put their best into their studies even though math was a challenge for them. Are their grades perfect As and Bs? Nope. But they worked hard to pass their standard base line tests and for my sons who get test anexity, I know that was not easy for them but they pushed through and progressed.

Being a part of my brother’s wedding to the love of his life was an enjoyable experience during my 2024 summer. The love he shared with my now sister-in-law and their daughter was amazing to witness. It let me know that I am capable and worthy of that kind of love and the love I have with my partner is a beautiful, amazing aspect of my life.

And putting my health as top priority was important — and I’m proud of myself that I did. I was able to pay more attention to my body’s reactions especially from the dreaded ‘peri’ (#iykyk) That peri is another bread of annoyance I didn’t know existed for women — but I’m finally understanding how it’s moving with my body and better managing it.

Pivoting and Looking Forward

• Leaving self-doubt in 2024
• Leaving work anxiety in 2024
• Focusing only on 2 goals

One thing I noticed about myself last year is that I let self-doubt creep into my system quite often which left me dropping the ball on business growth that I could have done if I was consistent. So I know that its time to become disciplined with my time and be consistent in what my dreams are so I can reap the benefits of it. Faith and confidence  in myself is critical to do this and I plan on making this a top priority.

I also realize that I worked really hard in my teaching career, but unfortunately with all the progress that I have made in teaching, there’s only so much progress I can make because there’s no other options for me in this career other than administration. I NOT into admin work AT ALL. So I know this year is my year to pivot and make changes. The work I put into my teaching career left me with a lot of anxiety, so I needed to make sure I lowered my anxiety.

So how did I do this? Going back to my childhood hobby — coloring and drawing.

Coloring and doodling have given me a certain peace and comfort that I need to leave all other thoughts out the way. It’s just me, pretty colors, paper and music. A great way to ease my stress and anxiety.

 I learned I didn’t put my full effort into my business last year because I allowed other things to monopolize my time. As I looked back wondering why I wasn’t showing up in developing this new business, I realized that I was comparing my past success to my current ‘failure’ and that’s comparing apples to oranges.

It was unfair to myself and to start a new business from scratch. I  put an unfair timeline or pace on myself and my business and it left me feeling disinterested and procrastinating when I could have been thriving and helping.

This year, I can determine what sucess and consistency looks like for me. My 24 hours doesn’t look the same as others. Being a solo mom (at the moment), teacher and building a business at the same time is not easy and my 24 hours may really look like 3-4 hours of me time to doodle, color and complete business stuff before going to bed for another day. But at least I know this time is mine and no one elses. And I won’t compromise my sleep or health for it either. 

I have two goals this year:  Make progress and Enjoy the journey.

That’s it.

No vision board, new planner (that I only use half way anyway) or any 2025 power words.

I just want to continue to grow in faith, life and love and enjoy the journey as it takes me –enjoying my hobbies, growing my business my way and time, love on my partner and family and create awesome experiences for the new year.

What Can You Learn from Me? 

I shared a lot here, but there is at least something here you can take away from my reflection. What is one thing you can do this year to make progress and enjoy the journey?

What is one thing you really want to do that will make progress in your life and that you will enjoy the process of it?

Once you have it figured out, let’s make progress together –let’s share the journey together.  Check in with me by joining my free Facebook group –The Smart Lab. Click here or on the link below to join my free group and let me know how you’re making progress.

Here’s to a fabulous, progessive 2025!