Last year was the year I decided to just dive into the deep end of writing to see what happens. In the past, I’ve had creativity paralysis because I bogged myself down in the minute details of planning. I would plan so much that I never got around to doing. In 2024, I just wrote and posted, wrote and posted, and wrote and posted. There were a handful of times when I even managed to write and schedule posts ahead of time, but when that didn’t happen, I didn’t scold myself. I just wrote and posted. I continued to write down ideas, but I didn’t overwhelm myself with planning. It was a good learning and writing experience.
Over the holidays, new ideas began to take shape about how to improve my writing and other content. I feel like I found my writing “voice” again in 2024, but now I need to put new ideas into action. I hope some of these ideas spark your imagination so here are things I need to develop in 2025.
Planning (and writing) ahead reduces stress.
This is really just common sense, and I already knew this handy maxim. However, last year, I blogged both ways. Sometimes, I simply posted on the fly, but other times, I planned ahead enough to schedule blogs in advance. It would have been helpful to have all of my posts written ahead so that surprises in life didn’t make writing feel stressful. For 2025, I’m already looking at a plan to choose subject matter in advance so that I can write posts ahead of time, schedule them, and save myself the stress of remembering that I haven’t written my post for the day.
Marketing is a must.
While I was better about writing last year, I was intermittent with marketing. It isn’t that I can’t do it or learn it. I just pushed it off to the side to develop consistency with my writing. Now that my writing is more consistent, marketing will be a new habit to cultivate in 2025. Canva and social media, here I come!
Idea development will be well thought out.
This relates back to planning ahead, but it is more specific to what kinds of content I want to create. Last year, I sort of flew by the seat of my pants when it came to creating content, but this year, I want my idea development to be more intentional. I’ve learned so much that I can share, and my hope is that other people will read something that resonates with them.
Trust the process.
Okay, so trust is a difficult thing for me. I’m more of a control freak. Last year, I had to let go of that urge to control because that just wasn’t how life was working. Now that I’m finding my way, I want to put more trust in the growth process. One of my favorite YouTube creators reached a major milestone last year after nine years of hard work. Success takes hard work, and while I have no intention of gaining as many subscribers as she has, I have my own ideas of what equals success. It won’t happen by accident so I have to trust the process and work hard.
While this isn’t a full list of things I want to work on, these are four major steps in the right direction. Perhaps one of the best things I learned in 2024 was that I can work and plan at the same time so I want to put that into action in 2025. There is nothing wrong with diving into the deep end and learning as you go, but there is also nothing wrong with adding structure to your work so that it becomes successful in the way you want.
If you started a career transition or a new job last year, what have you learned that will make the new year easier or better? Learn from taking a chance and trying something unexpected. If you are contemplating a career or job change, what made you realize it was time to make the move in 2025? Remind yourself of the reasons you want a change. Those are all lessons that can be valuable in the future. Keep working. Keep planning. Let’s see what the adventure of 2025 holds.
Sidenote:
I’m always curious where certain phrases originated. If you are unfamiliar with “flying by the seat of your pants,” check out the various explanations here at The Free Dictionary.
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Inspirational Verse for the Day:
A person’s heart plans his way, but the Lord determines his steps. (Proverbs 16:9, CSB)
All Things Subject to Change 