My 2024 Annual Reflection: Health Matters, Turning 40 in Style, and So Much Fun

Happy New Year, friends! I hope you had a restful holiday season and have settled back into your regular routines feeling refreshed. 🥳

I always enjoy working on these annual reflections because they’re like starting a jigsaw puzzle. First, I pour over my calendar, daily reflection, and journal, gathering the pieces. Slowly, the edges begin to form with things that stood out to me, points of interest, and common threads. Over a few weeks, I write an initial outline and start working on filling out different sections to see how all the pieces come together. Eventually, the full picture reveals itself, with the final piece being my theme for the year ahead.

This year, the puzzle came together in three parts:

1. Health matters
2. Turning 40 in style
3. So much fun

You can read my past annual reflections here:

• My 2021 Annual Reflection: Languishing, Flourishing, Momentum, and a Hard Loss
• My 2022 Annual Reflection: Practicing Resilience and Finding Joy
• My 2023 Annual Reflection: Space for What Matters, Celebrating Wins, and My Successful Year

You can also read about the full annual reflection process I go through here: How To Do an Annual Reflection to Get The Most Out Of The Year Ahead and how to set themes in Take Aim: How To Reflect, Set Direction, and Make Progress In The Year Ahead.

Overall, I'm happy to say it was a good year! I honoured my theme from 2024, which was Resist Less, and kept in mind the themes I set in prior years. There was lots to celebrate and appreciate.   

Without further ado, here is my annual reflection for 2024 and my theme for 2025!

Health matters

A cancer scare

2024 started in the middle of a cancer scare. My husband, Dana, had a growing lump in his neck that we were three months into waiting to find out about. January and February were the unfortunately familiar time of escalating scans; he finally got in for a biopsy (and then another biopsy), and it was thankfully confirmed to be a benign salivary gland tumour, and we could exhale the breath we (I) had been holding for nearly five months. 

It was a particularly tricky situation for us since the last time we went through escalating scans and a biopsy, Dana did, in fact, have cancer and ended up in chemo and all the rest of the trappings of cancer treatment for over a year. Though we pushed it hard into the background, the months of waiting to find out if we were going to go through that again had their share of anxiety and trepidation.

It was still a relatively serious situation in that the tumour still had to be removed, and it was in a location with a lot of nerves, so numbness was guaranteed, and some facial paralysis was a risk. But it felt like an epic win, given what it could have been. Dana bore the surgery, recovery, and resulting eight-inch scar with his usual ease and optimism. It was about as good an outcome as we could have hoped for.

A quiet MS Year

I was fortunate to have a relatively stable year in my Multiple Sclerosis symptoms. The medication I switched to last year continued to do its job, and in November, I got the happy news from my annual MRI that I had no new lesions in the prior 12 months. My regular symptoms were still up and down. I still experienced significant fatigue, and the paresthesia in my legs was regular and often intense, but it’s been manageable overall. I’ll take it!

Adventures in aging

The more normal adventures of an aging body happened in the form of running injuries, and I somehow ended up developing adult asthma. I am now a person who does mobility and stability exercises and has an inhaler. 😅

When I think about our various health matters, this quote by Augustin Burroughs comes to mind:

“When you have your health, you have everything. When you do not have your health, nothing else matters at all"​.

I don’t know if I agree with this completely (it’s a bit more dramatic than I would venture), but the core idea is true enough. When you feel good, and everything works as it should, things are quite a bit easier than when you feel crappy, and something is wrong. When something is very wrong, many previously “important” things fade into the background. 

Even though Dana and I were hit with the “unlucky in health” stick early in our lives and more times than sometimes seems fair, it’s meant that we have been made glaringly aware of where our health needs to fall in our priorities: At the top. Full stop.

Paying attention to, protecting, and maintaining our health is part of every day. Looking back, this last year was just another chapter in that (sometimes difficult) pursuit.

Turning 40 in style

Dana and I both turned 40 in the spring, and it was awesome! We got to go on an amazing trip to Croatia and Slovenia with my brother and sister-in-law to celebrate. We did all the things, ate all the food, drank all the wine, and made all the memories. It was everything I could have hoped for. 

The inherent unpredictability of travel was also a good opportunity for me to practise my 2024 theme of Resisting Less. With effort, I was more flexible and able to go with the flow as things changed. (Except for the sea kayaking, where I was decidedly not feeling the flow or wanting to go with it anywhere but to shore 😅).

The leadup to this milestone also prompted (you guessed it!) a significant reflection on the last decade and a deep appreciation of where I am in my life. We have a lovely home, established businesses we like, wonderful relationships, and a comfortable lifestyle. Also, Stella and Winston have settled from their maniac kittendom to be slightly more chill monsters.😁 

I can’t help but feel immeasurably grateful that we both got to turn 40 and for the wonderful life we’ve built together thus far. 

So much fun

In a silver lining kind of way, the cancer scare (and resulting relief) at the beginning of the year tee’d up the rest of the year for a whole lot of fun. Because damn, were we gonna enjoy things and, looking back, I was reminded just how much fun I got to have. 

These are some things of note that I am proud of or that brought me joy:

• I kept up my fitness streak (2557 days as of Dec 31... 7 years!) 
• I kept up my daily reflection streak (1821 days as of Dec 31)
• I read or listened to 96 books 
• I attended six concerts 
• I played 25 video games with Dana (SO much Elden Ring!)
• I went on 44 runs and ran 230 km 
• I got to go to Las Vegas on my solo writing retreat and a mini road trip with Dana to Calgary for a concert
• I got a new tattoo and a few new ear piercings
• I had a great year in my productivity consulting business with clients from across North America
• I published 24 articles
• Barely a week went by without dinner or a visit with one (or several of) my exceptional friends. 

Life was, of course, not all unicorns and rainbows. There was a death in my extended family, some family health situations and surgeries, some friends going through exceptionally hard times, and normal frustrations of things like multiple appliances needing to be replaced at the same time, both our cars being on their last legs, and all the other day-to-day ups and downs.

But damn, if it wasn’t a fun year overall! 

My theme for 2025: Let It Be

The themes I’ve set over the past three years have unintentionally built on each other. Each one is a different lens through which I look and make decisions about the life I want to live. They are all underlying threads that have emerged over the years for my version of an intentional life. 

• 2022 was Keep it Going, Keep it Steady: Stay consistent and work to keep life at 80%. 
• 2023 was Space and Grace: Make space for what matters most (be it rest or joy) and have the grace to accept and celebrate those things.
• 2024 was Resist Less: Notice the areas I grip hard and see if I can let go or at least loosen up.

This year, the layer I want to add is Let It Be.

This theme was inspired not by The Beatles song of the same name but by an Instagram reel of Mel Robbins explaining her “Let Them Theory.” She describes it like this:

“When you "Let Them" do whatever it is that they want to do, it creates more control and emotional peace for you and a better relationship with the people in your life.” [1]

Them being the people in your life who are sources of anxiety or conflict.

While I can’t speak to Robbins’ book or other content, the brief interview I watched of her describing this idea got me thinking about the situations in my life that often take the most energy from me, including:

• Trying to anticipate how other people will respond to something.
• Worrying about future possibilities.
• Feeling frustrated by other people's actions.

All of these come down to wanting to be in control. But I can’t control how others feel or behave, and if ever there was a waste of energy, it’s worrying about potential outcomes.

So, what does the theme of Let It Be look like in practice?

First, it’s noticing where my thoughts go when I start to feel anxious. When I begin to spiral into anticipation and worry, my goal is to shift my thinking to ask myself: 

• What about this is making me anxious?
• Does this matter in the bigger picture of my life?
• What about this situation (if anything) is in my control? 

If there is something in my control, do it; if not, I want to work on redirecting my focus to something I can control: me and my actions. 

This means doing what I know will help calm my (usually overactive) nervous system. Two things that always help me when I am anxious are talking the situation through (usually with Dana) and moving my body (going for a walk, working out, or doing some yoga). Sometimes, a fun distraction like reading a good book or playing video games doesn’t hurt either. 🙂

I know I can’t necessarily make it all go away; I am wired for worrying, and it's a well-trodden pathway in my brain. But I can work on catching myself before I get too far down the path and do my best to think or talk it through and take action if there is one; otherwise, Let It Be.

Looking forward

When I compile these reflections, I’m always struck by how much happens over the course of the year. It’s like I can only hold a few weeks in my mind, and everything else is some nebulous time in the past. It’s fascinating to look back and realize just how much I’ve forgotten, how much has changed, and how much has stayed the same. 

As always, my intentional life is a work in progress. But every year, I become more of myself and look forward to the discoveries that await in the year ahead. 

I hope I can Let It Be, at least on occasion! 😁

What is your theme for 2025?

I have a few slots open for new clients starting in February! If you want some help to work on your theme for 2025, book a free consult.