Looking backward, looking forward: A New Year begins.

It’s time for the annual accountability report!

For those who are new here, welcome. Each year I start the year off by “looking both ways” (backward and forward) before “crossing the street” into the next year.

It’s less about making a list of New Year’s Resolutions as it is about checking in on the map that’s been given to me by human resources. No, right, I don’t actually have an HR department so, technically, these touchpoints can go any way I want them to go.

This Out-with-the-Old / In-with-the-New check-in is typically pretty great as I often forget to pause and appreciate the wins of the previous twelve months. It’s the mid-year check-ins that tend to be more difficult as HR (aka, me) often has to lay down the hammer.

Welcome to the world of the self-employed.

Anyhoo. If you feel inclined to look fully back, click here for the 2025 edition of this article. Now, onto next.

2025 | Looking Backward:

What was on my roadmap for 2025? Well, shit. Did I even have a roadmap? This year was a LOT and, frankly, I lost track of any personal goals quite early. I guess the good news is that I gave myself loads of grace, not my typical norm, as those goals faded from view. Maybe that win, giving myself grace, is a greater one than a list filled with checkmarks. Without further ado, 2025’s very crumpled roadmap report:

Learn to Sew: No, I get it. Learning to do anything at all with my Brother has been on the list for eleventy years now. Just so we’re clear, my Brother is my sewing machine. My actual brother would have to acknowledge my existence in order for us to do anything at all. That’s not important. Anyway, back to my Brother, the sewing machine. I’m happy to report that in May(ish), I went to the craft store and found the patterns and bought material and thread. I returned home, got to work, and sewed an actual item. It was my first experience with patterns and the flimsy paper they come on, but I did it. What did I make? Just the cutest bag ever for my friend, in which I put all of her birthday goodies. I did buy enough fabric to make myself a matching cutest bag ever, but that hasn’t exactly happened yet, as I’m still feeling the effects of struggling through that first one. I had no idea sewing could be so stressful. Still, I did sit down at my sewing machine several more times in 2025–mostly for shortening pants after I found out just how much the tailor charges. Because I also learned to shop in 2025 (read more here), knowing how to shorten pants became somewhat important.

Travel Agenting: My goal in the land of discovering the world was to increase my client base in 2025 and HOLY HELL did that happen! The farther into this gig I get, the more I fall in love with it. I have found a wheelhouse in planning the weird: those out-of-the-box vacations that many other travel planners would brush off as impossible. I have found a second wheelhouse in working with those who may not have the biggest travel budget but still want (and deserve) to have big adventures. I love it. This roadmap did have a few subcategories:
- Leading a Facebook Group: Most cruise itineraries can be found as Facebook groups and, while I’ve always encouraged my travelers to join those, I’ve never led one myself. This year, I did! It was for our August Holland America Cruise and I had an amazing time serving as a digital information desk while getting to know fellow passengers in the lead-up to the trip. I am currently leading a second Facebook Group. This one is for the May sailing of Royal Caribbean’s Serenade of the Seas–another Alaskan adventure that I’m happy to share my expertise on.
- Lead a Group Booking: While I didn’t do this in 2025, I am doing it in 2026 on that ship mentioned just above. I’ll be leading a group of 15 travelers through Alaska’s Inner Passage. So far, I’ve learned there is an art to understanding who wants how much involvement from their group leader. Fingers crossed, please. My goal is to return with the same number of travelers that we left with and that everyone returns home as friends (with a whole new batch of stories).
Writing: My 2025 goal was to publish a second book but to also take full control of the process: editing, proofreading, graphics, publishing, marketing, etc. Why? I mean, some might say I’m a control freak but, oh wait, yes, that’s exactly why. Also, the amount of money authors give away to publishers is batshit bonkers. I wanted to have full control and also not give away piles of money. My second book, Sparent hit the shelves in February. If that’s news to you, it’s because I did very little marketing. Grace? Absolutely applicable. A week after Sparent was published, my mom died. I lost all motivation. Still,I am incredibly proud of the work I did do and what I learned through the process. I have even been able to serve as a mentor for a few budding authors aiming to see their works hit the shelves.
Portuguese: My goal here was to switch from Spanish to Portuguese lessons. I kind of did. But then I switched back to Spanish and actually finished the Spanish track in Duolingo mid-way through 2025. After that, I deleted Duolingo from my phone as I realized that I wasn’t really getting fluent in anything (unless it’s important to know how to explain that cows love to cook pancakes for breakfast in another language).
Celebrate a Decade: Rich and I decided long ago that, if we made it this far, we’d go big. We did make it and we did go big and we absolutely deserved it! Blended family life is not for the weak and making it to our tenth anniversary was a huge testament to our hard work, determination, and love for what we were building. We did a vow renewal right here in our hometown and were able to invite our local tribe–many of whom were not present for our wedding in 2025 because we hadn’t met them yet. It was truly an AMAZING day and, as I looked across the room, my heart grew nine billion times larger.
Love the People Who Love Me: See above. I really did focus my efforts on those willing to accept and love me exactly as I am. Did I have a few moments of mopiness aimed at those who would rather see something different? Of course. I think that’s pretty normal for females. Did it get even harder when one of my kids jumped to the other camp? You have no idea. Still, loving those who love me is one thing that will remain on my roadmap forever.

Okay, I actually did better in 2025 then I thought. See, that’s why we do this! Wait, did I just get a raise?

2026 | Looking Forward:

The 2026 Roadmap is still quite blurry. A few weeks ago, I wasn’t sure I was going to make it through December without a complete meltdown. It turns out I did. I made it through and I had a meltdown. Good for me! Grace, right? Let’s map out a plan:

Branding: I hate it. What is it? Oh, just that whole process of pimping your wares in order to build your business. Because I have two businesses (writer and travel planner), I get to brand myself in two very different arenas which means…I get to hate it twice as much. A few months ago, I had a meeting with a marketing team in hopes that I could take branding off my plate by tossing them a few of the dollars I’d save by publishing my own book. HILARIOUS. In order to farm out the posts, newsletters, mailing lists, etc. while I sat back and actually focused on the things I loved, well, let’s just say the price-point was banana pants. Hello? I am neither the writer, Colleen Hoover nor that travel guy, Steve something (his name is Rick Steves. Thanks, Dad). It was quite the kick-in-the-gut to realize that, if I wanted to amp my marketing, I would have to do it myself. So, what, now I’m both HR and PR? Do I have to do everything? It seems the answer is “yes.” As much as it pains me to write this, 2026 will be the year of self-promotion. I already hate it. It’s going to be great.
Writing-A: Every year, I say I’m going to give up freelancing and then 12 months goes by and I’m still freelancing. So…I guess I’ll keep doing it. I’ve learned that the freelance-side of writing is actually a nice word cleanse as the topics typically aren’t too difficult yet still allow me to work out my writing muscles regularly. For 2026, I’m not going to so much as whisper, “Maybe I should stop freelancing.”
Writing-B: Yes. There is already a third book in the works. I haven’t told a lot of folks about it. It’s a very different book than my first two. It’s been really hard to write. Stay tuned. What I really want to add to my roadmap is that I will be marketing this book differently. It’s part of that branding above. There is a whole underground network of people who will help pre-read, pre-market, and post-everything for free because they simply LOVE books. For this book, I’m going to engage that underground network. If you’re reading this and are part of that network, please reach out to me.
Learn Piano: Every year, I try to learn something new. Now that Duolingo is out of my life, I’ve been kicking around ideas for 2026. It may be piano. First, I have to find one. How hard can that be?
Back to the Gym: In a shocking twist (for anyone that knows me), I have not had a gym membership since February. This is the first time in my life that I wasn’t a regular at some gym, somewhere, or driving around with a sweat-soaked sports bra in the backseat. Because I had knee surgery in April that would require nearly a year of physical therapy, I canceled my gym membership. I’m not sure anyone can understand how weird that felt. I’ve been working out since I started gymnastics as a four-year-old, in one form or another. I wrapped up that twelve months of physical therapy five months early (not to brag or anything) and so, it’s time to get back to the gym. I’m already out of breath.
Find Quiet: Like many of us, I have an addiction to filling every single minute of my day. I’d like to return to COVID times (without the COVID, of course) and find quiet. I’d like to learn, once again, to simply be still. Does that sound like the complete opposite of the above point? No, I get it. The tricky part, in our home, is that both my husband and I are doers. For us, “relaxing” often translates to doing a project but, at the end of the day, I’m not always sure that helps me find quiet. I’m not even sure I know what “quiet” looks like. Any ideas?

Final thoughts? Not really. 2025 was a lot. A LOT. I think the most important thing I learned was that having grace for oneself is a gift. I found that last year, and I’m incredibly grateful. I hope to carry that grace forward into 2026 and 2027 and 2028 and, well, you get it, right?