It's a Wrap

How reflecting on the year, even the crappy bits, helps us.

Now that the presents are all unwrapped, it’s time to wrap up the past year. I didn’t do this at the end of 2024. I let that year go out on a whimper, dragging myself to the end. That sounds dramatic for a year in which nothing physically awful happened to me or those I love. But the stuff that buzzes around our brains is just as important, and I didn’t deal with any of that.

I’m not a fan of the word “closure” – it makes me cringe a bit, but that’s what I’m talking about 🫣. Reflecting on what went well, what didn’t, and the role we played in all of it can help us move forward more purposefully.

As many of you know, I started this blog after breaking my right hand. It happened early January, and the cast stayed on for longer, wrapped around me like the unresolved bits of 2024. By March, I’d finally faced my tendency to perfectionism and how that had crushed me in a less-than-perfect year. I wrote my first post, but I wasn’t sure if anyone would read it or if I’d be able to keep this blog going.

I’ve now published over 40 posts and have kept to my weekly schedule. I regularly receive encouraging feedback and messages thanking me or letting me know how my words have inspired. Writing the posts has been massively cathartic for me, too. It’s helped me take myself less seriously, value some things and people, and move on from others. I’ve learnt to appreciate what I have and go my own way at my own pace. I’ve faced my fears, wrestled with indecisiveness and attempted to eat healthier (this is a work in progress 😏). In the midst of it all, I started something else completely new, which has sparked ideas for posts for the new year.

There have been highs and lows, but I’ve learnt from both. One of my biggest lessons, and the theme of my most popular post, is that life isn’t only failure or success. Those are just labels. There’s a lot of living in between.

So, lovely readers, thank you for joining me this year. I hope being on my couch with me has helped you in some way or at least made you smile occasionally.

If you fancy wrapping up your year, here are some prompts that might help:

• What didn’t go as well as it could have this year? What role did I play in that? What did I learn?

• What am I proud of? Did I pat myself on the back for it? (If not – do it now.)

• What would I like less of in 2026? Or who or what have I decided doesn’t have a place in my life anymore?

• What do I want more of in the new year? How can I make time for that? What do I need to do to make it happen? What timeline works for me?

• Where did I grow in the in‑between spaces, in the quiet bits I nearly overlooked?

As I said in my last post, we’re talking about a couple of days that some celebrate and some don’t. However, whether I stay awake to see 2026 in (it will be a battle between the former party girl and the knackered mummy in me), there’ll be no whimpering this year, just a contented snore 😴💤.

May 2026 bring all you wish for and more – you’ve got this!