Dear 2025,

I had high hopes for you. It seemed like there was something special about the year being 2025. As such, my word for the year was “abundance”.

I optimistically wrote the word on a poster behind my monitor along with my goals for the year. I can barely look at that poster now.

A better word would have been “struggle” or perhaps “dumpster fire”.

I could talk about all the crappy things that happened this year, but I know 2025 was crappy for many, so in my last newsletter for the year I thought I would share all the great things I got to do.

We often hear about how important it is to understand our values when thinking about our career. It actually took me a while to work out what was important to me.

 I think back to the time I was working for a chain jewellery store, straight out of finishing that super useful Applied Science Degree. I was in their management development program and then worked my way up to store manager.

I have been delivering some workshops on respectful and inclusive cultures, and have written a couple of newsletters on the topic, here and here.

In the first one, mostly written on a plane between Brisbane and Mackay, I was reflecting whether the mostly male audience would feel a bit attacked by the topic, because workplaces that are more at risk of disrespectful and exclusionary behaviours (sexual harassment, bulling, discrimination and victimisation) are those where:

• Most of your workers are men

• Most of your leaders are men

• Your workplace lacks diversity across the board

• Your workplace is isolated or remote

• Your workplace is divided by gender (for example, women in the office, men on the tools)

“Nearly 2 years ago (over the summer holidays in Thailand) I read the book 10x Is Easier Than 2x: How World-Class Entrepreneurs Achieve More by Doing Less (by Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy).

One of the takeaways for me was organising my week to have:

• Free days, for exploring, recovery, learning, idea generating and testing

• Focus days, for getting stuff done, working on important and revenue generating activities, and

• Buffer days, for meetings, organising, planning, admin, and preparing type work.

I decided then that Fridays would be a “Free” day.”