My 2025 Word of the Year

Three blog posts in a week is basically unheard of these days. I’ve been mostly focusing on my newsletter when I have energy and that’s not often. But one of the things I want to do in 2025 is write more free content. I spend most of my writing focusing on my fiction writing but I really miss this informal writing that you have through blog posts. So, I’m hoping to have more blog posts this year, too.

2024 was a tough year, especially the last three months. Burnout related to my day job hit me really hard and my energy simply tanked. You know that term “rotting” that’s been popular on the internet? I’ve done a lot of that in the last few months because I’m at capacity to do anything else. But with a new year, my ideal-futuristic self is ready for a fresh start, hopeful for the new year.

Hopeful that the future will be better. If I can just stop being so exhausted in the now. I’ve talked about it over and over again lately, this burnout and how it’s handing me my ass over and over again. How I have these high days and low days and I’m so damn tired of feeling like I’m on a seesaw.

And I know there are some things are out of my control – like what my employer decides to do with my team (because that’s happened to me before) or what happens in the world around me.

Somedays I can’t control my own energy levels, as someone with a chronic disease (it’s mostly managed, but there are days it still it kicks my butt), but I want to be more consistent in the things I can control.

Which led me to my word of the year. I had a few words that I had in mind, all that kind of had the same idea behind them, but after the last week or so, I finally settled in on my word of the year.

Background is a purple, waterpainted hydrangea. Black text list the word "steady" along with the definition of the word, that definition being "regularly, even and continuous in development, frequency, or intensity."

And that definition itself, one of a few, really resonated with me. Is that not what I’ve wanted for so long? To have regular moments, not feel like I’m a on seesaw. So, steady feels like the word for the year for me.

The real question is, will I remember it by the end of the year? I hope so, I’m gonna slap this up everywhere digitally, on my iPhone and iPad, everywhere in Notion, and hell, maybe I’ll even print it out.

I have a few more blog posts ready to go in the next week, and I hope y’all have a wonderful new year. And a steady new year.