2025 did not go as expected.

I thought it was going to be “my” year. I had big plans (as you can see in the image above), made an entire strategy in the early days of January, and convinced myself I was going to be able to rule them all once 2025 was over.

It lasted 2 months.

Which is actually pretty good if you consider most habits or goals fail within the first 21 days.

There was just too much- too many goals, too many options, too many plans, and too many things that needed my focus.

And I kept adding things! Including an entirely new business that was not planned for (hello Startup Women NC! 👋)

It didn’t matter how much I loved it. It was too much. There wasn’t enough focus. There were too many changing outcomes. Things had to go…including my 15-year career as a marketer.

My last client relationship within my marketing company ended in the summer of 2025. And with it, so did the drive to be all the things I could be.

High-achievers like me suffer from what I call “if I think I can, I should.” It makes me think about what the army slogan “be all you can be” gets wrong: yeah, we could be all, and in the process get burnt out or disillusioned before we “be” anything at all.

Luckily, when that last client project ended, I had just started my best era to date: my Culling Era. It was time to reduce what I did, what I was spending my time doing, and what I spent that precious brain power (and time) on.

Venus Liles, a local lawyer for female founders, told me about her version of this just last week. She does a “resume of no” at the end of each year.

We get so proud of our accomplishments, rightly so, celebrating achievement and the reaching for goals. But she realized that with the kind of purpose-driven life she wanted to lead, she needed to also celebrate the things she could have done but chose not to in order to have the time to be with family, friends, pursue balance, or even maintain excellence.

This really connected with me, as someone who is constantly, constantly striving. I enjoy the motion, enjoy the new start to adventures. But I need to build the skill of less.

And that’s why my Culling Era has been so important to the end of 2025. Instead of an end, it’s become a beginning.

Yes, I’m still in planning mode for 2026, and making BIG goals (hello to the year of Novelty). But now I’m going to also be adding to my own resume of ‘no.’

I’ve said “no” to more marketing clients. I’ve said “no” to starting a new podcast (even though I really want to!). I’ve said “no” to partnerships that would dilute my focus once again.

These are all things that I’ve loved, that have given me so much, and that I will cherish. But they don’t serve me now, and to keep them is to tell future me I don’t love her as much as the me that was in the past.

Like the KonMari method, I am thanking it and letting it go.

I’m still considering what other things need the deep cut, if there’s other things I’m holding onto out of comfort or habit rather than need or passion.

This year, as I excitedly embark on my novelty adventures, I’m also going to be writing down my list of “no.”

Hopefully, this time next year, it will be as full as the life I’ve been able to live because of the extra time it gave me.

Talk soon,

Rachel
Leadership trainer, novelty junkie, and human being

Thanks for joining me on my search for novelty and one human-centric leaders's journey towards a more balanced life.