personal-development – DEEP ROOTS

Q4 2024 Reflections: Purpose Through Presence

The final quarter of 2024 was about grounding myself in purpose and living with intention. These months challenged me to step into the present, balance my adaptability with authenticity, and embrace the magic I bring to the people who matter most. As the year came to a close, I was reminded that true progress starts with showing up—with all the vulnerability, effort, and love that requires.

October: Be who you needed.

By October, I had taken stock of my year and asked myself, “How can I bring what I’ve learned to others?” I decided to let go of self-doubt and comparisons and focus on living in the present—just the present. Not the past, not the future, but right here, right now. Choosing to stay in the moment requires thought and effort on my part. As someone who has always been a planner and naturally reflective, this hasn’t come easily. I’m still growing in this area, but I’ve asked my peers to hold me accountable, and it’s making a difference.

I started reflecting on the challenges I’ve faced as a trainer, leader, and working parent. Then, I began talking about it. I shared stories with peers during mentorship sessions, gave specific advice rooted in my experiences, and showed up as someone I needed during my own struggles. It’s not always easy to be vulnerable, but I’ve learned that the best way to grow yourself—and others—is to show up and share your truth.

November: Balancing Adaptability with Authenticity.

By November, I had gained a deeper understanding of the toll that balancing adaptability and conviction can take. My years of leadership development taught me to focus on what works best for the collective group, and I approached situations with flexibility to meet the team’s needs. However, my adaptable approach was sometimes perceived as indecision, which required me to reprioritize direct communication and be more intentional with every message. While this effort led to results, it often felt one-sided, as I didn’t always experience the same willingness to adapt from others.

In 2025, I plan to foster a culture of shared flexibility, where collaboration and progress come from mutual effort. Adapting takes work, but it’s most effective when all team members contribute equally to meeting in the middle. This year has shown me how much growth is possible when adaptability and respect are embraced collectively, and I’m committed to continuing this work with my team.

December: To my kids, I am magic.

As the year winds down, I’ve taken my usual week off to spend time with my family. Upstairs, my twins are loudly resisting bedtime, and my 4-year-old is happily glued to my side. We’ve just wrapped up a beautiful Christmas, and as I reflect, I’m struck by how different life feels from this time last year. The trials of this year pushed me to my limits, yet in my kids’ eyes, I am magic. They see me as their light, their safe place, their constant—and they don’t need me to prove it.

I don’t have to convince them of my worth or explain my value; they feel it in everything I do for them. Heading into 2025, I hope to carry that reminder with me: my worth isn’t defined by anyone else’s standards but by the love I bring to my home and family. As long as I’m keeping our home happy, safe, and wrapped in love, I am succeeding. My kids remind me that I am magic, and I hope to honor that gift every day in the year ahead.

Closing Thoughts: Ending the Year With Intention

The final quarter of 2024 reminded me of the power of showing up—with honesty, adaptability, and purpose. Whether it’s sharing your experiences to help others, adapting to meet challenges head-on, or simply being present for the people you love, progress begins when you’re willing to give your full self to the moment.

As I reflect on the year as a whole, I see how each quarter built upon the last. Transitions taught me resilience, self-awareness strengthened my purpose, discomfort led to growth, and presence helped me find clarity in what matters most. Each season of 2024 brought its own unique lessons, and together they shaped a year of transformation.

Heading into 2025, I’m carrying these lessons with me: to focus on what truly matters, to lead with authenticity, and to honor the magic I bring to the lives of those around me. Growth doesn’t stop at the end of a calendar year—it’s a continuous process, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to embrace it with intention and courage.

Q3 2024 Reflections: Growth Through Discomfort

The third quarter of 2024 was all about navigating discomfort and finding growth on the other side. These months forced me to face hard truths, lean into courage, and accept that change—whether personal or professional—takes time. Growth doesn’t come from avoiding discomfort; it comes from embracing it and allowing yourself the grace to evolve.

July: Therapy is hard.

As helpful as therapy has been, I can’t pretend it’s always something I look forward to. I’ve held (and still hold) a lot of resentment about my birth experience with the twins, and their hospitalization last year turned us into hermits, constantly feeling like the world was dangerous for our babies. My therapist has made me sit with some of the most anxiety-inducing, stressful, and painful moments of my life. There have been weeks when I’ve dreaded my appointment.

I feel like I could talk to her forever, but our first focus was preparing me for the anniversaries of the complicated birth and hospitalization. It hasn’t been easy, but I’m so glad I’ve been putting in the work. My kids deserve a mom who can handle her complicated emotions—and dammit, I deserve that freedom, too.

August: It’s better to speak up and be wrong than stay silent and be right.

In August, I faced a complicated situation at work that taught me an invaluable lesson. A colleague shared something with me that surprised and unsettled me. It could have been a bad joke or an exaggeration, but I couldn’t shake it. After hours of second-guessing myself, I finally texted my leader that night to share my concerns. She listened, validated my perspective, and encouraged me to act.

I brought others into the conversation and explained why I felt it was necessary to investigate. In the end, it turned out to be a lapse in judgment on my coworker’s part—but I’m proud I spoke up. I stayed true to myself by honoring my thought process and emotions. I’m a deep thinker, a critical thinker, and I trust my intuition. Instead of overthinking, I leaned into those traits and made a decision that prioritized the safety and well-being of my colleague, even though it was uncomfortable.

This experience reminded me that courage isn’t about certainty; it’s about trusting yourself to do what’s right, even when it feels difficult.

September: You can’t return unchanged.

When I returned to work in January, it may have seemed like I was simply picking up where I left off. But the reality was much more complicated. During my time away, I brought twins into the world, nearly lost them to RSV, and faced brushes with death myself. I came back physically present but mentally transformed. My carefully crafted five-year plan had led me to a leadership role I worked so hard to earn—only for it to be gone the week I left for maternity leave. I thought I’d bounce back quickly, but it became clear that “bouncing back” wasn’t an attainable—or even desirable—goal when the person I was returning as had changed so much.

By September, I began to realize that acclimating takes time—and that’s okay. We can’t bounce back to who we were; we must adapt forward to who we’re becoming. It took me a long while to accept that this year wasn’t about reclaiming the version of myself I had been; it was about stepping into who I am now. Growth doesn’t happen on anyone’s timeline but your own. I’ve learned to let go of the idea of “bouncing back” and instead embrace the process of moving forward, even if it’s slower and messier than I expected.

Closing Thoughts: Growth Isn’t Easy, But It’s Worth It

This quarter reminded me that growth and discomfort go hand in hand. Therapy forced me to face hard truths about myself, and speaking up at work taught me the power of trusting my intuition. I also had to accept that returning to a familiar space doesn’t mean returning unchanged—it means finding new ways to thrive.

Stay tuned for lessons learned in Q4, where purpose and presence took center stage. Growth is rarely comfortable, but it’s always meaningful—and this quarter proved just how much is possible when you lean into it.

Q1 2024 Reflections: in Resilience Through Transitions

One thing not everyone may know about me is that I am deeply reflective. Read: I think… nonstop. The end of the year is often when I reflect the most, taking stock of what I’ve learned, how I’ve grown, and where I’ve struggled. This year, being full of lessons, challenges, and growth, has given me plenty to think about. As I look back on the first quarter of 2024, I’m reminded that transitions and adaptability weren’t just themes—they were necessities. Here’s what those months taught me.

January: Emotions shape resilience.

On January 24th, I returned to work after maternity leave—delayed by my twins’ RSV hospitalization in December. The transition brought nerves from all sides. At home, I felt the weight of leaving my babies after such a scary time. At work, I faced a reorganization that had dissolved the team I once led, returning me to my former role as an Executive Trainer.

Excitement carried me into the office, eager to reconnect with my professional self, but emotions ran high. By 4:00 on my first day, I was in tears during a 1:1 with a close friend, and many commutes home were spent crying in my car, processing the overwhelm. Still, my optimism helped me persevere. When emotions align with purpose, they become a source of resilience, carrying you through even the toughest transitions.

February: Tradition doesn’t have to make sense.

My sister and I take four sister days each year—one for every season. This winter’s was a perfect way to celebrate one of my favorite things: Leap Day! We wore ridiculous sweatshirts inspired by my comfort show, 30 Rock, that were totally outside our usual fashion sense. It almost felt like we were in costume, which meant we giggled about it all day. Per usual for a sister day, we went to a Mexican restaurant and shared some queso and margaritas while trying not to cry laugh when we noticed people noticing us.

Maybe the loudest thing about me right now is that I am a working mom of three. I feel like I say it or think it constantly, but hey – it’s pretty damn all-consuming, so you’ll forgive me. In this “season,” it can feel impossible to take a day off that I don’t absolutely need. With three kids in daycare, there are already so many sick days to juggle. But tradition is worth protecting. These days give us a chance to connect, uninterrupted, and do whatever we feel like—whether it’s running errands, making an elaborate cheesecake, or laughing over queso. It’s always time well spent.

March: What was isn’t what is.

Returning to a familiar-yet-changed business area was disorienting, to say the least. I had only been away for a year, but reorganization after reorganization meant almost nothing and no one were as I had left them. It felt like I was in the Upside-Down version of my job—just without the slimy monsters and with better lighting.

My personal life had undergone massive changes, but so had everyone else’s. I’m only the main character in my own life; everyone I worked with had likely faced their own struggles, shifts, and challenges that shaped them over the past year. Relationships were different, the people I leaned on at work had shifted, and dynamics I’d once relied on no longer felt the same. Even my own goals and definition of success had changed, yet two months in, I still couldn’t fully define them.

I had excelled as a trainer for years, but this new environment felt foreign. My new leader valued very different things than my previous leaders, and processes that had always worked for me suddenly didn’t. Adapting hasn’t been easy, and I still have moments where I feel out of place. But I’m proud of the work I’ve put in to build culture on my team and to lead from where I am, even without a formal leadership title. This year has tested my agility and adaptability, and though I miss the leadership role I once held, I’ve grown in ways I didn’t foresee.

Closing Thoughts: Finding Strength in Transition

The first quarter of 2024 was a lesson in navigating transitions with resilience and adaptability. It was a period of emotional highs and lows, of rediscovering myself at work and at home, and of leaning into traditions that remind me of who I am.

Stay tuned for lessons learned in Q2, Q3, and Q4—each quarter brought its own unique challenges, reflections, and growth that I can’t wait to share!