The turning of the New Year is often used as a time to take stock. As we mark the passage of 2024, most of us feel an urge to reflect on the year behind us–to replay its joys and challenges in our mind and consider whether we achieved our goals. And we feel an even stronger urge to look forward in hope, to set new resolutions for ourselves so that 2025 might bring greater success.
At Emergent, we believe that intentional reflection and intelligent goal-setting are essential to success. We encourage you to lean into the related impulses to look back and look forward. Consider with gratitude the events of the past year, and identify actionable opportunities for growth that will make the coming year even better.
But it is common, during this season, to become overwhelmed. The holidays are busy and emotional, pairing, as they often do, reunion and parting, celebration and grief. The return to the office in January is not always an exciting prospect. New Year’s resolutions themselves can very quickly begin to feel more like burdens than aspirations, especially if one has made the mistake of taking on too much. And then there is the passage of time to contend with; at no time are we more aware of its relentlessness than when we have to learn to write an entirely new number on every date line.
And so, our challenge for you in this season of tradition and change, of retrospectives and resolutions, is to stay present to your emotions. Check in with yourself. How am I doing today? Am I feeling grateful, content, anxious, excited? Allow yourself to feel these emotions fully. Locate them in your mind, body, and spirit. Acknowledge their presence and be grateful for the messages they are bringing you. Make space for your family and friends to do the same.
This is the energy we want you to bring into 2025: awareness and acceptance of the present moment, whatever it offers. We can learn from the past and hope for the future, but we can only live in the here and now.
Happy New Year to you, your family, and your organization.
The Emergent Team
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