As 2025 attracts to a detailed, I discover myself doing what I all the time do right now of 12 months. I decelerate, look again and take stock. Not of accomplishments or accolades, however of moments. Quiet, onerous and sacred moments. The fierce moments that form a girl greater than any guidelines ever might.
Are you able to imagine we’re already standing on the fringe of one other New 12 months? The arrival of January has a method of stirring urgency. We’re inspired to reinvent ourselves or enhance ourselves. All over the place we glance, we’re informed to resolve, reset, renew. Whereas intention is just not a nasty factor, I need to gently recommend one thing completely different. Earlier than you determine what wants altering, I would like you to pause and honor what has endured. As a result of if you’re studying this, you’re nonetheless right here. And that issues.
Trying Again Earlier than Trying Ahead
Once I take into consideration 2025, I don’t see it as a neat chapter with a tidy ending. It was layered, advanced and tender. It requested me to proceed dwelling inside unanswered questions whereas nonetheless selecting pleasure when it offered itself. This 12 months jogged my memory that life doesn’t transfer in straight strains. Therapeutic is just not linear. Development doesn’t arrive on command. Power doesn’t all the time announce itself loudly.
Some days in 2025 felt grounded and full. Different days felt hole, unsure, and quiet in ways in which made me sit with myself longer than I wished to. However day-after-day requested one thing of me. And I answered as finest I might. That, I’ve realized, is without doubt one of the truest types of fierceness.
Rethinking the Phrase Fierce Once more
Years in the past, the phrase fierce entered my life unexpectedly. I didn’t search it out. It was positioned in my palms, and albeit, I didn’t know what to do with it. At the moment, I related fierceness with sharp edges and with a pressure that didn’t really feel like me. What I’ve come to know, particularly via the experiences of current years, is that fierceness is just not about how loudly you’re taking up area. It’s about how faithfully you inhabit your life. 2025 deepened that understanding.
This 12 months, fierceness confirmed up quietly. It confirmed up in my willingness to maintain loving, listening and believing that which means may be constructed even when some desires stay unfulfilled. It confirmed up in my dedication to remain current for my Final Concierge. To nurture reference to intention. To guard the sanctity of companionship in a world that always pulls us in a thousand instructions.
It confirmed up in my continued devotion to writing, philanthropy, and to exhibiting up actually for girls who’re navigating their very own non-public storms. Fierceness, I now know, is just not a pressure. It’s constancy. Constancy to who you’re changing into.
What This 12 months Requested of Me
2025 didn’t ask me to be good. As an alternative, it invited me to be awake. To note grief that also exists with out demanding decision. To welcome pleasure when it arrives unexpectedly and permit it to be acquired with out guilt. It additionally requested me to simply accept that life may be each lovely and painful on the similar time, and that holding each truths is just not weak point.
This 12 months requested me to proceed the work of acceptance. The type of acceptance that permits you to stay absolutely with out denying actuality. It requested me to belief timing, even when I didn’t perceive it. To belief that the seeds I’ve planted, in my work, in my relationships, and in my interior life.
It additionally requested me to hear extra rigorously to the ladies who attain out to me. Their tales usually are not summary, however moderately they’re lived, uncooked and trustworthy. They’ve formed me as a lot as I hope my phrases have formed them. This isn’t a a technique alternate. It’s a shared journey.
A Neighborhood Constructed on Reality, Not Perfection
One of many biggest items of this 12 months has been the continued progress of a supportive, considerate neighborhood of ladies who usually are not occupied with pretending. Ladies who’re asking actual questions. Ladies who’re navigating estrangement, loneliness, reinvention, caregiving, grief, marriage, identification, and objective abruptly. Sturdy girls are fierce, not as a result of they’ve all of it discovered, however as a result of they refuse to surrender on themselves.
In case you are a part of this neighborhood, I would like you to know that you simply belong right here precisely as you’re. You don’t want to be fastened to be worthy. You don’t want to be cheerful to be welcome. You don’t want to have solutions to be valued. Fierceness lives in your honesty.
Redefining Fierce at This Stage of Life
At this chapter of my life, fierceness seems completely different than it did many years in the past. It has softened, deepened, matured.
Right now, fierceness means:
I’m fierce as a result of I select compassion with out self abandonment.
I’m fierce as a result of I permit myself to grieve with out apologizing.
I’m fierce as a result of I keep curious as a substitute of changing into bitter.
I’m fierce as a result of I defend my vitality and my peace.
I’m fierce as a result of I proceed to hope, even when hope feels dangerous.
I’m fierce as a result of I converse reality gently, however clearly.
I’m fierce as a result of I perceive that relaxation is just not weak point.
I’m fierce as a result of I present up actually, even when the story is unfinished.
I’m fierce as a result of gratitude nonetheless guides me.
To the Lady Studying This Proper Now
In case you are studying this on the finish of 2025, I need to converse on to you. It’s possible you’ll be getting into the brand new 12 months with readability. It’s possible you’ll really feel grounded, or chances are you’ll really feel unmoored. All of those experiences are legitimate.
In case you are carrying unstated grief, I see you.
In case you are rebuilding your identification after loss or change, I see you.
In case you are eager for connection, understanding, or reassurance, I see you.
You aren’t behind or failing. You’re dwelling! And dwelling takes braveness.
I invite you to take a quiet second for your self, with out distractions, and mirror by journaling or serious about all of the moments that formed you this 12 months!
An Invitation, Not a Decision
As an alternative of creating a decision to grow to be another person, I invite you to start 2026 by honoring who you already are. Create a quiet second for your self. Not as an indulgence, however as a necessity. Sit with your self with out distraction. Then say it out loud, even when it feels uncomfortable:
“I’m fierce.”
Afterward, write one sentence. Only one.
“I’m fierce as a result of…”
Don’t overthink it and let or not it’s trustworthy and imperfect. Let or not it’s yours! Maintain that sentence someplace you will note it when doubt creeps in. Let it remind you of what you’ve got already survived, what you’ve got already realized, and what you’re nonetheless able to changing into.
I Am Right here
As we step into a brand new 12 months, I would like you to know that I stay right here. Not as somebody with all of the solutions, however as somebody who’s prepared to sit down with the questions.
- In case you want a spot to land.
- In case you want perspective.
- If you could really feel much less alone.
You’ll be able to all the time attain out to me at AskMe@HoneyGood.com. This neighborhood exists in order that no girl has to navigate her life in silence.
Thanks for strolling via 2025 with me. Thanks in your belief, your vulnerability, and your willingness to have interaction actually with your individual life. We’ll step into no matter comes subsequent collectively. Fierce, not as a result of we’re unbreakable, however as a result of we proceed to rise.
Comfortable New 12 months, darling!
