Starting from Seed | My Word for 2025 and Some Goals
January used to be my favorite month of the year. I’d spend December reflecting and plotting what I want to achieve in the coming months. I’d write a massive list of unreachable goals and expect to meet them all by January 31st … sarcasm here, but is it really? (cringe)
One way I can tell I’ve grown is how I look at a new year. I’ve become a fan of rhythms over resolutions, and progress over perfection. Looking at that unrealistic goal list I used to trudge toward at the beginning of each new year, inevitably, by the second week, I have failed and am in full meltdown mode in some dark corner of my home. It wasn’t until early 2024 when I was diagnosed as AuDHD and started looking into how my brain works and what it needs to function optimally that I noticed I am much more likely to accomplish something if I make it a habit that fits into a routine.
2024 was also the year I started paying more attention to my body and letting it steer the ship. Being chronically ill and disabled, I’ve often struggled to accept my limitations and have pushed myself into crisis more than once to complete my never-ending to-do list. But the last 12 months were focused on listening to what my body was telling me and allowing myself to rest instead of pushing so hard. Of course, I can’t write this sentence and not give credit to my partner, Frank, who has been an encouragement in slowing down and lowering my expectations on what I am truly capable of in a day.
I considered all this when I started thinking about my word for 2025. It obviously needed to reflect my newfound freedom from the pressure of perfectionism but I wanted it to have a symbolic meaning too. So, I thought about the projects I wanted to complete this year and what those meant to me. One of those projects was to start a container garden and grow my own food again. I’ve done it in the past but had limited space on an apartment patio, and I wanted the opportunity to ensure my family had fresh produce and herbs throughout the year.
Any gardener will tell you that growing something takes time and patience. You need to prepare your soil, plant your seeds, water that baby plant and give it the sunlight it needs to grow properly, not to mention the pruning, weeding, and picking you’ll have to do. But before all of that, there’s research to be done. You’ll need to know what grow zone and ecosystem you live in, what plants are native to your area, what kind of fertilizer to use, when to start seeds, what crops are compatible to be planted next to each other, and how to prevent pests.
It’s a slow process and involves a lot of growth—for yourself and your plants. This is why I thought it was fitting to use this as inspiration for my 2025 word, which is …
Germinate
[jur-muh-neyt ]
verb
to begin to grow or develop.
Botany
to develop into a plant or individual, as a seed, spore, or bulb.
to put forth shoots; sprout; pullulate.
to come into existence; to begin.
I’m a fan of looking at nature to see the patterns of life. Spring is a time of growth, summer is when all the beauty is visible, fall is a time of dying off, pulling back, and preparing for the cold, and winter is when life rests. Winter is also when die-hard gardeners start their seeds, usually indoors at first, before moving them to more permanent soil outdoors in the coming months.
It is those first few weeks when seeds germinate, sending out a tiny root to draw nutrients from the soil, mostly unseen, until the first sprout is strong enough to pop through the dirt into the open air. Germination is the beginning, and this is what I want my year to look like.
A key area of life that I want to apply the germination idea to is how I work. I started blogging in the 2000s when comment pods and engagement circles were popular. There’s a false validation that comes from being a member of a group where people comment and share your content because you’re also doing it for them. So, when I left these groups, I’ll admit I got a little depressed because my analytics dropped considerably. I didn’t have the constant feedback from other writers to encourage me to write more and I lost my passion for a while because of it.
In Hannah Brencher’s article, The Power of Secret Work, she talks about how much hard work is done behind the scenes, and when you put a completed project out into the world, not many people think about the grueling hours that went into that finished product. We end up seeking validation from others in the form of likes and comments rather than ourselves for creating something good. She also talks about the importance of keeping the details of the work to yourself instead of announcing your intentions and progress. For me, all of that is about searching for dopamine in places I shouldn’t be getting it.
I want to write because I enjoy doing it and I want to write about topics I’m passionate about, not ones that will make the algorithm work in my favor. I want to put in the hard work behind the scenes, so when I have an article completed, I’m excited to put it into the world. This process is going to be a lot like starting from seed, working underground, and finding validation in the growth I make.
I love the idea of slowing down in these first few months of 2025 and working on myself and my craft. I want to refocus on my passions and what drives me and I’m excited to see my own growth at the end of the year.
