Write Your New Year’s Story

Reflecting on the past year is an essential step in shaping what you want your future to look like. This discussion applies to both personal and professional ambitions. As you consider what you want to focus on in 2025, I want to remind you that you have the knowledge and skills to solve any problems or challenges that come your way. We are constantly in a state of change and creation, so embrace it! There is always another goal on the horizon, and I wish you the very best as we move into 2025. 

Dreams Change and That’s Okay

I am leaving my dream house in 2025 because dreams change, and you never know what life has in store. As academics, we are generally very ambitious. You want to change the world with your academic ideas, and that drive leads to goals. What isn’t talked about often is what you do once you reach that goal. Sometimes, it can be hard to even imagine what we will accomplish next. 

It wasn’t easy to decide it was time to move on from the vision of our life in the house we built. But we got an offer we couldn’t refuse, and we were able to buy a dairy farm. When we decided to move to the farm, I had to go through an identity and mindset shift. I couldn’t imagine leaving behind the home I had designed for our family. Selling and moving gave me the opportunity to strive for a higher-level dream.

Working Through Challenges

Everything is in a state of constant change and creation. It can feel like you don’t have any agency, especially when you are going through a mindset or identity shift that is unexpected or drastically different from what your vision has always been. When things happen, it is hard, but you can solve the problem and react in a measured and thoughtful way that aligns with your values. Make decisions based on the deep knowledge that you are capable. 

Writing Your New Year’s Story

I like to make a theme for my year. Is this a year when you are starting new projects or applying for grants? Do you need to clear your pipeline? You might think you need to do it all, but you must pick a focal point that will characterize 2025.

Think about your writing practice and consider what worked well and what you need to build on. Then, I want you to consider where you see yourself going and what you dream of happening. Those dreams are how you write your New Year’s story.

“I think that most of the people who  listen to this podcast are pretty ambitious. Whether you say that secretly in your head or yell it out loud, you want to change the world with your academic ideas and you want to have an impact on your field, with the populations that you work with and the ideas that you create. You are looking to create impact and have a strongful, thoughtful voice. Sometimes in the process of doing that, we make a goal. We put that goal out there and because we work hard, are smart, and resourceful we will fit the goal. Then we feel like now what?”

“Many things happen to us. We are constantly in co-creation with the world. We are creating our lives, our careers, our thoughts, our dreams, our plans, our buildings, our programs, our writing, and everybody else and everything else is also changing and creating at the same time. We are in this interaction with all of that. It can sometimes feel like we don’t have agency. It is very hard to remember that you are equipped to solve these problems.”

We’re receiving applications for our next cohort of Navigate: Your Writing Roadmap®! Check out the program details and start your application process here.

CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION:

1. Our 12-week Navigate: Your Writing Roadmap® program helps tenure-track womxn and nonbinary professors to publish their backlog of papers so that their voice can have the impact they know is possible. Apply here!
2. Cathy’s book, Making Time to Write: How to Resist the Patriarchy and Take Control of Your Academic Career Through Writing is available in print! Learn how to build your career around your writing practice while shattering the myths of writing every day, accountability, and motivation, doing mindset work that’s going to reshape your writing,and changing academic culture one womxn and nonbinary professor at a time. Get your print copy today or order it for a friend here!
3. If you would like to hear more from Cathy for free, please subscribe to the weekly newsletter, In the Pipeline, at scholarsvoice.org. It’s a newsletter that she personally writes that goes out once a week with writing and publication tips, strategies, inspiration, book reviews and more.

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