The Brochure on Embracing 2025 and Short Term Goals

Send us a text

This episode is a heartfelt reflection on the transitions we face as the year turns, addressing themes of letting go, setting achievable goals, and embracing the new year with positivity. I try to focus on small wins and personal engagement while looking ahead to 2025.

Some discussion points in this episode:
• Reflecting on the year past and setting intentions for the new year
• Insights from the podcast's analytics and listener engagement
• The joy of holiday decorations and community involvement
• The challenge of managing physical clutter and mail
• Strategies for setting realistic short-term goals
• Anticipation for local events and embracing new experiences

If you like this episode, please follow the Only Child Diaries podcast on Apple Podcasts or other platforms you might listen on and consider rating Only Child Diaries and writing a review. It helps others to find us. Please share it with a friend you think might like it as well. Visit my Instagram page, Only Child Diaries or Facebook Only Child Diaries Podcast, links are below. 

For the Only Child Diaries:
Check us out on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/onlychilddiariespodcast/
or
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/onlychilddiaries/
or
Threads
https://www.threads.net/@onlychilddiaries 
and now on 
Bluesky
@onlychilddiaries.bsky.social

Episode Transcript

Tracy (00:00):
your head, kind of.
Welcome to the Only ChildDiaries podcast.
I'm your host, Tracy Wallace.
Have you ever felt like youdidn't receive the how-to
brochure on life, that youdidn't get enough guidance about
major life issues?
So did I.
You don't have to be an onlychild to feel this way.

(00:21):
In my podcast, we'll exploresome of the best ways to better
navigate adulting, while doingso with humor and light.
Welcome everyone to the OnlyChild Diaries podcast.

(00:43):
Today, I want to talk about wellendings and new beginnings.
Happy New Year.
It's almost 2025 when I'mrecording this.
I want to wish everybody wholistens, who has listened, who
will listen to this, health,happiness and prosperity in the

(01:05):
new year.
It's been well.
It's been a year, hasn't it?
2024.
A lot has happened.
A lot always happens in a year,but I want to focus on the
positive, because there's alwaysa lot of negative to think

(01:25):
about.
Right, and every year at theend of the year, the platform
that I use to do this podcastsends me a recap of well, my
year in review, and it's kind ofinteresting.
I thought you might enjoy it.
Year in review, and it's kindof interesting.

(01:48):
I thought you might enjoy it.
The most popular city for mydownloads is Los Angeles.
I'm located just outside of LosAngeles, so that's not a
surprise.
The second most popular city isGroveland, massachusetts.
That's a little bit of asurprise because I don't think I
know anyone personally wholives there.

(02:09):
Next is La Habra, california.
Next is Glendale, california,and the fifth one is Frankfurt
in Germany.
Now there were 23 differentcountries that listened this
year.
I think in total, over the whattwo and a half years that I've

(02:32):
been doing the podcast, we have36 countries, but the 23
countries that um we've hadlisteners in in 2024, we're, of
course, first one in the UnitedStates, second is Germany, then
the Netherlands, then the UnitedKingdom and then Canada.

(02:54):
So thank you to everyone,whether you're in one of those
countries or not, for listening.
I really appreciate yoursupport and I hope you enjoy the
podcast.
And it's interesting there were829 minutes of content that was

(03:17):
downloaded or listened to intotal.
I'm not sure if that's, youknow, everybody all together or
all the podcast episodestogether that were listened, but
all the 51 episodes.
But anyway, it's kind ofinteresting.

(03:38):
And once again, we have 36countries in total.
So thank you and welcome.
If this is your first episodeor you've been listening all
along.
Again, I appreciate yoursupport and I feel like we're
partners.
Oh, it has been a year.

(03:59):
I look forward to the new year.
Of course, we won thedecorating contest for the
holiday decorations and Icontinue to meet some of my
neighbors who come by to see thedecorations.
Some people have asked oh, didyou win one of the categories?

(04:19):
Yes, and everybody seems toenjoy it.
But now the holidays are goingto start winding down and I'm
going to have to think aboutwhen I'm going to take the
decorations down, and I'mstarting to realize that that's
going to be a real task, becausethere's so many things that I
have up.
I'm going to have to pack themup my husband will help me with

(04:40):
that and then we're going tohave to transition those boxes
to the garage and pack that up,and I guess.
Well, I'm not a big one for NewYear's resolutions, but I tend
to have short-term goalsthroughout every year,
throughout all time.

(05:01):
I always have a lot of goals.
Actually, it's just my nature.
But I've been thinking aboutwhat my goals are upcoming and I
would really like to purge.
We still have a lot of stuffhere in the house, we have a lot
of stuff in the garage and Istarted thinking recently that

(05:23):
there's things that I haven'ttouched in two or three years
since we moved into this house,and if I haven't touched it then
I probably don't need it.
Right, my friend Lena would loveit if we did another yard sale,
but that's so much work for solittle benefit and it always

(05:50):
throws me off because you haveto get up so early to do it.
It's so much physical work ofcarrying things back and forth
and putting it out.
Then you have to deal with theearly people who think that
they're going to get somethingreally special, the people that
steal things.
I mean, if you're stealingthings from a yard sale, I mean

(06:14):
seriously, that's just howdesperate.
I mean, why not just come andtake it all If you can't spend a
dollar or $5 on it?
I mean really.
So I'm not sure what I'm goingto do, but I'm just really tired

(06:34):
of looking at stuff.
Do you ever feel that way?
Yeah, and again, the stack ofmail has really piled up.
I don't know how that happens,because I put myself on a lot of
electronic statements for thebank and for my credit cards,

(07:01):
but somehow I'm on all thesemailing lists.
I did successfully pretty muchget my parents off a lot of
lists.
My mom was on almost everycharity list in the world and I

(07:24):
got her and my dad off of thoselists.
But with December they did getmore letters asking for money,
which I understand.
That's fine.
But the stack of mail has grownand I have a problem with my

(07:45):
thumbs.
My thumbs are really sore fromtexting and typing, and so
opening envelopes is reallydifficult.
I have to rely on my husband toopen the envelopes, and so we
usually do like a marathon ofopening mail and I try to go

(08:06):
through it and then I get tiredof it and anyway.
So I am going to try to purge.
I've had some days off last week.
I have some time off this week.
I do have a huge deadline nowcoming up in a week that I have
to work on, but I do have sometime off.
I have been productive, butthere's always more to do, right

(08:30):
?
I mean, do you feel that waytoo?
There's always more to do thanyou have time, but I can only do
what I can do.
So those are my short-termgoals.
I think it's better to notreally stress yourself out by
setting unrealistic goals orexpectations or New Year's

(08:51):
resolutions.
That's what I found over theyears, because I could tell
myself well, I'm going to lose50 pounds starting January 1st,
and then it's not going tohappen, and then I'm going to
feel defeated.
So I don't do that.
I just try to do what I can doin small little bits, and then I

(09:16):
feel like a winner.
That's the thing.
Try to make small steps towardsyour progress and feel like a
winner.
That's my advice for today.
Also, the Rose Parade is coming.
The Rose Parade is just aroundthe corner from us I mean not
literally, but it's very closeby.

(09:40):
And my one goal for this yearis to get up out of my warm bed
and go to a point where I cansee the stealth bomber fly over.
It flies over our house everyyear, but I can't just go out
into the yard because of thetrees and everything.

(10:03):
We're in a canyon and there'slittle hills around us.
So if we drive up to the top ofone of those hills, I believe
that we can see the stealthbomber fly over.
And so that's my goal for thisyear is to get myself out of bed
, groggy but excited to startthe new year off.

(10:29):
I'm groggy but excited to startthe new year off by seeing the
stealth bomber instead of justhearing it.
It may be stealthy, but I stilldo hear it fly over on its way
to the parade and yeah.
So that's all I've got for thisweek and that's all I've got
for this year.
All I've got for this week andthat's all I've got for this

(10:53):
year.
Again, I want to wish all ofyou a very happy new year and
next year we'll tackle anothertopic together.
I hope you'll join me.
If you like this episode, pleasefollow the Only Child Diaries
podcast on Apple Podcasts orother platforms you might listen
on and consider rating OnlyChild Diaries and writing a

(11:15):
review.
It helps others to find us.
Please share it with a friendyou think might like it as well.
Visit my Instagram page, onlyChild Diaries or Facebook Only
Child Diaries Podcast.
Thanks for listening.
I'm Tracy Wallace and these arethe Only Child Diaries.