Top 10 Takeaways: What 2024 Taught Me

The start of a new year is always a great time to pause and reflect. It’s an opportunity to look back on the last year, celebrate how far we’ve come, and think about the lessons we’ve learned along the way.

2024 was full of challenges, lessons, and moments that shaped me in ways I didn’t expect. From embracing gratitude to setting boundaries, I’ve grown in ways I couldn’t have anticipated. Each of these takeaways helped me navigate the ups and downs, and I’m carrying them with me into the new year.

In this blog, I’ll be sharing my top 10 takeaways from 2024—moments of growth, hard-earned wisdom, and small wins that left a lasting impact. My hope is that these reflections inspire you to think about your own lessons from the past year and how they can guide you into 2025.

Everything in Life is a Struggle

One book I read this year was The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fck* by Mark Manson (highly recommend it, by the way). The biggest takeaway for me was his discussion about struggles—how everything in life is a struggle, and it’s about choosing which struggle is worth struggling for. This idea stuck with me all year, and I referenced it constantly in my own life. I also shared it with so many people because it’s just that good.

The first time I really put this into practice was when I decided to quit vaping nicotine. I had been vaping for years and couldn’t quit. I tried multiple times, but it never lasted—sometimes, I didn’t even try that hard. Even when I had surgery a couple of years ago, I barely managed to quit temporarily.

This year, a few factors helped me finally quit for good: avoiding people who vaped, staying out of environments where I’d be tempted, and really thinking about the idea of struggles. I realized I had two options: continue vaping or quit, and both came with their own struggles.

Continuing to vape meant wasting money (which meant working more or giving up spending money on things that mattered), harming my health, and constantly dealing with the urge to hit my vape. Quitting, on the other hand, meant dealing with headaches, cravings, irritability, and how much it sucked in the short term.

But here’s the thing: if I chose to keep vaping, those struggles weren’t going away. They’d just keep dragging on. If I chose to quit, the struggle would be intense, but it would end. So I chose the short-term struggle over the long-term one. And now, I’m vape-free, and there’s no struggle at all.

This experience taught me that sometimes, the harder struggle is actually the right one—it’s intense, but it doesn’t last forever. And in the end, it’s worth it.

So the next time you’re faced with a tough decision, think about this: everything in life is a struggle. Which struggle is worth struggling for?

Gratitude

I truly believe that what we focus on in life is what we see more of. If we focus on negativity and hardships, it’s easy to get stuck in that cycle. But when we focus on positivity and the lessons we learn, we start to notice more of the good stuff.

This year, I made practicing gratitude part of my daily routine. Every morning and evening, I take a moment to write down three things I’m grateful for. These can be big things or small things—there’s no right or wrong. Looking back through my gratitude journal, I’ve been thankful for big things like getting a new car and my kids, and small joys like quiet mornings, learning from others, meaningful connections, and, of course, tacos.

By intentionally practicing gratitude every day, I’ve noticed it starts to show up naturally throughout my day. When you focus on the good, you start to see even more of it.

Happiness is a Choice

I feel like this ties closely to gratitude. The more we focus on something in life, the more we see it. When we focus on happiness, we naturally start to notice more of it. Every day, we have a choice: we can dwell on the hardships, struggles, and annoyances, or we can focus on the things we love, the moments that make us feel good, and the people who make us feel loved.

Now, don’t get me wrong—happiness doesn’t always feel like a choice. I’m not happy all the time, nor is my mind always calm. For example, I wasn’t happy when someone hit my new car the day after I got it this year and then disappeared. I wasn’t happy when my apartment complex finally admitted they weren’t going to fix the pool after stringing me along for five years. And I definitely wasn’t happy when I felt unsupported in my teaching career. Trust me, the list could go on.

But here’s the thing: I worked hard not to let those moments consume me. Yes, they got to me, and I had to climb out of the negativity. I processed them for a while—I sat with my anger and let myself feel it. Sometimes it took a day or two, and other times it stretched into weeks. But I intentionally made the choice to let go and move on because dwelling on those moments wasn’t helping me or lifting me up. Instead, it was keeping me stuck and spiraling further into negativity.

Each day, we get to decide what kind of day we want to have. And when the day drags me down—like yesterday, when it felt like everything and everyone (my son, my mom) was annoying me—I just try to breathe and push through. Because tomorrow is a fresh start. And today? Today is a great day.

Being in the Now

Just like intentionally practicing gratitude each day, I’ve also been practicing mindfulness through meditation and breathing every morning. The same idea applies: when I practice something intentionally each day, it becomes ingrained in me and starts to feel like a natural part of who I am.

By making mindfulness part of my daily habits, I’ve found that when I catch myself all up in my head—overthinking, spiraling into anxious thoughts—I can remind myself to focus on being present and in the moment. I have the skills to breathe, ground myself, and get back to center.

When I was teaching, I worked on social and emotional learning with my students, teaching them coping strategies. I had them practice those strategies regularly when they were calm and regulated. That way, when they became dysregulated, the skills were right there at the tips of their fingers—or the tip of their brain—ready to use.

It’s the same for me now. By practicing mindfulness when I’m calm, I’ve trained myself to use it when I’m not. It’s not always easy, but it’s a game-changer for pulling myself out of the chaos and back into the now.

Be True to Myself and Not What Others Expect

One thing I’ve been working on is being true to myself—not what others expect of me, whether it’s family expectations, societal norms, or what’s labeled as “good” or “bad.”

This reminds me of Wicked. One of my biggest takeaways from the show was this: just because someone says something—or someone—is bad doesn’t make it bad. And the same goes for the good. In the story, Elphaba, the so-called “Wicked Witch,” had one of the purest hearts of them all. But everyone considered her wicked. Why? Because the truly wicked people claimed she was, and everyone else just went along with it.

It’s a reminder to use your own discernment. Decide for yourself what is right and wrong, what is okay and not okay, and which family or societal expectations are worth following. In the end, being true to yourself matters far more than trying to fit into a mold created by others.

Just because society deems something acceptable doesn’t make it good, and just because something is deemed unacceptable doesn’t make it bad. The same goes for family expectations. What’s pushed on you may not be correct—or right for you. You have to make your own decisions based on what you believe, what aligns with your values, and what feels best for your life.

Be true to yourself, not what others expect. Your authenticity is what matters most.

Boundaries

The first time I heard the word boundaries was as a teenager during a session with a mental health counselor. She told me I needed to work on boundaries. I remember sitting there, completely confused—boundaries might as well have been a foreign language. I had no idea what she meant.

Fast forward to the last few years, when the word started popping up in my life again. This time, it clicked: Ah-ha. Boundaries. And boy, did I realize something—I didn’t have any.

For most of my life, I thought being a good and kind person meant saying yes to everything others asked of me, doing what people wanted, and never rocking the boat. People-pleasing was my default. Yikes. Looking back, it sounds wild to think that’s what I believed, but at the time, it felt normal. In reality, that wasn’t kindness—it was allowing myself to be taken advantage of, losing pieces of myself, and living without boundaries.

And it didn’t just show up in one area of my life; it touched every part of it.

Becoming aware of this was the first step. Over the last few years, I’ve been noticing specific situations where I lacked boundaries and have started working on creating them. But let me tell you, just becoming aware doesn’t mean you can flip a switch and magically have perfect boundaries. It’s not an overnight change—it’s more like a pendulum or a spectrum. I went from having no boundaries to working toward a healthier balance, and while I’m not there yet, I’m making progress. That’s what matters.

This year, my biggest takeaway about boundaries has been this: I need to be honest when someone asks me if I’ll do something or if I want to do something. I’ve stopped saying yes when I really mean no. I’m learning to be honest with myself and others, even when it feels uncomfortable, instead of defaulting to people-pleasing just to avoid confrontation.

It’s still a work in progress, but every step I take toward setting boundaries helps me honor myself and my values.

Burnout & Work-Life Balance

I left my teaching position mid-year in 2024 after multiple mental breakdowns, not getting my prep hour, not getting lunch breaks, and feeling like a dumping ground for special education and student behaviors. I wasn’t getting any breaks throughout the day and was working all night and weekend to prepare for the next day. I left, thinking that my mental health was taking a deep toll.

After a few days away from the job, I started feeling better—relieved, even—as though a weight had been lifted. My mental health improved drastically within just a few days, and even more so within a few weeks. As I reflected, researched, and analyzed what happened, I realized I had been experiencing what they call burnout. At the time, I didn’t really understand burnout, but now I fully grasp what it is.

Burnout can lead to mental health issues, but it’s burnout itself that needs to be addressed. A huge contributor to burnout is a lack of work-life balance. When work is prioritized over everything else, and you neglect the other important areas of your life—especially self-care—that’s when burnout happens.

Although I didn’t return to teaching this year, I’ve worked hard to implement work-life balance into my current role as a counselor and with my own coaching business. This is especially important in entrepreneurship because there’s often this belief that you have to work non-stop to get the business off the ground. But I’ve created a balanced schedule that includes my work hours, coaching hours, family time, and self-care activities—like going to the YMCA, taking dance classes, and doing things that are important to me.

This balance in my life is what’s helping me be successful. I’ve learned that without work-life balance, my work will not be strong or effective.

Accountability

Accountability has been a big lesson for me in 2024—especially in understanding my role in my struggles and hardships. I’ll explain this using my recent lessons on burnout. If you remember, I left my teaching position due to not getting my prep hour, not getting lunch breaks, feeling like a dumping ground for special education and student behaviors, working all night and weekends, and generally feeling overwhelmed. At the time, I was frustrated with the school for not providing the support I needed and had asked for, but as I continued to reflect, I had to consider: What part did I play in this?

I was the dumping ground because I didn’t set the boundaries I should have—and didn’t uphold the ones I did set. I said yes when I really meant no. I didn’t speak up enough about needing my prep and lunch breaks when I could have spoken louder. I also didn’t create a work-life balance because I didn’t choose to prioritize it.

Although I complained to friends and family about the lack of support when I left my job, over time and with reflection, I’ve been able to identify the parts I played in it. This is just one example where I’ve taken the time to really consider my role and taken accountability for it.

Taking accountability is important because without it, we can’t make the necessary changes to improve our lives. It’s definitely easier to reflect after a situation has passed, but I’m working on reflecting in the midst of a struggle. Now, when I’m in the middle of something challenging, I ask myself: What role am I playing in this that’s contributing to the situation?

Self-Awareness

Many of the takeaways I’ve shared above come from becoming self-aware, but self-awareness encompasses so much more. Practicing self-awareness and recognizing my thought patterns and feelings in various situations has allowed me to process things in life in a healthier way. Self-awareness is the first step in making meaningful changes. I always say that you can’t change if you’re not aware first.

When thoughts come into my head, I’ve been working on recognizing them and questioning where they stem from. What experiences have led me to have these thoughts? This practice has helped me challenge my thoughts and the limiting beliefs I once held. I’ve also become better at dealing with my feelings. I used to push hard feelings aside, thinking it was better to ignore them. But now, I sit with them, acknowledge them, and let them pass.

Additionally, I’ve become more aware of certain behaviors I have and how they affect others. As I notice these behaviors, I can reflect on why I do them and decide whether they’re ones I want to continue or change. What I love about life is that we can change anything at any moment—we don’t have to stay stuck in the patterns we've held for so long.

Exploring Goals & Developing a Plan & Action Steps

I’ve never been one to set New Year’s resolutions, and I didn’t set any this year either. Instead, I set small goals throughout the year. As both a coach and someone who is coached, I’ve not only been setting goals but also developing plans and action steps to achieve them. This is the power of coaching, and it’s something I’ve come to deeply appreciate this year.

In the past, I had dreams, goals, and desires. Sometimes I’d meet them, but more often, they were just ideas with no clear direction. What I love about coaching—and why I chose to transition into this career—is that it takes people’s dreams, goals, and desires and makes them attainable. When we look at the big picture, we often see just the forest. For example, we may see the dream of owning a house, the goal of losing 10 pounds, or the desire to set stronger boundaries. But when we're focused solely on the forest, it’s hard to see each individual tree—the specific steps that need to be taken to achieve those dreams and goals.

This year, through coaching, I’ve been able to work on so many aspects of my life—both external and internal. Some of these changes are visible to others, while some are only noticeable to me (though hopefully others will see them too if they pay close attention). As a coachee, I’ve worked on creating action steps to build my own business, understanding my finances and creating a budget, reflecting on my energy levels after daily activities and adjusting my routine accordingly, embracing more quality time with friends to build connections, increasing my confidence, exploring my love languages, and confronting uncomfortable feelings. I've also identified my limiting beliefs and worked on practicing self-love.

The list goes on. I feel like I’ve made exponential growth this year, and I can confidently say that it’s because I had someone helping me explore different areas of my life, dig deeper into their meaning, motivate me to see the benefits of working toward these areas, break down each goal into actionable steps, and hold myself accountable to make the progress I’ve seen.

Reflection Questions

What are your biggest takeaways from 2024? What did you learn that you can take with you into this new year?

What challenges did you face, and how did you overcome them?

What habits or practices served you well, and which ones would you like to leave behind?