As I sit next to the window in the corner of my local library, a dusting of snow brightening the early dusk of December in the midwest, I’m sipping on tea and reflecting on this year of Substack writing. As per the usual last post of the year, I wanted to share some of the posts that most resonated with you all—whether by the official stats or by individual messages I received—and I was struck with a realization I didn’t expect: I often wrote about the mundane, average, day-by-day parts of our lives, and as a readership, you appreciated those lessons the most.
As a writer, there’s often pressure to write about new things, exciting things, unique things; yet, you taught me this year that perhaps the lessons we need the most are the lessons right in plain sight, the ones we need to learn over and over and over again. Which, as I think about it, makes sense… a dear mentor of mine once told me “some lessons are so important you have to learn them more than once.”
So, here’s the roundup of a few of the most-loved posts from The Next Step this year if you need a refresher ;) Drop a comment and let us know what lessons you’ve learned this year and what you’d like to see more of in 2025!
"Every Rep. Every Set."
Raise your hand if you feel like you have to be the most creative or the most clever person in the room to succeed. (Okay, depending on where you are when you read this, maybe don’t raise your hand… but you can relate, right?) It’s easy to look at successful people and believe their good fortune in IQ accounts for most of their accomplishments. But,
Sometimes The Purpose Isn't The Purpose
It’s respray season in the ag retail world, and as a chemical rep, this is the season I have most dreaded since taking the role. Most of the time, pesticides work as they are intended. But, the few times they don’t, whether it’s due to environmental factors or otherwise, are the times we hear about it. To support our products, we spend time walking the …
Do It Again. Do It Again. Do It Again.
Wake up. Eat breakfast. Go to work - or class - and come home again. Make dinner, eat dinner, back to bed. Wake up the next morning and start all over again.
Whether your 2024 was full of ordinary or extraordinary, we all come face to face with the mundanity of life. I hope you take the value and the beauty of that mundane with you into 2025. I’ll see you there :)
Journal Prompt of the Week
What was the most important lesson you learned in 2024? What are you doing (or will you do) differently as a result of learning that lesson?
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