dreams

My Mid-Year Mantras: Making the Most of the Rest of 2025

One of my favorite podcasters – Les Alfred of the She’s So Lucky podcast — recently released an episode during which she shared the Lucky Girl Commandments – a list of tips or words of wisdom to help us all create our own luck for the rest of the year and beyond. And of course, this inspired me to write some commandments of my own. I’m an Enneagram 1, which means I crave order. Rules don’t feel like restrictions to me. Instead, they’re the boundaries I need to keep from running myself off a cliff. (Side note: I also give myself permission to ditch any and all rules that don’t align with who I am and what I want. For example, you say every woman should be a mother. I say I’m quite content living my rich auntie life. But I digress.)

Because I know the word “commandments” can be triggering to some (#churchhurt), I’m calling these my mid-year mantras instead. Here are the rules I’m following to make the most of the rest of 2025.

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Journal Prompts for Goal Setting: Start of a New Quarter

Using journal prompts for goal setting is a great way to ensure you’re setting goals that truly align with your vision and values and that you’re not just drafting a laundry list of tasks or habits that your favorite TikTok creator said would be a good idea.

As we start a new quarter today, this is a perfect time to revisit and revamp our 2025 goals. Spring is here and this may also give you a boost of energy to go after your dreams.

I’ll be meeting with the women of the See Jane Write Collective today to help them with their Q2 goals. Of course, I’ll be using journal prompts to guide them—the same prompts that I worked through a few days ago to set my goals for this new season.

Here are 11 powerful journal prompts for goal setting that will help you pause, reflect, and reset.

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How to Have Your Best Year Yet

If you want 2025 to be your best year yet, if you want to reach December 31 and write in your journal the words BEST YEAR EVER, you’ve got to be intentional.

When it comes to having a successful year, there’s no one-size-fits-all all formula, but I want to share some things that I think can help.

I did a podcast episode about this, which I’d love for you to listen to, but if podcasts aren’t your jam, keep reading.

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Word for the Year 2025

What’s your word for the year 2025?

I’ve been choosing a word for the year for over a decade and it’s a practice I’ve passed on to the women of the See Jane Write Community too.

Some years I pick three words. Other years I choose a phrase.

Some years I get completely obsessed with the word that I chose. It becomes my mantra or prayer that I constantly whisper. Other years – like this year — my word has missed the mark – or so I thought.

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How I Fell In Love with My Life

The story of how I fell in love with my life is also the story of how I became an overnight success.

No, I didn’t wake up one morning to 100K followers on social media or a million downloads of my podcast or a six-figure book deal from one of the Big 5 publishers.

But one morning I woke up and realized I was living the life I once prayed for and dreamed about.

I have always wanted to write and teach, and I’ve been doing both since even before I was an adult! I started writing as soon as I could sit up straight, according to my mom. And I’ve been teaching since my high school days as a math/science camp counselor. But during my years as a staff reporter at a paper in Louisville, Kentucky, I realized that I wanted to write on my own terms. And while I was an English teacher at the Alabama School of Fine Arts, I realized that as much as I loved ASFA, I wanted to teach on my own terms too. But what would that look like, I wondered.

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