In a month when the local gym and organic health food store might be at their busiest, I’m once again taking a slightly different approach to my new year’s resolution. Yes, I have some general goals in mind for my finances and my physical health, to be sure, but for me, it’s more about taking a more conscious and intentional approach to life. If I ever feel in a rut, if I’m ever feeling lost, if I ever find myself disoriented or overwhelmed, I can always return to my new mantra for 2025 to help guide the way. At least, that’s the idea.

“Do Less to Choose More”

There’s a lot of pressure — both self-inflicted and on a social or cultural level — to do more. To get more. To be more. We all feel like we should be making more money, spending more time with our kids, taking on more challenges to push our physical health, to lose more weight, to get more likes and followers on social media. It’s all more, more, more. And, if you’re anything like me, you feel like all this more is way too much.

I often have a hard time saying no. If a freelance writing client comes along with a project, I see it as an opportunity to exercise and expand my skills (and boost my income, of course). If I’m invited to a media preview or similar event in my life as an online content creator, I see it as a chance to make new connections and share new stories with my followers. But, if I keep saying yes to everything, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with all these obligations, some of which don’t end up as rewarding or “worth it” as I had hoped.

So, my new mantra for 2025 is to make the conscious, intentional decision to do less. If an opportunity comes along and I don’t really have the bandwidth for it, or it doesn’t quite gel with my current priorities, then I give myself permission to say no. And in consciously choosing to do less, paradoxically I give myself more space to choose more. So-called “downtime” is equally valuable, as the flexibility of freelancing and blogging is a big part of what drew me into this line of work in the first place.

Building on Last Year’s Guiding Words

If you’re thinking that this new mantra sounds familiar, it probably should. This whole idea of intentional prioritization and being more conscious of where I focus my time and energy is hardly new. On a fundamental level, my guiding words for 2024 were an expression of this sentiment. I wanted to be more fully present as I went about my day, taking pleasure in the little things that bring me joy.

When I get lost in the ceaseless drive to do more, I lose sight of the small joys and incremental improvement along the way. By choosing to slow down and do less, I make room for these little things to make themselves known. I can take the time to notice them and appreciate them.

An Ongoing Theme for Continuous Improvement

This idea of spending less time in auto-pilot and more time being conscious and intentional with my decisions didn’t just come about in 2024. The underlying philosophy of this year’s mantra has echoed and reverberated in my mind for years. Even as far back as 2017, I set the guiding words of acceptance, prioritization, and completion. I wanted to accept that I couldn’t do everything, so I had to prioritize what mattered, and see it through to completion.

The following year, in 2018, I set intent, calm, and enough as my guiding words. I wanted to be intentional, calm my mind, and free myself of the burden of feeling like I wasn’t enough. Again, this relates back to the societal and self-inflicted pressure to do more, letting autopilot take the controls to say yes to every possible opportunity and to seek even more obligations, goals, and objectives.

I wanted to give myself space — physically, mentally, and temporally — in 2020. I needed to make room in my day to do less, periods of time when I could feel unburdened from being productive. The reality is that while I can try to do anything, I can’t do everything. And I have to learn to accept that.

A Journey of a Thousand Steps

So, yes, my new mantra for 2025 is “do less to choose more,” but it’s not exactly new. It’s the continuation of a personal growth and acceptance journey that I’ve traveled for years. And it’s likely one that I will continue to travel for many more. To this, as cliche as it may sound or feel, it’s much more about the journey than the destination. I want to be more intentional with how I am on this journey rather than just where I’m going.

And I hope you’ll continue to accompany me on this road trip through life, a quarter-mile or midlife crisis at a time.