The Only Child Diaries Podcast
The Only Child Diaries Podcast
The Brochure on Embracing 2025 and Short Term Goals
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.
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your head, kind of. Welcome to the Only Child Diaries podcast. I'm your host, Tracy Wallace. Have you ever felt like you didn't receive the how-to brochure on life, that you didn't get enough guidance about major life issues? So did I. You don't have to be an only child to feel this way. In my podcast, we'll explore some of the best ways to better navigate adulting, while doing so with humor and light. Welcome everyone to the Only Child Diaries podcast.
Tracy:Today, I want to talk about well endings and new beginnings. Happy New Year. It's almost 2025 when I'm recording this. I want to wish everybody who listens, who has listened, who will listen to this, health, happiness and prosperity in the 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 always a lot of negative to think about. Right, and every year at the end of the year, the platform that I use to do this podcast sends me a recap of well, my year in review, and it's kind of interesting. I thought you might enjoy it. Year in review, and it's kind of interesting. I thought you might enjoy it.
Tracy:The most popular city for my downloads is Los Angeles. I'm located just outside of Los Angeles, so that's not a surprise. The second most popular city is Groveland, massachusetts. That's a little bit of a surprise because I don't think I know anyone personally who lives there. Next is La Habra, california. Next is Glendale, california, and the fifth one is Frankfurt in Germany. Now there were 23 different countries that listened this year. I think in total, over the what two and a half years that I've been doing the podcast, we have 36 countries, but the 23 countries that um we've had listeners in in 2024, we're, of course, first one in the United States, second is Germany, then the Netherlands, then the United Kingdom and then Canada. So thank you to everyone, whether you're in one of those countries or not, for listening. I really appreciate your support and I hope you enjoy the podcast. And it's interesting there were 829 minutes of content that was downloaded or listened to in total. I'm not sure if that's, you know, everybody all together or all the podcast episodes together that were listened, but all the 51 episodes. But anyway, it's kind of interesting. And once again, we have 36 countries in total. So thank you and welcome. If this is your first episode or you've been listening all along. Again, I appreciate your support and I feel like we're partners.
Tracy:Oh, it has been a year. I look forward to the new year. Of course, we won the decorating contest for the holiday decorations and I continue to meet some of my neighbors who come by to see the decorations. Some people have asked oh, did you win one of the categories? Yes, and everybody seems to enjoy it. But now the holidays are going to start winding down and I'm going to have to think about when I'm going to take the decorations down, and I'm starting to realize that that's going to be a real task, because there's so many things that I have up. I'm going to have to pack them up my husband will help me with that and then we're going to have to transition those boxes to the garage and pack that up, and I guess.
Tracy:Well, I'm not a big one for New Year's resolutions, but I tend to have short-term goals throughout every year, throughout all time. I always have a lot of goals. Actually, it's just my nature. But I've been thinking about what my goals are upcoming and I would really like to purge. We still have a lot of stuff here in the house, we have a lot of stuff in the garage and I started thinking recently that there's things that I haven't touched 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.
Tracy:Right, my friend Lena would love it if we did another yard sale, but that's so much work for so little benefit and it always throws me off because you have to get up so early to do it. It's so much physical work of carrying things back and forth and putting it out. Then you have to deal with the early people who think that they're going to get something really special, the people that steal things. I mean, if you're stealing things from a yard sale, I mean seriously, that's just how desperate. I mean, why not just come and take it all If you can't spend a dollar or $5 on it? I mean really. So I'm not sure what I'm going to do, but I'm just really tired of looking at stuff. Do you ever feel that way?
Tracy:Yeah, and again, the stack of mail has really piled up. I don't know how that happens, because I put myself on a lot of electronic statements for the bank and for my credit cards, but somehow I'm on all these mailing lists. I did successfully pretty much get my parents off a lot of lists. My mom was on almost every charity list in the world and I got her and my dad off of those lists. But with December they did get more letters asking for money, which I understand. That's fine. But the stack of mail has grown and I have a problem with my thumbs. My thumbs are really sore from texting and typing, and so opening envelopes is really difficult. I have to rely on my husband to open the envelopes, and so we usually do like a marathon of opening mail and I try to go through it and then I get tired of it and anyway. So I am going to try to purge.
Tracy:I've had some days off last week. I have some time off this week. I do have a huge deadline now coming up in a week that I have to work on, but I do have some time off. I have been productive, but there's always more to do, right? I mean, do you feel that way too? There's always more to do than you have time, but I can only do what I can do. So those are my short-term goals.
Tracy:I think it's better to not really stress yourself out by setting unrealistic goals or expectations or New Year's resolutions. That's what I found over the years, because I could tell myself well, I'm going to lose 50 pounds starting January 1st, and then it's not going to happen, and then I'm going to feel defeated. So I don't do that. I just try to do what I can do in small little bits, and then I feel like a winner. That's the thing. Try to make small steps towards your progress and feel like a winner. That's my advice for today.
Tracy:Also, the Rose Parade is coming. The Rose Parade is just around the corner from us I mean not literally, but it's very close by. And my one goal for this year is to get up out of my warm bed and go to a point where I can see the stealth bomber fly over. It flies over our house every year, but I can't just go out into the yard because of the trees and everything. We're in a canyon and there's little hills around us. So if we drive up to the top of one of those hills, I believe that we can see the stealth bomber fly over. And so that's my goal for this year is to get myself out of bed, groggy but excited to start the new year off. I'm groggy but excited to start the new year off by seeing the stealth bomber instead of just hearing it. It may be stealthy, but I still do hear it fly over on its way to the parade and yeah. So that's all I've got for this week and that's all I've got for this year. All I've got for this week and that's all I've got for this year. Again, I want to wish all of you a very happy new year and next year we'll tackle another topic together. I hope you'll join me.
Tracy: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. Thanks for listening. I'm Tracy Wallace and these are the Only Child Diaries.
