No, You Don’t Have to Have It All Figured Out in 2025

It’s okay to carry the fatigue of 2024 into 2025.

New Year, New Me—one of the most toxic mantras society has ever handed us on a silver platter. It’s the pressure to enter the new year as some transformed, “better” version of yourself. What no one acknowledges, though, is the reality of how we actually end the previous year. In this case, 2024—a year many of us limped through, overspending on the holidays, navigating family drama, and either confronting or actively avoiding the crushing truth that we’re heading into another Trump presidency.

I am going to boldly say: the idea that we should start 2025 energized and with everything figured out is complete nonsense. We are stepping into a year filled with unknowns, most of which will likely be anxiety-inducing and fear-driven rather than comforting or inspiring. And so, I’m here to tell you—you don’t have to be okay. I’m giving you full permission to feel whatever you need to feel, whether it’s hope, dread, exhaustion, or just plain numbness.

In full transparency, I don’t feel 100% okay myself, but I do feel rested. I’m proud of myself for using the New Year’s and Christmas break to genuinely rest for the first time in a long time. I slept, I ate, I drank, and I savored the slower moments. But I’m also painfully aware of the emotional, mental, and physical toll this coming year will take. We are entering a presidency that will be challenging on every level. For me, as a woman and a Black person, the weight feels heavy. And I know that for millions of people across this country who don’t share the privileges I or many readers of this Substack do, the weight will be unbearable at times.

On top of this, we’re faced with another narrative of shame—the idea that burnout is something we were all supposed to have “mastered” last year in 2024. That stepping into 2025 magically meant stepping into a burnout-free existence. Or an existence that was more capable of handling this unpredictable world we are in. Days into 2025, Los Angeles is burning, Meta has decided to eliminate fact checking , and the Golden Globes were actually a great watch. All things none of us could have predicted.

Burnout can also feel unpredictable. Why? Because it’s not just a “work-induced” problem. Burnout is the product of societal and structural forces far beyond our individual control. It can be driven by more than just your bad boss, but also your family, your kids, your zoom-schedule, your house, your friends, the state of world…anything! It’s driven by a society who tells us that we are not enough as we are. We must do more, to achieve more, to be more…And that is false.

This isn’t a pep talk about resilience. This is a reminder that Burnout doesn’t look the same for all of us and is triggered by a wide variety of reasons. TLDR: It’s okay to not have everything figured out. It’s okay to carry the fatigue of 2024 into 2025. It’s okay to be unsure, unmotivated, or afraid. It’s okay to be burned out. What’s not okay is to be defeated by it, to believe you can’t over come. You can and you will.

2025 doesn’t have to be about having it all together. Maybe it’s just about surviving. Maybe it’s about questioning. Maybe it’s about simply making space for yourself to feel, to rest, to recalibrate, without the pressure of resolutions and reinvention.

I hope this year, instead of asking how you can become a “new you,” ask yourself how you can be a kinder, gentler, more authentic you?

Start there.

Let’s navigate the unknowns of 2025 together, without pretending that any of us have it all figured out. Lets just take it one day at a time.

xx