I’ve been working on this particular blog post for nearly a month – not consistently mind you. It’s been sitting in my brain and jotted down in various platforms waiting to be born.
Waiting for the moment I finally feel ready to share. Find the voice I may have quieted (or couldn’t hear through all the noise). So, as I finally sit here, while it’s still dark outside – while the entire house sleeps (and after a triumphant win remembering it was trash pick up today) – I’m sipping my cup full of mushroom coffee, and taking a moment to let it all out.
I’m savoring my sips, wishing the mug kept it warmer and it was bottomless. It’s New Years Eve. It makes total sense that this would be the perfect time to reflect on all of 2025. I woke up an hour before my alarm and as I lay there contemplating the days that lead me here, I think “this is a gift Laura”. Get up, take the garbage to the street and take a moment for you. So, I did.
It’s been a fucking incredible year – and that honestly, wasn’t expected. This post isn’t a highlight reel, you’ll see It’s about what I’m leaving behind in 2025.
Anyone who knows me, knows I happen to possess that “Cheer Bear” mentality. I’m always the one who’s got your back. The sunny disposition. Helping you defy the impossible.
These are all good things – and have gotten me to where I am. What I think 2025 taught me was better boundaries – on a whole new level. And it didn’t always feel good.
I was recording a podcast as a guest just the other night (can’t wait to share this one) and the host asked me if it felt good to stand up to my mom for the first time (when I was about 35 – it’s in my book “Is It An Open Bar?”). I feel like he was expecting me to say yes. But honestly, that took years to feel proud of myself for doing it.
At the time, I felt like I was abandoning her. And worse – what would happen if something DID happen to her and that’s what I did? Being conditioned from a young age to doubt trusting yourself, to ignore your gut, to ignore every red flag in your body – is really something hard to let go of as an adult. But I’ve been doing it, one baby step at a time.
I found myself repeating something recently to my clients taken from my own observation: There are two scenarios in life that will test you and force you to look at yourself in the mirror, first one – being a mom. The second – building a business.
I’m sure there are lots of others too, but for me? This takes the cake. There is nothing in my life that has pushed me further along in my own healing than these two scenarios. Not a romantic relationship, but my kids, and my business.
So, as I was chatting with the podcast host about my deepest soul wrenching moments in my life, I reflected how much of those attributes I really had to let go of, to be a better mom. Not reacting when something feels annoying or spicy. They come to me because I am open and they know I am here to support them. I’m not judging their mistakes (I made a million of my own). Letting them feel heard. Seen. Loved. Exactly the way they need to be. Not through control, but through guidance.
It sounds so woo-woo but, it’s true. And it’s based on mutual respect.
Now – being a business owner, at times, it almost might be harder. YOU ARE YOUR BUSINESS. So…when you don’t have your bullshit under control, it shows. It shows up in your reviews, your staff, and most importantly – in your sales.
So, as the year progressed in my business and I was setting better boundaries for myself, I’ve gained clients, lost clients – at times really hard to navigate. Not knowing how the month was going to work out, and how I would really reflect on how I could do better.
Instead of curling up into the fetal position (which trust me – there were SO MANY TIMES I WANTED TO) – I had to look at myself in the mirror and figure out “why”.
Every client or opportunity that I lost, made me doubt what I was doing. But as I released the attachment to them, the money, the idea – truly let go – it changed me, and something better – read “more aligned” entered my life.
What I do is hard – because we know (now) we can only meet people where they are at. So, if someone thinks they are ready to make some changes and they excitedly start – it doesn’t mean they are traveling at the same speed (or even on the same highway).
That lesson was so big for me in 2025. And that’s one that actually feels, really great! I can only meet someone where they are at. I can’t push them I can simply walk beside them.
The BIGGEST lesson I am leaving 2025 with – BOUNDARIES. No more giving away my services for free or discounting myself. Now, I don’t mean this in a bitter sense. But there have been so many instances where I’m entering a situation happily sipping my coffee, but being pumped for business advice. I don’t like to think it’s on purpose, they are connecting (sunny disposition) – but I no longer feel obligated to oblige.
I had not once, but four times this year that fellow business owners were at a breaking point, set up a meeting with me – I listen, and offering my services and I was hit with the response of “oh yes, I already have a business coach I’m paying for”.
If you have this business coach you’re paying – why are you asking me?
Let me be clear – THIS IS HOW I FEED MY CHILDREN.
Why are these people able to afford life, and I am the one who is struggling? Yet they are asking me for free help?
And why the fuck did I feel guilty about it?
This is 44. NO MORE. I’m not struggling any more. Fuck that (the struggle, not the people).
So yeah, that was a 2025 lesson. And honestly? All that rejection was hard to swallow – you think I’m so great, but not great enough to actually pay me.
I found myself – is it them? Or is it me? This, my friend – is a direct reflection of my own worthiness I was putting on the table. Someone’s inability to see my worth, does not dimmish my value.
This is the shit I’m talking about – and I feel like we’ve all been there. But this is one struggle, that is no longer part of my story.
2026 is the year of new beginnings
2025 was about endings, letting go, and completing old cycles.
The New Year arrives like a breath of fresh air, an unapologetic invitation to step into the next version of ourselves, anchored in healthier (reciprocal) relationships, and deep trust in ourselves and our intuition.
What is your new beginning?
What did you let go of in 2025?
XO,
Laura
