5 promises I made to myself for 2025

Today’s edition of Wishful Working is a 5 minute read.

Hi! I missed you! To my new subscribers — welcome! Wishful Working is back from a holiday hiatus, and I’m feeling rested and excited about 2025.

It’s January — goal-setting season — and although I think SMART goals are overrated, I do love a bit of reflection and planning. One of my favorite resources is The Calm Business Review, which features many helpful prompts and exercises for reviewing the past year and planning for the next one.

One prompt had me make five promises to my business for 2025. I like this prompt because a “promise” feels like a resolution with its edges softened. If a resolution is gritted teeth, a promise is intertwined pinkies.

I combined my business and personal planning a bit, so the following five promises cover more than just work:

1. I promise not to worry so much about money.

Starting off with a heavy-hitter 😅 Due to a combination of planned spending (a big vacation), unforeseen expenses (a big tax bill), and some months without much income, my financial cushion shrank quite a bit in 2024. Even still, I worried about money more than was strictly necessary.

The situation wasn’t dire, especially because I have a husband whose income pays a lot of our bills (a privilege). This year, I would like to chill out a bit about money while also building back my savings cushion a bit.

2. I promise to stop second-guessing myself when coming up with quotes and estimates.

In the past, it has taken me hours to come up with an estimate for even the simplest requests. This has improved over time, but I still struggle to conjure those elusive numbers when I’m faced with a new client inquiry. 

Ultimately, I’ve decided I would rather aim high and possibly overshoot the client’s budget than aim low and feel resentful and bitter. Also, I’ve nearly perfected my napkin math for project rates, which is roughly:

(My desired hourly rate x Number of hours I expect the project to take) + Vague additional cushion for extra time needed or poor client behavior = Project rate.

It’s not an exact science. But it’s a place to start.

3. I promise to work on my novel.

I started working on a novel last year. Publishing a novel is one of my life-long dreams, and I feel I finally have A. The time to work on a novel, since I basically make my own schedule and B. A decent idea for a novel.

My current plan is to use downtime during the year to work on this, but I don’t know if this is the best plan. In 2024, I often had a lot of time between client projects — sometimes weeks in a row with no deadlines. But 2025 might be busier! If that’s the case, I’ll have to treat my novel project like a client and schedule time to work on it.

4. I promise to keep trying new things.

I love routine, but I also love novelty. I have so many ideas of things to try, both in my business and in my personal life. Last month, I tried cross-country skiing, and I love it! Last year, I tried to launch a productized service, and it didn’t take off. (More on that in the future, if anyone’s interested.)

I can easily fall into the mindset of “If I can’t do it perfectly right away, I’m not doing it.” But I’m learning to enjoy tackling new skills and embracing the inevitable messiness and mistakes.

5. I promise to make art.

I love writing. I even love writing for clients. But in my soul, I am an artist. I have drawers full of markers and colored pencils. I have a sewing machine that gathers dust and linocut printing supplies and loads of other art-making tools that I don’t use often enough. 

This year, I’m promising to spend more time creating things just for the joy of it. I’ve recently learned to knit. I bought fabric for my first quilt. 

I’m also thinking of designing some art/merch/swag for freelancers and self-employed folks 👀 

On that note, I’m working on a handful of ideas that will require a little more time and input from me. If you find value in Wishful Working and you’d like to support me and help me bring these ideas to life, I’ve created a sort of “tip jar” over on Buy Me a Coffee.

Thanks for reading! I appreciate each of you, and I love hearing from you. Have you made any promises to yourself for the year? Hit reply and tell me about it 😎

See you next week,

Kara

Kara Detwiller is a writer based in small-town Saskatchewan. She specializes in long-form content writing for enterprise SaaS, cybersecurity, and manufacturing clients. She is also working on her first novel, among other creative pursuits. To connect, reply to this email or find Kara on LinkedIn or Bluesky. To support her work on Wishful Working, share this email with someone or buy her a “coffee.”

Why Wishful Working? I write this newsletter because I want to see more people enjoy a life not centered around work. For some, the path to freedom and flexibility is through self-employment, but we also need to challenge cultural norms and champion healthier working conditions and work/life balance for all types of workers.