“So much wasted time.”

David Cassidy, last words from his death bed, age 67, as reported by his daughter.

My trip to Argentina included a 10-hour layover in Miami. I invested part of that time with the 2025-2026 Year Compass. The first half is a look back at 2025, the second is a look ahead.

For the look back, you review every week of your calendar, then reflect on what you see.

My disappointing realization: I didn’t spend 2025 the way I wanted.

My 2025 word of the year was “Enjoy,” but my 2025 was not that. If I gave the year a title, it would be, “Working Hard, But Why?”

Expanding the view, when I looked at everything I’ve done since retiring from my corporate job:

(Skip the bullets if you find them tedious—I do):

2019: Completed an intense online learning program: The Freelancer’s Workshop. Joined the Story Grid Guild, an online learning consortium for writers. Started teaching part-time at the University of Cincinnati.

2020: Completed the Podcaster’s Workshop. Started a podcast: Hard Times & Hope. Studied plot structure and created the StoryWheel.

2021: After exactly one year of episodes, ended the podcast. Continued to refine the StoryWheel.

2022: Shared the StoryWheel with my writer buddies (in several iterations).

2023: Memoirists wanted more. Created and led Memoir Mastery. After 5 years, taught my last class at UC.

2024: Joined Scale With Success to grow my group coaching program for writers. Due to a trademark conflict, rebranded the StoryWheel as StoryJoules. Launched and led StoryJoules Mastery (SJM).

2025: Led another session of SJM. Left Scale With Success, joined Business by Design. Hired two VAs and started a StoryJoules YouTube channel. When I offered the Fall session of SJM and no one registered, I felt… relieved (and surprised to be relieved).

Looking at this List of Things I Did, yes, I’m proud of all I learned and created, and I see a woman running. Running from a fear of running out, of not being enough, of not mattering.

In 2025, two of my friends called out my behavior. One asked, “Why are you doing this?” The other said, “It seems you’ve left your original intention (to help writers) and it’s morphed into something else (grow a business). It doesn’t feel authentic.”

When people quote Mary Oliver, it’s typically, “What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

Oliver answered how to answer that question, “You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.”

The Word of the Year I picked for 2026 was ‘love.’ But I’ve changed it. My new word is ‘animal.’

So often I treat myself as a head without a body, and that gets me in trouble. My head comes up with lots of ideas (and worries). My animal body knows what is best for me. My animal self knows what I love.

When I love what I do, and love the me who is doing it, and love who I’m doing it with or for, it’s not hustle.

It’s love.

Chewing the Cud of Good

Thankful for things I’ve never seen before.