Welcome to another episode of the Quiet Warrior podcast . As I record this , it's two days to Christmas and I've yet to confirm what's on the menu for our Christmas dinner . I've never been big on celebrations and traditions .
Maybe it goes back to growing up in a family where anything fun or festive was seen as hard work , an inconvenience , one more chore rather than a time of enjoyment . In our group coaching call last week inside the Visible Introvert Academy , I asked my clients this question what are you celebrating in 2024 ?
And it's interesting how most of us are taken by surprise when asked this question and have to take a few minutes to think about it , to journal about it . Maybe it's because we're not used to turning the spotlight on ourselves . Maybe we grew up being told that feeling proud about our own achievements was bad . We should be humble .
Maybe it's because our idea of celebration is external Buy the turkey and ham , decorate the Christmas tree , shop for Christmas presents , make sure everything is perfect . Maybe it's because we're just not used to reflecting on ourselves , on what's inside of us , and connecting with a sense of whether we are on the right track for ourselves .
As an introvert , I like to look inside myself regularly and ask how have I grown ? What new thing did I learn or do ? What went well ? What went badly ? What am I most proud of myself for ? I invite you to get your pen and journal out and reflect on these questions .
You may surprise yourself with how much you've grown and how much there is to celebrate In 2024 , the Quiet Warrior podcast , thanks to your support , made it into the top 10% of podcasts worldwide , and my aspirational goal for 2025 is to get it into the top 5% so that more and more introverts and highly sensitive people and quiet achievers can feel seen and heard
. Another thing I'm really proud of is that my younger child finished her VCE successfully and is awaiting her first round of uni offers , and that represents a new phase in life for all of us as a family , and for me in particular .
No more school lunches , no more school runs , no more having to check the school app to find out whether reports in assignments have been sent off . Everything has been done correctly what's the latest in the school newsletter , and it's going to be an interesting season , an interesting space , and I'm quite excited for it .
I think something else also happened in 2024 that has changed who I am quite significantly , and that is the amount of inner work and healing I've been doing , not one particular modality , but all of them . So I'll give you an example In November and December I traveled to Singapore and Vietnam . And Singapore was for my mom's 90th birthday celebration .
And I don't know if you have Asian friends , if you're Asian yourself and you might understand the weight of expectation that comes with a huge occasion where all the relatives are present , and there are things that you have to do and there are things that are expected of you to do .
And I had no clue when I first heard that there was going to be this major celebration . I had no clue how to go about it and what I was expected to do and who to ask for help . But along the way I did ask for help and I think that was one of the best things I could have done for myself .
And I also did a tremendous amount of preparation , inner preparation , to deal with all the unfinished business of the past childhood baggage , childhood trauma . I used every modality that I had access to Reiki , root cause therapy , emotion code , emotion code , essential oils , a remote body scan from a coach in Thailand , everything I tried it all .
I read all the books , did all the internal reflective work , the journaling that was needed , faced my feelings , faced my fears . That was needed faced my feelings , faced my fears . And when the day came , I was surprised at how aligned , how intuitive and how much in flow I had become .
I was literally a different person from who I was the last time I visited Singapore , seven years ago . So my encouragement to you is if you have been on this path for a while and you're finding it challenging , or you're not seeing results yet , stay the path , keep doing the work . It all adds up .
It's a cumulative process and it takes time to heal decades , to unwind decades of hurt and resentment , misunderstandings , miscommunication , wrong stories , even , and limiting beliefs , whatever they are .
I encourage you to stick to the path that you are on , to keep doing the work , to keep healing , to keep peeling back those layers and sitting with all parts of yourself welcoming all of them , making room for all of them , listening to each one of them . It is worth the effort . See you in 2025 .