If you want to hear a more intentional reflection of my experience for 2024 and how I'm moving forward in 2025, you’ll find it in my writing below.

The words I’m writing are more intentional because it’s easier to review and revise my thoughts to better reflect my perspective and experiences. With the video, I have an idea of things I want to express, but say whatever comes to mind and it's not as easy to understand. 🤷‍♂️

My Reflection On The New Year

2024 was a very teaching year for me, I learned a lot about myself and the type of person I want to be. It was an interesting year because there were a lot of unique highs and lows.

I had a lot of beautiful experiences; I met a lot of new friends, strengthened relationships, went on incredible adventures, took advantage of incredible opportunities, and experienced a lot of personal growth.

At the same time, I went through very painful and difficult moments, I became more aware of the difficulties others are facing, and the horrific things happening in the world. The duality of my experience has been overwhelming at times, I often felt like I didn't deserve so many good moments when others were facing so many difficult and painful circumstances.

It's been quite the journey learning how to move forward with this awareness... and a journey that has led me to define how I want to move forward, and the type of life I want to cultivate.

In 2024 I also became aware of the gaps between my intentions and actions; I realized there were more parts of my life than i'd like to admit, where I said I would or wanted to do something, and didn't follow through with my actions. I recognized the potential negative impact some past actions may have had, and moments where I was so caught up in my own challenges that I completely disregarded how my actions would impact others, which in turn harmed me.

A few years ago I would've beaten myself up for that, but I realized I needed to give myself grace for doing the best I could.

I know I can't control how others perceive my actions, and I know trying to is a recipe for losing yourself. Although we can't control the image others create of us, or how they perceive our actions, I strongly believe it's important to be aware of our impact as we work toward a life we love (or simply don't hate).

My life improved in every way when I started practicing acceptance for what I can and cant control, making efforts to live a life I love, and doing so while AT LEAST making efforts not to harm others.

In 2024 I saw many incredible examples of people making efforts to grow, to accept everything about themselves and move forward with a courageous vulnerability, living a life they're grateful to be in and one intentionally cultivated.

I see many people making efforts to spread love, build supportive communities, and improve broken systems, all while following their passions and dreams. I feel incredibly grateful and lucky to be connected with extraordinary people who inspire me ON THE DAILY to live better, love more, and work toward a future we can all thrive in.

As I move forward through 2025 I want to be part of the movement of people striving to be vulnerable, to spread love, build supportive relationships and communities, and cultivate a life they love.

I am inspired by the vulnerability i've seen from my loved ones and others, so I am making efforts to be more vulnerable in 2025 with the intention to connect, heal, and grow with others and myself. I am making efforts to live an intentional life, one guided by my passions, dreams, and intuition.

I know I'll still have moments of incredible pain, as we all inevitably do, and I know I still have so much to work on, and so much to learn! So, I'll continue moving forward for my passions, my loved ones, for strangers my actions impact, and for my past, present, and future self.

I'll end with this - I believe we are all deeply interconnected with each other and our environment. I am often in awe of the extraordinary nature of our existence, the trillons of cells inside our body working independent of our conciousness, the worlds ecosystems operating exactly as designed through millions of years of evolution, and the fact that we're on a rock we call home, flying through space around a star, in a galaxy with approximately 100 billion stars...

Nothing will make you feel smaller and less important than pondering the cosmos... And yet, everything we do impacts our environment, the people in our lives, and the future world we're cultivating.

The way I see it, everyone means something to someone, and the better we take care of each other, the better we take care of ourselves and our future.

I'm making efforts to make 2025 my best year yet, I believe it will be, and I hope we can make it our best year yet, we're in this together.

Thanks for using your precious time to read my thoughts, I appreciate it. 🤟

Wishing you all the best. ✨

Your Friend, Marshall