As we approach the final descent of 2025, it’s time to review the year: to see what we’ve achieved, what we’ve learned, and what has shifted in our professional lives.
In this post, I offer prompts for making sense of 2025, and open up what 2026 might hold. I reflect on my own feelings, and how the collective might have experienced this year of movement.
How has 2025 been for you?
If 2024 marked the moment when change was undoubtedly on the way, personally and in the grand narratives around us, then 2025 affirmed that movement. What I’ve learnt this year is that change begins with habits and systems, yes, but it also begins with something underneath them.
What have your mistakes and failures been?
What lessons did they hold?
Are you ready to release and rewrite the stories you’ve been carrying?
In my own self-examination this year, I’ve realised that my deepest fears, around visibility and success, have been concealed within my positive experiences. My fear of failure has disguised itself inside my successes. My fear of visibility has been most pronounced at moments of visibility.
Here’s an example. I was interviewed by a journalist for The Guardian about the new Taylor Swift album and her use of showgirl iconography. Although the writer was a Swift fan, she wanted a more nuanced piece about the imagery. I spoke from a neutral position, offering historical and critical context for showgirl culture. My insights were used throughout the article.
When I saw the article published, my immediate reaction was panic. I thought readers would criticise me for not being critical enough, or for not calling out cultural appropriation. I imagined people mocking me for taking showgirl culture too seriously, and also for not taking it seriously enough. I imagined negative comments forming in real time.
At the moment I had national visibility (in a modest way), I felt shame. I felt as though I had done something wrong.
When I looked at online comments, most simply mocked the idea that showgirl culture could matter compared to more ‘serious’ newsworthy issues. None of it was personal.
So why did I freak out so much? Because visibility and network-building make sense for my career goals, yet a part of me still fears being seen.
I could tell a story in which external forces thwarted my career; the missed opportunities, the injustices. I could stay angry about things I wasn’t selected for. But the truth is more complicated.
If I want to be the star of the show, why don’t I want anyone to look at me?
If I’m eager for commissions, why can’t I talk about the commissions I have received?
This year has been about identifying exactly how I’ve been my own block. About locating the frightened parts of me. About bringing them into the light.
As I close 2025, my work is to stay curious about my fears, to keep them in view. It’s like babysitting an anxious child. Now that I’ve found my fears, how do I soothe them?
The work of 2025 has been deep: feeling, perceiving, unearthing, narrating. Because of that inward pull, I’ve found it almost impossible to reach out or put myself forward. And yet I’ve had glimmers of how I want to show up in 2026, more fully, with more of my parts aligned, sharing more expansive stories from my inner depths, in both my art and my showgirl work.
Sitting with my insecurities has also brought more clarity about what I want next, my path, my next steps.
I write this as a deeply intuitive person. I am guided by my hunches. In my mentoring work, I create space for the creatives I support to let their intuition emerge, to dig for the gold, the fears, the information. We turn those into practices, places, solutions, goals, and directions for research. I don’t mentor by telling people what to do, but by honouring what comes through.
Mentoring is my service. We go deep. As the year closes and another begins, if you want space for reflection, let me know.
I write this in week eight of virus recovery. It has wiped me out. Looking back, I also broke my ankle this year, and I was hacked on Meta. 2025 has been a year of convalescence, self-examination, and time in hermit-mode, time to rest, recover, and revision.
My warm wishes as you reflect and release 2025, and welcome the new energy of 2026 in.
To my readers and subscribers: I’m incredibly grateful you are here, thank you.
