In 2024, I Identified as a Declarative Turtle Athlete.
An honest and kinda weird but helpful reflection on my two words and one animal theme of the year.
I don’t do resolutions or numbers-based goals, but I do like a quirky ritual to set the tone for a ~baller~ new year.
The backstory: In late 2020, I started life coaching. I began to experience rapid “personal growth” (isn’t there a better word for that?) and wanted a way to slow down and ground myself a bit. So, I decided to choose a word of the year for 2021, and I drew a random animal from a card deck for extra flair. ✨
Unexpectedly to me, having a theme to reflect on over the course of a year was wildly helpful. It gave me perspective and direction to help me live more aligned with my values. What started as a willy-nilly exercise turned into an annual tradition that seriously helps me think intentionally for 12 months straight:
Adjective: chosen based on what I felt I lacked in the year prior
Noun: something I want to enhance in the new year
Animal: a bonus lens to give perspective to my challenges
In 2024, my two words plus an animal led me to become a “Declarative Turtle Athlete.” Let’s break it down.
Why I wanted to be more “Declarative”:
A year ago now, when I looked back at 2023, a theme stood out: hesitation. As my second year of self-employment wrapped up, I found myself struggling to confidently state my offerings, my value, and who I was professionally.
When people asked me what I did for work, I cringed and stumbled, resorting to self-deprecating humor or brushing off the question. It started to bug me more and more, especially since, dare I say, I’ve done some prettttyyy badass things at work.
For 2024, I wanted to claim my space, my goals, and my potential. To 📢 DECLARE what I wanted, to state my goals aloud, to ask others to share or collaborate, to publicly track my progress on the Big Things.
Why I wanted to enhance the “Athlete” in me:
At the end of 2023, I announced my biggest athletic goal yet: running a 100-mile ultramarathon. 🏃♀️
Training for an endurance event fuels me in so many ways. I thrive on a training plan, hitting milestones, sharing the process… I have no problem hitting all my workouts, getting in strength training, eating enough. In fact, I feel better in all areas of life when I’m training for an athletic goal.
I wanted to take that athlete energy that I adore so much and apply it to the rest of my life. How could I think like an athlete in my business? How could I use a sports psychology mindset in new projects? How could I use that athlete identity to help me enhance my self-care?
Enter the Turtle:
To round out the exercise, I randomly pulled an animal card from an artsy ‘lil deck (perhaps the most “woo” thing I do all year). I got the 🐢Turtle:
“Turtle: Ancient soul, grounded, trusting, at home in the self.
It is wonderful to be in the presence of a turtle personality. Turtle has a strong relationship with the earth and water elements simultaneously; this helps to ground and connect them to the deeper truths of life, no matter where their travels lead them. Turtle energy is behind all great writers and storytellers, as they collect life experiences under their shells for later use. The most potent turtle energy helps us close all the other books and begin to tell our own true tale. When in balance, a turtle is peaceful, adventurous, and productive. Out of balance, they slow down to a halt. You can bring them into balance with an adventure.”
Obviously, this seemed like a badass animal card to pull. I was stoked to have Big Turtle Energy in 2024 for a few reasons:
The storytelling element. Storytelling continues to pop up in my work/life and I believe it’ll be a significant focus of my career, so that was both affirming and thought-provoking.
The nudge to share my own voice. I’ve spent so much time in my career sharing other people’s stories and voices. I’ve been craving more space to share my own. (Um, hello Substack.)
The eye for the future. 👀OKAY so looove the part about collecting experiences to draw from in the future. My #1 CliftonStrength is Futuristic, so I get extra excited thinking about the future, and it was fun to consider that my 2024 experiences were experiments that I may benefit from later on in life.
So, how did I do in 2024? Did it “work?”
Was I declarative in 2024? Absolutely. ✅ I pitched clients and collaborators like never before, shared my goals publicly, and embraced clear, confident communication in everything from work emails to ordering food and from setting boundaries to sharing my elevator pitch. When people asked me at an event or on a podcast how to stay in touch, I had an answer. I played with messaging on my digital channels to feel more aligned with what I actually want to do. The word stuck in my head all year and empowered me to speak up.
Was I an athlete? Hell yeah. ✅ I ran my 100-mile race feeling strong before, during, and afterward. I’m still in a practice of figuring out how to approach work, relationships, and more beyond the physical with an athletic lens, but even starting this Substack feels athletic in some ways. Neat.
Was I a turtle? (Also does anyone else constantly say it like this?)🐢 I think the beauty of this card is that I won't really know how my turtle energy manifested until I'm looking back in retrospect. How poetic! However, I truly feel that I collected some great Badass Turtle Wisdom.
My words and animal for 2025 are…
Going to be shared in my next newsletter here on Substack. Hehe!
What’s your word—or animal—of the year? How are you using it to shape your story? I’d love to hear any thoughts in the comments and I will respond. 💕
If you found this post and you’re like “Wait, where am I?” check out my About page to see why I’m sharing on Substack instead of Instagram these days.