2025: A Year of Shedding, Stretching, and Showing Up Anyway

In this reflective solo episode, Tracy looks back through the lens of The Gap and The Gain, shares personal moments of growth, and explains why this year was all about shedding… and why 2026 is the fresh start we’ve been waiting for. Tune in for an honest, heart-forward way to close out the year and celebrate the gains you didn’t even know you made.

Want More?

Grab your Human Design chart here

Want to unpack it together? Book a 1:1 session here

Subscribe to A Beautiful Fix on Apple or Spotify

Ready to feel more alive and aligned? Grab my free guide, Finding Your Beautiful Fix: Simple Shifts to Rediscovering Your Inner Power !

Subscribe to Tracy’s weekly Sunday Love Note, Thought Gems, at abeautifulfix.com—your weekly reminder to pause, breathe, and choose your focus.
to help you reset, reconnect, and rediscover what’s possible.

Support the Show

💕 Love this episode? Follow & leave a quick review—it helps others find A Beautiful Fix!

💬 Join the conversation on Instagram & Facebook @ABeautifulFix or find me on LinkedIn: Tracy...

Transcript

Ep. 49: 2025: A Year of Shedding, Stretching, and Showing Up Anyway

A Beautiful Fix

[00:00:00] 

Welcome to a Beautiful Fix. I'm Tracy Hill. Each week we'll dive into the latest thought, Gem recharging and reconnecting with what lights you up and makes you feel alive. Let's discover your next beautiful fix together.

So I've been thinking a lot about this moment, the end of a year, the holidays, birthdays in my house. My birthday was yesterday, the 23rd, or as I now like to refer to it, I leveled up. I'm at level 56. Thinking of it that way makes me feel like I just unlocked whole new levels in life. It's kind of a, it's kind of a cool way to think of it.

It's all good. Today is Christmas Eve. It's also my parents' wedding anniversary. I think it would've been their 59th wedding anniversary if my father was still with us. [00:01:00] Then it's Christmas, my oldest son's birthday is the day after Christmas. All of my sons are home. We have family coming into town. Then there's New Year's Eve, there's New Year's Day.

It's my brother's birthday a few days later, and then my husband's birthday is a few weeks after that. Lots of Capricorns lots going on, and, and we also threw in a ski trip. Oh, it was so much fun. It was so much fun. But yes, I'm still icing my knee, but that's, that's a whole nother, that's a whole nother story.

But with all of this, I'm just. I am just trying to remember what day it is, and I've also just been doing a little looking back. You know, I never, I never loved year-end reviews at work. Just me and anyone else. It's just me. Yeah, I, I always thought that they were the worst part of my job. Trying to justify your existence, prove your worth, compete with your peers, defend your team on those calibration calls.

Ugh, I [00:02:00] did not love it, but I. I get it. I understand the why. I do think that it matters to just pause every once in a while to take stock of the year, just maybe in a different way. Not to defend yourself or to compete, but just to notice, to to feel your year. Have you ever heard of the book called The Gap and the Gain?

I haven't actually read it yet, but I feel like I've read it because so many people have shared the, the basic concept with me about this book. Um, it's on my list and I will read it one day, but this is kind of it in a nutshell. So we usually measure ourselves against some ideal, like what we wanted our year to be, and we end up in this space called the Gap, the place where we feel like we came up short or like we didn't do enough, or like we missed the mark.

But there's another place you can measure from, and that's the gain. So instead of [00:03:00] comparing where you are now to where you once wanted to be, you compare where you are now to where you started. And what you'll notice if you really sit with it is that you've grown, you've learned something, you've gained something.

When we reach a certain accolade, we don't always turn around and notice. Just how far we've come, and I found myself sinking into the gap the other day. I was thinking about this year and all the plans I had made. In January, I kicked off the year co-hosting a retreat. It was beautiful. It was transformational in so many ways, and in my mind I thought I'd certainly host two or three more retreats this year.

Nope, didn't happen. You see, I'm a solopreneur in every way possible. I touch every part of my business with no outside help. So I just wasn't able to focus on another retreat, unfortunately. But [00:04:00] when I was thinking about the fact that I hadn't been able to host another retreat this year, I started to feel disappointed in myself.

Like I had fumbled or like I, you know, didn't follow through. And that's the gap talking. But then I remembered the idea of the gap and the gain, and I asked myself a slightly different question, who was I at the beginning of the year and who am I now? And the gains that showed up for me, not the ones I had planned or put on a timeline, but the ones that actually happened, they were real.

There was growth, there was a lot of growth. This year, I kicked off the year hosting that retreat. That was something I'd been dreaming about doing for years. I launched my podcast, a beautiful fix. I wasn't sure if I would even have the guts to follow through on it, and if anyone would listen. And as of this recording, we are celebrating being in the top 5% globally.

There's something like 4 [00:05:00] million podcasts out there right now. We're. Um, at almost 5,600 downloads we're streamed in 54 countries in 608 cities. I'd like to formally welcome Belgium as our latest country to join our family. Spotify named us as a 2025 instant hit show. Our debut season was more popular than 89% of other new shows.

And then of course, there's human design. I've walked a whole lot of women and some men through their human design in sessions and workshops and on the podcast, and I never get tired of seeing that moment when it just clicks. And I'm excited to dive deep with everyone who's recently signed up for sessions in the new year.

I've met so many amazing women through my podcast and the retreat that I attended, um, last month. And a few weeks ago, I was on Emma Dunwoody's [00:06:00] podcast. She has the number one podcast in human design and your girl was on it. This is, it's just crazy. Looking back, I have pushed myself way out of my comfort zone this year over and over and over again, and there's certainly so much more to do, but I share all of this for a few reasons.

First. Believe it or not, it's not easy for me to share. I, you've heard me share similar stats throughout the year here on the podcast, on social media, but it's actually very cringey for me, but I do it anyway because I grew up feeling like I couldn't ever celebrate the good in my life. L least not out in the open, not not in the public.

I always felt like I had to turn it down several notches for fear that I wouldn't be liked. Well, those days are gone. It was silly, but I'm at level 56. I'm at level [00:07:00] 56, so there's no room for that kind of thinking . There's never a reason to dim your light. We all work very hard and there's no reason we should ever shy away from celebrating our lives.

I work hard as hell on this podcast, and I couldn't be more proud of it. And so I hope that when I do it, it shows other people that they should too. We need to all celebrate each other. So here's my invitation to you as we wrap up this year. When you think back on 2025, maybe don't start with what didn't happen.

Don't start with what you think you should have done or where you fell short. Start with who you were then and who you are now. Just notice what's different. Maybe it's your relationships, maybe it's your boundaries. Maybe it's how you take care of your nervous system. Maybe it's how you show up for the people you [00:08:00] love.

Maybe it's that you gave yourself a break more often than you used to. It doesn't have to be work related. Whatever it is, if it mattered to you. It counts and those are the gains. And if you're sitting there thinking, I don't have any gains, well, if I were there with you, I'd probably be annoyingly sitting on your shoulder whispering, yes you do.

What about this? What about that? Maybe the gain is you survived this year. Maybe the gain is you're still here. Maybe the gain is that you're starting to let yourself notice anything at all. I mean, that's a gain in Chinese astrology. 2025 was the year of the snake. The snake is a symbol of shedding old skin, letting go, like deep transformation and releasing what no longer serves you.

[00:09:00] Snakes don't hold onto the old, they outgrow it and literally drop it. That's exactly the kind of inner work a year of endings ask of us. And in numerology, 2025 adds up to a nine year two plus two plus five equals nine, and that means it's a cycle of completion and letting go. It's a number that invites closure, reflection, and release before a new cycle begins.

So if this year felt heavy or slow or confusing. Now it kind of makes sense. You were shedding closing chapters. Maybe you experienced your fair share of goodbyes. You were doing inner work that you might not even have known you were doing, but next year. Next year, ooh. It's a completely different vibe.

2026 is going to be the year of the fire horse and the Chinese calendar. [00:10:00] And if the horse energy speaks anything, it's momentum, it's action. It's bold movement, it's forward motion. The fire horse years, they encourage us to be courageous and spirited and ready to run toward the next chapter. And. And numerology.

2026 is a year one, two plus two plus six equals 10. One plus zero equals one. So the energy, it, it's, it's the energy of fresh starts, new beginnings, and choosing your direction. A year one feels like a first step. It feels like possibility. It feels like a clean slate.

So take a breath with me.

Put your hand over your chest. Feel your heart. Move just a little and, and notice [00:11:00] even for one beat, how far you've come.

Thank you for showing up with me this year. I wish you the happiest of holidays. Peace in your days, warmth in your evenings, and time for exactly what you need most. And maybe get a little excited about 2026 because you can feel that it's going to be a great one because it's a new beginning, because it's a year one, because it's the year of the fire horse.

But most importantly, because we're deciding that it will be, and until next time. Keep getting high on life one beautiful fix at a time. 

Thanks for listening to a Beautiful Fix. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe and leave a quick review to help others find us. And if you'd like to share your own beautiful fix or join me as a guest, [00:12:00] reach out anytime at tracy@abeautifulfix.com. Looking forward to next time.