We’re nearing the end of 2025, and I’ve been reflecting on the whirlwind this year has been.
If I’m being honest?
Work ruled my world for the first part of the year.
A lot of that was tied to the VA business I’d built over time – serving clients, managing deadlines, being everyone’s go-to. It was familiar, dependable, and (if I’m honest) hard to let go of.
But in August, I finally closed the doors on my VA business of 30+ years. Not because it wasn’t working but because it wasn’t working for me.
What followed was strange.
There’s this myth that when you finally let go of something that’s out of alignment, you instantly feel free and inspired.
What I actually felt was what I call the void. The in-between space where you’re no longer who you were but not yet certain who you’re reclaiming.
For weeks, I lived there, suspended between who I used to be as a VA and who I was slowly embodying as the Founder of Wild Awake Woman.
And in that uncomfortable space, I noticed myself slipping back into old patterns. Back into hustle mode. Back into creating, building, structuring accidentally letting work take over again.
Only this time, it was wrapped in spiritual language and pretty Instagram graphics.
And that’s when it hit me:
I may have left my old identity behind, but I had carried its conditioning with me.
I’ve always felt that the concept of Work–Life Balance is a lie, and this was the perfect example.
When something is “in balance,” it implies two equal parts. Yet in my real life, there has never been a season where work and life felt perfectly weighted. Not once.
So instead of chasing balance, I gave myself permission to ask a different question:
How can I integrate?
How can my work support my life—not replace it?
For me, integration means accepting that there will be seasons when work requires more of my focus and my personal life has to wait her turn. That isn’t failure; it can actually be healthy—as long as the energy behind the work isn’t fear, survival, or scarcity, but desire, devotion, and the calling to share your gifts with the world.
That’s the lesson 2025 gave me and the invitation 2026 is whispering.
No more boxes. No more hustling to “balance.”
Just a life that breathes. Expands. Makes room for all of me.
Here’s to closing the year clear and walking into 2026 wild and awake.
Photo by Denys Nevozhai on Unsplash