2025: Refine

I chose my word for this year in late November of last year. As always, there were several words on my list. However, the one that, ironically speaking, rose to the top, was refine. There are two definitions of this word that I hope to use as my focus this year.

The first definition is “to make something pure or improve something, especially by removing unwanted material.” This reminds me of the process of refining silver or gold. The refiner melts these substances down and allows the dross to rise to the top. He keeps removing the dross until all that remains is pure gold or silver. This can apply in many ways to the year ahead. Simply speaking, I want God to remove from my life all that does not help me to serve Him.

The second definition is “to improve an idea, method, system, etc. by making small changes.” This is not an overnight process. When working on better habits, they are best improved by incremental changes. This is the basis of one of the best books I read last year, Atomic Habits, by James Clear.

Speaking of books, I am implementing these habit changes using the framework of The 12 Week Year by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington. There are many summaries of this book floating around. However, the basics are to choose several habits to work on and track daily over a 12-week period. The idea is to treat each 12-week period as 1 year. This accelerates progress and prevents one from telling herself, “There’s plenty of time to reach my goals!” Since I love to live seasonally as much as possible, my 12-week periods coincide with the seasons. So, I cheated a bit and started at the beginning of December.

One of the frameworks of the 12-week year is accountability. While I do have accountability in various areas of my life, this blog will also help me with accountability. First, I will have to record my progress publicly. Second, I will have to buckle down and write, which is one of my habits to refine in 2025.

I’m not sure what all will be in my refine posts, but I will do my best to make them worthwhile to you, the reader. I will give you updates on what I am doing, but I hope to include resources, inspirational quotes, songs, art, and maybe a few original pieces of writing along the way. Whatever is refining me, I will try to pass it on to you.

For now, I will leave you with a photo and a key question: