Melissa NicholsoN INTRO

MELISSA NICHOLSON: Today is Day 1 of the challenge, and we’re starting with a question that might feel deceptively simple but is absolutely transformational: What are you going to leave behind in 2024?

Introduction

INTRO: Welcome to Job Share Revolution. The show about job sharing—a partnership between two people to bring two minds and skill sets to one full-time position. I’m Melissa Nicholson, former job sharer turned founder of the first U.S. job share company. But it wasn’t long ago that I felt like an utter failure at work and as a new parent. Job sharing was my game-changer. I reclaimed four days a week to fully engage in my life while my capable partner handled everything. Together, we achieved more than I ever could solo. Fast forward to many lessons learned to bring you the training and support I wish I’d had to change lives and the modern-day workplace. Let’s live life and slay work.

Melissa NICHOLSON

MELISSA NICHOLSON: Well hello beautiful human. Welcome back to Jobshare Revolution, I’m your host Melissa Nicholson and I am so glad you’re tuning in after our short self-care holiday pause. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh, I just, I have butterflies. Do you ever get butterflies when you are so excited about something, and nervous? Yeah, I’m just so excited to kick off our brand-new series: Be Your Best Self in 2025!

Now, this is a challenge that we created a few years back in our community. It’s the first time to do it on the podcast and for me to be your guide in this experience. And I think it’s going to be really really powerful. But before we get started, I want to thank you for choosing to be here. I know how crazy coming off the holiday season—and the extra unpaid labor it brings with it—can be. My kids are literally just now finally back in school. In fact, my daughter is still in intercession. So, she goes to a very cool school and they do some really, really progressive cool things. And one of them is where the students ease back into the second half of the school year this first week back without a heavy load. They take it easy. In fact, she’s camping with classmates this week back. I’ve got to tell you, I think even for adults, we just need our own intercession. I don’t know about you, but come January 1st, I am never, I mean never ready to make bold resolutions, or put together a what’s in or what’s out list, much less figure out my intentions. Which, I love intentions. I mean, intentions are a lot kinder. They are a lot more forgiving. But still. I’m just coming off the holiday hangover. I mean, I’m barely recovered. 

So, I want to ask you something: What if 2025 could be the year that you truly show up for yourself, leaving behind the things that no longer serve you and stepping fully into your power? This isn’t about setting impossible resolutions or getting stuck in that mid-February slump where 80% of goals go out the window completely. Nope. This is about real, intentional change. And we’re going to do it together through a challenge I created for our amazing, incredible community a few years ago during one of the most challenging seasons of our lives.

It became a balm for everything that we were collectively going through during the pandemic. And I’ll be honest, I never could have imagined the magic that showed up, not just for our Work Muse community members, but in my own life. That’s why I knew I had to bring it back even better, with updated tools, science-backed exercises, and a little sprinkle of woo to help you manifest an incredible 2025.

If you’ve been listening for a bit, you know that I am the sole caregiver to my mom Elaine who has Alzheimer’s disease, what you don’t know is that my family went through an absolutely devastating time after my mom first came into my care. It’s really hard for me to talk about this. And I don’t think I’ve ever publicly talked about it. But, yeah, we went through this really hard time when she first came into my care when family members were taking advantage of her illness and putting her into a situation of elder abuse. When even Adult Protective Services was unable to help, I was forced to go through a year-long court process to become her legal guardian and to return my mom to my care.

I’ve never shared this publicly before, I never thought I would. But I’ve just thought about it, you know? It was a life-defining time. And thank God, I’m on the other side of it. It’s a scar, it’s no longer a fresh wound. But, I think it’s important to acknowledge, like, a lot of people went through a lot. And I feel like we’re still being put through it. You know? We’re still being put through it, and we have to find new ways to approach our lives. What we want in our lives, our goals. Life has just become harder for a lot of people. 

So, when my mom returned to my care, I knew I just had to do things differently to pull my family through it all. As hard as this sounds, I had to put myself first, my family second, and my mom last—even when her needs were the greatest. But, it just had to be that way. Because how it was before was that my mom was first. I don’t know, my family came like, I don’t know, I’d put them like fifth. But there was nothing in between. It was like my mom, my mom, my mom, my mom, my family, and then… You should just put me under a rock. Because that’s about where I was. Yeah, so, we came through that time, and right when my mom was about to come back into my care is when I created this challenge. So I did it for the Work Muse community. But it really must have been my way to help myself, you know? The community, their AHAs and positive feedback were beyond inspiring. But I just never, never ever in a million years would have guessed what would have transpired in my own life had  I not experienced it firsthand. 

But, you know, I’ve really been thinking about this a lot and with so much outside of our control and with so many of us having difficult challenges over the last several years and things that we can’t control… We can’t control the job market. We can’t control the economy. We can’t control climate change. We can’t control the political environment. We’ve just got to have another set of tools. We’ve got to be able to build this inner strength, this self-resiliency. And I think doing exercises like this where you are really putting a lot of intention into thinking… Thinking and putting a lot of thought into who you want to be and how you want to be, and who you want to show up as, and what your goals are as you head into the New Year. That’s when the magic happens. And I think, you know, I had no idea that that kind of magic was possible. You know, like I said, I’m just not a woo person. But trust me, I have changed my tempo on this. 

So, let me just tell you what happened because I wouldn’t have believed it. Despite caregiving, budget, or time constraints, the previously unimaginable manifested in my own life. My family spent the first week of the brand new year in Oaxaca, Mexico slow-living and reconnecting with one another. Look, we had been the paces. We just needed it. We needed this reconnection, the four of us together. We stayed in this unbelievable 1970s adobe commune built by this family.  There were maybe five different casita areas around the property with this beautiful pool. And it was up high on the mountains, and it was just slow and beautiful. And the people were peaceful and kind. And it was just that feeling of communing with nature. Just being in those mountains hearing the dogs bark across the way and seeing the lights flicker across the hills, and seeing people do firecrackers. And it was healing. It was really healing. So that is how we started the brand new year, you know? Enchanting, really.

Then we had lifelong friends of my mom’s who said, “We will help. We would love for Elaine to stay with us.” and so she stayed with them making new memories while providing respite for our family to get away together. My friend gifted us their Airbnb to us in the Ozarks during spring break week for connection in nature. We were mountain biking all week long in this beautiful beautiful area . And then an angel watching from afar offered up an annual beach oasis. And she picked up the phone and said, “Melissa, you’ve been on my mind,” and she said, “Absolutely, you and your family can go and enjoy the beautiful beach.” 

It was like that all year long.  Every single time, a way was made. And it started with me doing these very same exercises in the Be Your Best Self in 2025  Challenge that you are going to be doing.    

Who I was that year, who I showed up as…it brought me back to myself in this very powerful way. So I brought the challenge back for 2024 even better, and created a workbook to go through every exercise in one place as a powerful resource to come back to throughout the year. Because you know,  most people lose all motivation and their best intentions in the new year by mid-February. So writing it down and coming back to it is a powerful tool to step into your full power to make the changes you want to see in your life. And this year, I decided to add it to our podcast. So if you haven’t already, go grab your Be Your Best Self in 2025 Workbook at workmuse.com/bestself. So it’s free, and it’s your guide for this challenge as we work through five transformative actions, plus one very powerful bonus, over the next six episodes. There’s a reason that we’re taking each challenge week by week. Doing so gives you the time to really contemplate each challenge with intention. Listening and putting pen to paper, it solidifies it in your mind so you can truly manifest these changes to Be Your Best Self in 2025. By mid-February, you not only won’t drop your best intentions for the changes you want to make in your life in 2025. Instead, you’ll be ready to make them.

And hey, if you’re the kind of person who wants to binge and go, you can grab the workbook and dive right in, too.

If I’ve learned anything t he past few years, it’s that we need one another. We cannot go it alone. It’s what makes job sharing so prescient, if that’s one of your goals for 2025. But before we get back to job sharing, I hope you’ll join me on this journey to self-growth in 2025, my friend. I think we’re going to need it more than ever and I am so incredibly honored to be your guide in this process. 

Today is Day 1 of the challenge, and we’re starting with a question that might feel deceptively simple but it is absolutely transformational: What are you going to leave behind in 2024? Before we can talk about what you want to achieve or become, we need to make space. We need to let go of what no longer serves us. I want you to pause, take a deep breath, and reflect on your past year.

So here’s how the challenge works: Download and print your workbook at workmuse.com/bestself if you haven’t already. Each week, I’ll guide you through one challenge action in the workbook. You can follow along in real-time or complete it at your own pace—this is a choose your own adventure style. And finally, if you’re feeling brave, share your challenge actions in our Facebook community for a chance to win a fun work-life prize!” Before we get started, can you do me a favor? Share this episode with a friend to do the challenge together with an accountability partner.

Let’s dive into today’s action: What are you going to leave behind in 2024? What are you going to leave behind? To help you answer this, I want you to think back on the past year. Open up your camera roll or calendar and scroll through it month by month. This is really powerful. I have done it for the past two years. So you just flip open that phone. All your pictures are right there.  There’s things that you haven’t even thought back on but it’s all captured there.

Open up that camera or your calendar and reflect on these questions: What were the most joyful moments? What were the most impactful moments? And what were the hardest moments for you?  

And then, I want you to take it deeper: Which people or experiences lifted you up, and which brought you down? And you know what I’m talking about. This is where you can put it and nobody’s going to see it. Which people or experiences lifted you up and which brought you down?  What did you learn about yourself this past year? And I love this one: What is one thing you can start doing today to step into your best self in 2025?

So this exercise isn’t about judgment. It is about clarity. And there’s a distinction there. It’s about deciding not to carry last year’s rocks into this year’s garden. Imagine 2025 as a blank slate—a fresh, fertile garden—and you get to decide what grows there. You decide. Close your eyes for just a moment. Are they closed? I want you to picture the voice of 2025. What does it sound like? Is it high or is it low? Is it melodic or monotone? Is it gendered or not gendered? What does it feel like? What adjectives describe it? That’s your voice. That’s your guide. And you get to choose how it sounds, how it feels, and what it leaves behind.

Before we wrap up, I want to leave you with this challenge: Write down one thing you are leaving behind in 2024. It could be a limiting belief, a bad habit, or even a relationship that no longer aligns with your values.

Take that step and let it go. Let it completely go.  Share it in our Facebook community, send me a DM, or simply write it down in your workbook. Because when we let go, we make space for something better to show up.

Here’s what I’m leaving behind in 2024: Trying to control circumstances or people’s actions that are outside of my control. I don’t want to waste any more energy or put myself through the pain these things have stolen from me in the past. That’s another thing, I’m going to hold myself to account to remember as I move into 2025. We just don’t know what they are going through personally. 

Okay, friend – I hope you’ve loved this exercise as much as I have. I’m so curious to learn what you will leave behind in 2024 and would love it if you DM me on LinkedIn or pop into our Facebook community to share. It is really helpful to do these things in community and I feel like community has never been more important. So let’s share what are we leaving behind. Doing that one exercise is going to make you feel so much better as you plan for the year ahead. You can get the show notes with all the links you need at workmuse dot com forward slash twenty-three. 

Next week, we’ll dive into Challenge Day 2: Choosing Your Word of the Year. I can’t wait to guide you through finding the mindset that will shape your 2025. Until then, sweet friend, don’t carry last year’s rocks into this year’s garden. Think about what you want your garden to look like. I am sending you so much love as you take this first step. Until next week friend, bye for now. It’s all in you.