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2025 Year in Review
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In this episode, Tracey outlines highlights, weaknesses and strengths from 2025 in order to celebrate wins, recognize ways she wants to change, and identify potential habits to be created so she can keep growing in the coming year.
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Transcript
Introduction and Year-in-Review
00:00:00
Speaker
My name is Tracey Ariel and I am unapologetically Canadian.
00:00:07
Speaker
It is the end of 2025 and so this is a great time to do a review of the year. This year the world got bigger for me. I went to Las Vegas at the beginning of the year, which is lucky because I probably won't be going to the US again. went to Kenya in Africa and I went to Iceland. And all three places gave me an insight on worlds that are both way different than I expected them to be And so similar to Canada in some ways that I also wasn't expecting.
Canadian Innovations and Global Comparisons
00:00:46
Speaker
Las Vegas, I was at the Consumer Electronics Show and i it was so fun to see the kinds of innovation that entrepreneurs from around the world are working on There were some really interesting Canadian products that I got to learn about and some really great inventors that I met from all over the world and people who are who are really keen on making creativity Work and business work together and that is so not easy and actually it's actually much more difficult in Canada than it is in some other places in part because of the banks I mean we have one of the other things we did is um the nonprofit that I work with finally got a credit card after 13 years only for a thousand dollars so we still have to use square um which allows you to use your sales as a credit card function. i mean, just just to show you how hard banking is here.
00:01:47
Speaker
Anyway, that was... an interesting dilemma but so the consumer electronics show is at the beginning of the year and then I went to Kenya which I've never been to Africa but now I want to go to all the countries of course seeing giraffes and elephants and chimpanzees and all sorts of wonderful creatures was was fabulous but even more fabulous was meeting the people who are using urban agriculture to get out of slums young people who are actually bringing
00:02:19
Speaker
food for their basically food and income for their entire families. I was part of an urban agriculture delegation because Montreal is actually, they came to Montreal first and saw some of the projects that we're doing. And so then we got to see some of the projects they're doing and it was so
Kenyan Insights and Cultural Parallels
00:02:35
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inspiring. One of the colleges has a an urban farm built right into it so that it, You know, you can see farming as a true industry, and that was really inspiring. And I think Montreal needs to do that more.
00:02:53
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The challenges that farmers there have are very similar to the ones here. The cost of land is enormous. Developers and a lot of inheritance and and corporations are building on all of the farmland. and it's really, really hard to get land to grow on.
00:03:14
Speaker
Now, they're doing some really and innovative projects different kinds of groups can get together in order to farm on public land, which remind me of some of the guerrilla projects that we have here. People can adopt public land in order to grow gardens on it You know, the whole greenhouse project here is a municipal greenhouse where that has been taken over by urban agriculture enthusiasts. And now there's it's full of plants instead of blue boxes. I mean, visiting another country gave me an opportunity to see urban agriculture from a bigger picture point of view. i was able to be more proud of the projects that we're doing here and more inspired to make them even better. Very, very clear that farmers and people who want to eat good food and the health industry need to work together in order to grow food that makes people healthy.
00:04:12
Speaker
And I just think it was super inspiring. thing about Kenya that I didn't realize is that it is the center for the African... basically most of the embassies from around the world who are in Africa are based, have their embassies in Nairobi. The United Nations Center for Africa is there. The Environmental Agency for the United Nations is based there.
00:04:40
Speaker
the mean Nairobi is so spread out and and and huge that you can actually do a driving safari to see giraffes and elephants and um all sorts of animals in the city.
00:04:57
Speaker
It is an a monstrous, beautiful city. And we were so lucky to visit there. And I didn't realize that Kenya is, like Canada, is part of the Commonwealth. And they also were colonized by, well, in this in their case, the the Brits.
00:05:17
Speaker
And in our case, French and Britain. But um they had... ah one of the markets I visited looked very much like the outwater market here in terms of the building structure and the the stones used and the, except of course it had pelicans on it because we were in Africa. It was really, really inspiring. We visited a reconciliation monument in one of the public parks there that was actually an experience because it was a raised platform and you would walk around to learn about the different people who suffered during the colonial era and it was so well done it was a good
00:06:01
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Example of what you can do if you have the right attitude and you want to really educate people about what's happening I think that can I can learn a lot from what Kenya is doing and Kenya of course Is learning a lot from what we're doing and our collaboration. I really hope to will grow in the coming years And then i went to Iceland.
Icelandic Experiences and Family Bonds
00:06:25
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it was a sister's trip. We landed on what would have been my mom's birthday. My mom died.
00:06:33
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14 years ago and my sisters and i have been reconnecting over the last past three years few years with some really wonderful experiences together and this was another one.
00:06:47
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We were at a writers conference and we got to see Jan Arden in person. Oh my god, I love that woman. And we got to meet the former president of Iceland and his Canadian wife and the The country is very much like a piece of Denmark. I mean, it was so European.
00:07:08
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it was really, really different. The world, I mean, it's if it was it's like a small community. There are very few trees. It was super, super expensive.
00:07:19
Speaker
Once you were there, the the flight getting there is not expensive. But once you're there, everything is super expensive. But just the whole In many ways, the way that they live there is the way that Canada developed because it's very small community and everybody knows everybody else. And we got to be sort of immersed in that feeling for a very short time. And i really got inspired by the feeling of community and how much the the writing community especially a world they brought writers from around the world there and they really know how to treat people well
00:08:06
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and like you' like your friends. And I thought that that was, it it reminded me of what small town living can be, what living here in Verdun is. It was just another example of how community is part of what makes humanity work well.
Personal Achievements and Challenges
00:08:25
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When you know your neighbors even if you know them too well, you're able to create a social cohesion that is both supportive and Challenging and I think we all grow more when we're in that situation It was a great experience on the health side in 2025 I did two things. I'm super proud of um I started fasting regularly. I had been intermittent fasting before
00:08:53
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last year in 2024 a little bit, but I really was consistent with it in 2025. I took on alternate daily fasting as a protocol, and that works way better for me.
00:09:05
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um I've managed to reshape my body a little bit. I haven't lost as much weight as I would like, but I feel better and I definitely look better and um I'm starting to feel and and i combined with weightlifting, I feel stronger. i was able to start the market year lifting tents just as well as I had it at the end of last year. So um I'm still, i'm the weightlifting is helping me keep my muscles, which at my age is actually hard. I don't think I'm building muscle yet, but I am getting stronger. so that helps.
00:09:42
Speaker
On the negative side, I didn't do as many. i mean, I did my um August bicycle trip as well, where I raised money for cancer. And thank you to everybody who donated. but And I actually finished the day before. I did not leave it to do 100 kilos.
00:10:00
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hundred more than 100 kilometers the very last day as I did last year. Now, the weather this year helped. I did not ride in the rain as much as I had to do in 2024. was mostly sunny, beautiful days. So i was much more consistent. And so cycling in August worked very, very well. But other than that, I didn't do quite as much exercise as I should have done other than the weightlifting and so I need to get more consistent about exercising and actually at the end of the year I joined two fitness classes at the co-op I joined eccentrics and I joined a step class and so I could get a little bit of cardio in and a little bit of stretching during my week and that actually is helping systematize exercise and I think that's super important and um I will continue doing that going forward.
00:10:55
Speaker
On the negative side, my writing, publishing, podcasting, i mean all of it was on the back burner for 2025. I didn't do nearly, I mean, I didn't do nearly as much as I had hoped. I didn't even, you know, not doing the podcasting actually takes some of those personal goals off my list because podcasting in many ways is a way of tracking the creative the creativity and it also keeps me connected to some of the other creators that I am inspired by. and so I'm Not doing the podcasting led to not doing as much writing, which led to not doing as much publishing. And so it was like a vicious circle that really hurt, I think.
Co-op Progress and Volunteer Impact
00:11:39
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In terms of the weaknesses, the other weaknesses is I was not nearly as intentional um about ah regular oversight on on my own impact, which is funny because it on the co-op side, we were much more intentional this year. We made it really clear what our impacts were last year. We were we didn't communicate as much as we need to. i think that's going to be something that we need to pick up next year. But we were ah intentional about tracking and communicating our impacts. And I think that has improved our website. It improved our relationships.
00:12:16
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with some of our funders. Actually, the fundraising and grants is getting better and we're getting a lot more partners with people who want to help finance our projects. And so that was very rewarding this year.
00:12:31
Speaker
The leadership possibilities are just enormous in that area. we The collaborations that we created this year were especially by the volunteers. We did our group by project where People can buy dried goods, rice, beans, fruits and nuts at at a much a very discounted price and you bring your own container. So it's also a zero waste project. We did it four times in 2025. And thanks to the involvement of the new involvement of several volunteers, the distributions were much more organized. Volunteers felt more respected.
00:13:14
Speaker
They were they really helped us improve the project and they're willing to keep working on it with us. So that project is now going to continue. We weren't sure that we were going to be able to continue it because it's super expensive and our sales were not as high as we need them to be on a regular basis. But we figured out a way, thanks to the involvement of the volunteers, We're going to do three group buy sessions in 2026. And I think that that will hopefully fewer in the year will mean that we'll get, you know, higher levels of sales at each one. And it will also help us be able to communicate better about what's happening to people. And so I hope that that will improve that project in the way that it needs to.
00:14:00
Speaker
The other project that volunteers run completely is the food bank. every Wednesday they feed 78 people. It's 10 volunteers who start at 10 30 in the morning and they finish at five o'clock in the afternoon. And they work so hard on picking up the food from Los Amoreal and distributing it and, you know, with fun and loving and like nobody is left out. It's a real membership. The people who come to pick up their food are, um,
00:14:25
Speaker
have a lot of fun the people who are giving out the food have a lot of fun and it's just a great project the other uh collaborative project that we really depended on volunteers for this year was our collective kitchens this was a brand new project we hired someone who's amazing emily she She started in September and she cooks great food and she cooks almost 200 meals every single week at the local church with the help of volunteers and those emergency moves are put into a free fridge where people can come and pick up meals in between the food bank time whenever they need them and that has been a really inspiring project, super fun.
00:15:06
Speaker
And it it just goes to show how collaboration can be worthwhile for everybody who's involved. The other collaborations that we did, we did a group project with the greenhouse and urban seedling and we did a garden for the food bank. And thanks to the support from Canada Summer Students, we were hired we hired three amazing students who helped us run that project, helped us run the markets and helped us run the the volunteer gardens that are run. There's these volunteer gardens in public and private spaces all over Verdun and those are also run by volunteers. So this was a year for volunteer leadership and it really shows how when a nonprofit and employees and volunteers work together on the same goals, you can really
00:16:01
Speaker
create a
Reflections on Team Dynamics and Project Management
00:16:02
Speaker
big impact. We've had a lot of people this year. It was, it was really inspiring. All those projects were super inspiring. Uh, actually I, the other thing that I think I learned this year that was really important is I learned the things to cut out. I cut out a lot of direct tasks.
00:16:21
Speaker
Uh, we hired a really good delivery driver. We also, hired more great people and then i just let them, lead their own projects and they do their own thing and man it worked out well and actually i'm super proud of myself because i hired actually four people for the summer jobs but one person turned out not to be such a great fit a great guy i would love to hire him for a different job but he wasn't a good fit for the jobs that we had to do this summer and instead of making it work i basically um let him go and that meant that his summer was much
00:16:55
Speaker
easier. um It's really not fun to try and do a job that you're not a good fit for. i think letting him go early was the right decision. and I'm proud of myself for doing it because it's not the kind of thing that I do naturally. But, you know, it's important to make sure that people are treated well. And that means that current employees need to be working with other inspiring employees all together. And when they all work together and they all
00:17:26
Speaker
know the job that they're doing and they and they know what and they it just works out so much better one of the employees is still working for us she's fabulous and so and I'm hoping that the other two will apply for us at one point again in the future when you have the right people and and they all have the same goals and they all want to contribute and they all have the potential it really is more fun. It was a lot of fun working this year. On the weaknesses side, definitely was not intentional enough, did not communicate well enough with people. I didn't track expenses monthly. i didn't track the personal growth monthly. Basically, i didn't document enough ah of our tasks in, you know, unless I had to. So I think I need to create some more systems in terms of documenting things. I learned really learned how well, I mean, it's funny because I am the documenting organizing queen and this year I didn't do any of that. And I think I see why years go better when you do it, because a lot of the things that I would have liked to have done, i could have actually made time
00:18:42
Speaker
for them or I could have just taken them out of the intention list and felt less guilty and I think that all on its own is important so that's a lesson for the future and maybe part of documenting projects and documenting activities it gives you the opportunity to cut the ones out that are just not worth doing and make sure that you make time for the ones that you know are worth doing and that you're learning from so i hope that that
00:19:15
Speaker
I hope that inspires you to figure out what your weaknesses and strengths were this year. i'm I'd love to hear from you. If you have your own way of marking things, you'll notice, as I said, because I didn't track things, I didn't have a lot of personal, uh, figures and facts that, um, I've had in the past for these. and so I'm definitely going to change that for next year. And, uh, I'll tell you about that all in the, uh, plan for next year that I'll that to all be yeah posting next week.
00:19:49
Speaker
Happy New Year, everyone. Thank you for listening to Unapologetically Canadian.