Personal Growth - Reflections on 2025 and Looking Ahead to 2026

"2 Peter 3:18 ESV: But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen."

I chose the above scripture as I reflect on my personal growth in 2025 and look ahead to 2026.

In March 2025, Jodi celebrated an impressive milestone—30 years of dedicated service with The Ohio State University. Since 2009, she has been a valued member of the Shared Infrastructure group at OH-TECH, following years of service in a variety of roles supporting other consortia members. Her long-standing commitment reflects both her adaptability and her dedication to the university community.  You can read more about the employment commitment here.

Outside of work, 2025 has been a year of personal challenge and new experiences for Jodi. In May, she competed in her first-ever powerlifting meet, sponsored by XYL – Xpand Your Limits. Joined by a dozen women from Steadfast, the event was both demanding and inspiring. While no awards were earned, the experience itself was deeply rewarding and empowering. Encouraged by that first competition, Jodi returned to the platform in October for her second XYL meet—this time as the sole representative from Steadfast. Although she didn’t feel as strong as she had in May, she showed determination and resilience, giving her best effort and finishing proud of what she accomplished.  The May and October meets are recapped in this blog post: May and October on YouTube.

For the near future, Jodi has decided to step back from competition to focus on other interests, particularly kayaking—a new activity she discovered and quickly grew to love this year. She and her husband, Jon, have enjoyed paddling together at Prairie Oaks Metro Park and Deer Creek State Park, including memorable outings with their son Jon and daughter-in-law Rylee. One highlight was completing a challenging 10-mile trip on Big Darby Creek with one of Jon’s friends. Alongside kayaking, Jodi is also working on building her endurance so she can more easily keep pace with Jon on their hikes. Aside from hikes, jogging up three flights of parking garage stairs recently reminded her about improving her aerobic capacity.  You can read about one of her kayaking adventures in this blog post from July 2025.

In addition to her professional achievements and personal pursuits, Jodi remains actively involved in service to others. She continues her commitment to Alcoholics Anonymous, serving as treasurer for the Lewis Center Women’s Freedom Group—a role that reflects her dedication to recovery, accountability, and community support. Read about Jodi's recovery journey here.  

Christmas is around the corner and the gym is operating on a reduced schedule so that coaches can
spend time with their friends and family during the holidays. There will be a transition from a strength-powerlifting focus to Crossfit and aerobic capacity focus.  Some appointments in 2026 were already scheduled around late 2025 training schedule so it will be necessary to pivot during those weeks.  

If you are looking for guidance for setting goals and planning for personal growth, please feel free to read these previous blog posts.

How to Set Goals that Help You Move Ahead

New Year New Goals (written for 2025)

Self-Sabotage; Nothing Changes if You don't Change

Resources:

2 Peter 3:18 ESV - Scripture related to personal growth   

Commitment - Honoring Years of Employment Service

Commitment is a dedicated promise or firm decision to remain loyal, faithful, or devoted to a person, purpose, or principle—especially when it requires sacrifice, consistency, or perseverance.

It’s choosing to stay the course even when feelings fade, circumstances shift, or challenges appear. Commitment is the daily act of showing up with intention.

Earlier this week, I attended my first Service Recognition Luncheon for The Ohio State University.  This event recognizes staff members with "25 years plus" years of service.  I had 25 years back in 2020 which was the COVID pandemic so I received my service pin in the postal mail.

There were over 750 employees eligible for recognition and 330 were in attendance at the luncheon.  I don't normally take lunch breaks.  The luncheon itself was one and a half hours and when you add in travel time, I was away from work for over two and a half hours. Since this was an OSU event, I was not required to take any leave, however, I worked very hard to make sure I had plans in place for my work to be covered.  I don't like to speak ill of anyone but some of my coworkers need a cattle prod and I'm the cattle prod so I had to be clear that I was going to be away and not "minding the store."  

Psalm 37:5

“Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this.”

Thankfully, the time away from work was uneventful.  The one thing that did crop up was handled without my prodding. While planning for the time away was stressful, it was a honor to be among other employees to celebrate our years of commitment to The Ohio State University.  Each one of us received a recognition pin and a handshake from OSU President Ted Carter. 

Part of me has to chuckle when I think about how stressed I was to be away from work.  Yes, my work is important and our web application firewall can block users and temporarily prevent them from completing their task(s). However, if staff from the OSU Police department as well as doctors, nurses, and other staff members from the OSU Wexner Medical Center can take time away from their jobs which are deal with "life and death" situations, I deserved the opportunity to celebrate my 30 years.

My next opportunity to celebrate, God willing, will be in 2030 with 35 years of service.  That's a ways off so let's take it one day at a time.

Resources:

Pictures:  My personal photos of the program handed out plus my 30 year pin.

ChatGPT - definition and scripture for commitment plus SEO optimization.

Reading Update - Attempting to Slow Down this Holiday Season

I recently completed the annual Goodreads 2025 reading challenge.  I looked back at my previous years and I have slowly decreased the number of books I read each year.  Goals are great; you can read about goal setting in several posts here on the blog.  However, when you don't enjoy what you're doing because you're just trying to reach a goal, that is a good sign you need to reset.  Sure, I read over 100 books in 2023 but I was reading to check off books.  I've read 70 books in 2025 and I can say that I've taken time to enjoy the books that I've read.

I recently read two books purely for enjoyment made extra enjoyable by the fact that they were available as part of my Amazon Prime membership - no extra cost!

The Christmas Lodge was a cozy winter "feel good" romance Christmas story.  I don't want to spoil it for anyone so I'll say just read it especially if you're an Amazon Prime member and can get it "free."

A Very Merry Murder is a murder mystery with a lot of plot twists.  A reality TV show moves into a farm to do a television series on farm life in a small village. The widowed farm owner isn't fond of the TV crew being on the property but reminds herself of the extra funds the inconvenience will provide especially with her sister getting married on the farm at Christmas time.  Farm chores soon started to include murder investigations. Very interesting read!

I also read The Castaway and I cannot recall if I bought it or if it came with Prime as a "First Read."  If you haven't noticed, I don't pass up the chance to get "free" books.  A widowed first lady moves from the hustle & bustle of DC to a remote island to begin a new life as a bookstore owner.  A life in politics means little privacy and lots of drama for the former first lady and her daughters after the death of the president. Imagine you're mourning the loss of a loved one and you find out that person was unfaithful and supporting another his lover & their child in another country.  If you live in a cold, snowy part of the country, reading this book also gives you a "vacation" to a warmer climate as you read.

Finally, a book that I bought!  I'm in the process of reading We're in the Mountains, Not Over the Hill which is a book about "seasoned" female backpackers and their journeys around the globe.  There are some great stories along with tips that these women share so you don't have to learn the hard way if you embark on a backpacking journey.  Backpacking is something that peaks my interest especially since my husband is preparing for a backpacking trip in 2026.  I'm more inclined to do day hikes over backpacking unless something changes.

I've enjoyed reading these books and sharing my insights with you while not giving any spoilers.  I hope you check out one of the books in this post.  If you do, leave a comment to let me know!

While I do enjoy reading for pleasure, I start every morning with scripture and pray using the YouVersion Bible app.  This app makes learning and studying scripture less daunting than flipping through pages of the Bible trying to figure it out on your own. 

Resources:

YouVersion Bible App

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