NEW YEAR NEW YOU
Rinse and repeat...
Anyone who’s ever worked on a women’s or lifestyle title will have written these words at least once in their career. I edited a glossy monthly for almost a decade and every January we would do a New Year New You supplement, mostly to support advertisers, full of fitness kit, beauty treatments and random shit like new curtains (new year, new colourway).
Not one of mine - but the new year new you gets the idea
Of course, January is the worst time to attempt to make huge changes – the pressure, the dark days, the post-festivities despair… and so I don’t indulge. I also don’t make resolutions, but I am intending to introduce some life tweaks over the coming months:
I’m going to:
Meditate more. This isn’t specific to January. I’ve been meditating on and off for years but it’s the first thing to go when life gets busy/hectic/stressful, which is silly as this is when it’s most beneficial. I tell myself ‘must meditate more’ at various points during the year but actually already made headway through Nov/Dec and am back into a regular morning sit, so I intend to carry on building on this.
Have a ‘mental health’ walk every lunchtime. I recently worked with someone from Sweden who said that she took a non-negotiable head-clearing walk every lunchtime. ‘I need to get out and see the sky,’ she sensibly said.
Spend less time on Twitter/X. It’s like being in a terrible relationship: it makes me feel awful but I keep going back for more.
Floss regularly. Like meditating this is something I have a hit-and-miss relationship with, even though I’ve spent a fortune on my teeth over the years. Over the holidays I read a quote from a dentist: ‘You don’t have to floss all your teeth – only the ones you want to keep.’
Stop applying for jobs that I won’t even get an interview for.
Stop having ‘informal’ chats/meetings with people about potential work during which I suggest what they could/should/might want to do, after which they don’t need to employ me as they’ve already got their content/social media plan.
Drink less gin.
Don’t quote me.
What are your non-resolution plans for this year?
Happy 2025.
Those all sound pretty sensible, Steven.
I usually don't realise what my new year's resolutions should have been until the end of the year. In 2024 things that made a positive difference were: 1/ writing (and reading) on Substack; 2/ returning to the dentist for the first time since the pandemic (amazingly, no damage in the interim, but it felt good to make it routine again, and yes, I started flossing regularly); 3/ getting my hair professionally cut for the first time since the pandemic.
I feel I've come out of a long hibernation in 2024! Who knows what 2025 will bring?
Stop applying for jobs that I won't even get an acknowledgement for.