RESOLVED

Last year I skipped New Year. I wasn’t feeling myself and I really wasn’t in the headspace for goals or to challenge myself when my day to day already felt like a struggle.

This year I’m in a much better place and so I spent a good amount of time thinking about what I wanted to achieve in 2024 and I came the conclusion that I am not someone who plans for things. If I want to do something, I do it. I don’t sit around thinking about the things I wish I could do, I do the things. A lot of the things don’t work out and they fizzle but my point is, if I really wanted to do something, I’d have started by now.

A great example is Smoke + Matches. Last year I started a candle businesses with my friend, Karen. That was not on any vision board or bucket list, we knew we wanted to do something and once we locked in to what it was, we did it. It was months in the making, there was planning involved but the starting of the thing is immediate if I want something to happen.

Another thing I’m great at is committing to a new routine. 10,000 steps? Smashed it! 5am wake ups? Couldn’t get enough.. but if I say I’m doing something EVERY DAY and I fail, then it’s over.

So, armed with this new information, what am I resolving for my New Year?

SMALL CHANGES

I have chronic neck pain that impacts my mood more than I like to acknowledge, I don’t enjoy organised exercise and given that almost all of my work is on the computer or leaning over table pouring wax.. my posture isn’t great. I want to strengthen my back and shoulders to help to alleviate that pain but committing to a daily workout is setting myself up to give up altogether the moment I skip a day.

Instead I’ve challenged myself to do daily stretches and 8,000 steps (especially achievable since I have a walking pad in the living room) as my only exercise. Ideally I’d like to be weight training by the end of the year but going straight in with that as goal would burn me out FAST.

I’ve also added in the flexibility to skip it - whenever I want! I’m keeping track of a few things in my trusty filofax and rather than beating myself up for missing a day I’m looking at every day I tick off as a day I did something in January that I didn’t do in December. Come February I will try to improve on January - and so on.

If I want to be a better version of myself this time next year, consistency is key and even if I only manage 50%, it’s still 100% better than I would have been without it.

DAILY DRESSING

This is so minor and yet I know lots of you will understand it. I have been working from home full time since 2020. I am at the point now where I barely leave the house and have become all too comfortable with my daily troll-like appearance. I’m not getting down on myself, if anything I have too much self esteem.. I feel way too confident at a zero effort level. I have decided that doing my hair (in some small way) and putting on proper clothes, whether I’m leaving the house or not, is a non-negotiable for 2024.

My office is bringing us in once a week now so my routine is going to change. I know that seems like nothing but remember, I NEVER LEAVE THE HOUSE. I’m using that as motivation to pull myself together, get more comfortable in my outside world clothes again and I’m documenting the journey to finding my new style on the various social platforms. Hopefully it serves as inspiration for those on a similar track who are looking for normal people wearing clothes they’ve had forever or have tracked down on vinted - I’m obsessed - but if not, I’m enjoying doing it.

There are other personal changes, I’m going to try and track my moods and journal a little more but for the most part it’s about self discovery. We’ve had a few weird years and I’m also coming out of this with much older kids, returning to the office, it feels like a new phase of life. I’m happy to be blogging again too, it’s reintroduced me to writing as a cathartic medium and I have loved hearing from those of you who are bothering to read the posts. Maybe blogging isn’t dead after all!

I wont ask what your resolutions are because you don’t have to tell me and you don’t have to make them but if you have, I hope you’re remembering to give yourself grace. Rome wasn’t built in a day. start again tomorrow..