How I’m Thinking About New Year Resolutions Differently This Year

What's changed?

Hi there,

Happy New Year! So, last year didn’t end as intended with Rowan getting sick and then this year didn’t start as intended with… you guessed it, Rowan (and me) getting sick. Because of that I still don’t feel like I’ve got my feet fully planted in 2024 yet but hopefully we’ll get there and to help I wanted to share with you some of my New Year Resolutions but also how I’m thinking about them differently this year.

I’m going to be honest and admit something, last year I had to force some resolutions out because I had a sponsored video I needed to make. They weren’t really resolutions, I was just continuing a lot of things from 2022 that were already working for me and I wanted to maintain. There was no space in my brain to think of new resolutions, there was no room for new desires, wishes, changes, my brain was full with my present and what I had, and I was happy with it.

This year is different, and it’s not because I’m unhappy. I am very happy! Maybe more so than I was at the beginning of last year. It’s different because I have brain space. I have removed from my life so much of the stuff that was filling my mental capacity and it has freed me. I wasn’t even planning on making resolutions this year but my brain was whirring and churning, thinking “ooh I want to do this!”, “ooh this will be fun!” - there was enough room to open myself up to wanting things and trying things. And oh my god, let me tell you, it feels so good.

Now, I have a tendency to go a bit overboard but the last few years have also hardened me and given me practice in being realistic with what I can achieve in a given time. So whilst I have a big ol’ list of resolutions filling my head, I get to sit down and decide what I want to prioritise, because I can’t do everything. Of course, it sounds obvious, but we often forget this and then it makes us feel like failures when we don’t tick off every last thing on our lists.

So I want to share with you my resolutions, to satisfy your nosiness (no judgement here) and also to share and demonstrate my excitement at having BRAIN SPACE! 🤯 so here they are:

• therapy

• no phone around Rowan

• quit “Cooking Madness” mobile game (did this! deleted it at midnight on new years!)

• cook things from my new cookbook (christmas present from my sister)

• make/eat more veggie meals

• go to bed earlier and read in bed

• do the Artist’s Way (have started this and we have a thread going in The Common Room discord server for folks who want to join in and chat about their progress/support each other)

• more pilates

• get better at writing (take a class?)

I am under no illusion that I will do all of these to the extent that my “new year, new me”-energy is giving right now but I want to at least try/start them all and see what new habits and experiences form as the year progresses.

Are you making any resolutions for 2024? Let me know in the comments!

💌 When do you read newsletters? I’m thinking of moving the publish date of the newsletter. Currently it comes out on the 1st of every month (obviously not this month lol) but that means it’s a different day of the week every month (except February and March on a non-leap year of course). Is there a day of the week you read newsletters? I know for me I often snooze all the newsletters I receive during the week and save them for the weekend or an evening when I know I’ll have time to read them. I’m curious about your newsletter reading habits!

📺 Fisk on Netflix - my parents introduced this sitcom to Dan and I over Christmas and we just binged our way through the 2 seasons of it and absolutely loved it! It’s an Australian show set in Melbourne, about a 47 year old recently divorced lawyer, who gets a new job at a firm that does wills and all the legal stuff around inheritance and death. It is so sharp, funny, witty, sarcastic - whilst dealing with an obviously very serious and emotional theme as the backdrop. The characters and the actors are just so great - the main character, Helen Tudor-Fisk, is played by the writer/creator - Kitty Flanagan - and she is spectacular and I am obsessed with her face and her hair. Dan and I also both read the character Helen as autistic, and it feels like it’s portrayed in a very positive way. There’s one episode in the second season where Helen is confused about casual chit chat and small talk in the office and it is so fucking funny, especially the way it pokes fun at and questions the norms that neurotypical people just assume. And a quick google of “Helen Tudor-Fisk”, the first autofill is then “autistic” so we can’t be the only ones who are making this connection. Would recommend!

📽️ First video back after my big quit! - new upload day and time is Wednesdays at 12pm GMT, mark your cals! I’m experimenting with premieres on YouTube now the upload time is a time when I can actually be present and responding to you guys in the live chat.

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If you'd like to support my work, get monthly recommendations lists of articles, videos and podcasts I've consumed, and a monthly round up of my mini-reviews of any books, films, tv shows I’ve read/seen then check out The Common Room over on Patreon!

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Thanks for reading, hope you're well!

All the best,

Hannah xxx