I finally know what day it is
Oh, hi friends!
Alright, let’s get something straight: Today is the first real day of 2020.
I know I might seem a few days late, but I hope this little lie makes you feel better, because it’s certainly what my brain and body needs to hear.
My brain and body were in deep hibernation mode since 12/20 (when I sent the last Brass Ring!) and instead twitched toward celebrating the holidays with my family in California, going on long bike rides in chilly New York, making multiple trips to Goodwill to rid myself of clothes/things that I couldn’t bear to start another year staring at in my apartment, reading actual books, getting a little sick and then getting better, and, generally, not reaching for any brass rings of any size, shape, or form.
Even though sometimes I was thinking: MAKE SOMETHING! CREATE SOMETHING! PLOT YOUR ENTIRE YEAR MONTH BY MONTH! I just…didn’t?
And that’s necessary. That’s OK. Maybe that’s even good?
I hope you had some uncoupling from your own obligations or projects, too, because today, Monday, is the first real day of 2020.
So what do you want to do now?
It’s OK if you don’t have resolutions. I don’t! You might want to start a monthly challenge (Dry January?) or set an intention rather than a resolution for the year. Or maybe you had a crappy 2019 and want to take 2020 as it comes. All fine options.
But before you’re dropkicked back into your daily routine, think about these odd in-between weeks and what you missed most about your “normal” life. What do you want more of?
Move toward that today, whatever it may be — and your year will be off to a very good start.
(PS — It's nice to be back!)
Photo by Craig Whitehead on Unsplash
“As you go into the New Year, give yourself the freedom of focusing on your true priorities by declaring bankruptcy on those that do not fit your lifestyle, your goals, or your true self.”
AMEN, JULIE BESTRY. After reading her tweet about declaring project bankruptcy, I knew I had to talk to professional organizer Julie Bestry.
She gave me detailed advice that provided a lot of clarity about why lingering projects and obligations can weigh us down…even when we’re not actively working on them.
“You can’t weigh the true importance of a new opportunity because you’re too busy measuring it against the imagined success of the swamp projects.”
^^ That's from my new piece for Forge (it’s Medium’s site about personal development!) about why now is the right time to declare bankruptcy on your half-dead ideas.
If you find it useful, I’d love to know which projects you’re about to kill.
Speaking of not creating resolutions, I actually did the reverse this year and made some reverse resolutions. My advice was the “Tip of the Week” in the New York Times Smarter Living section a couple of years ago (just kidding, it was before Christmas but honestly, wasn’t that at least a decade ago?).
To create your own reverse resolutions, search last year’s calendar for events you couldn’t have anticipated or things that changed unexpectedly. Maybe you took up a new hobby (cycling!) or finally went to a dermatologist or completely changed industries. As I wrote, “These can all be resolutions. Unplanned, unwritten and sometimes, at the end of a year, still unfolding. But take a moment to look at what you accomplished. Maybe 2020 won’t feel like the start of a new decade you must bend to your will. Maybe it can simply be the beginning of resolutions and possibilities you can’t even imagine."
PS — If you’re new here, hi! I’m Kara Cutruzzula — I’m a writer in New York and I send this newsletter every weekday around 7:30 am ET.
Brass Ring Daily exists to encourage you with your creative, personal, and professional projects, and anything else that’s important to you right now.
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Thanks, as always, for reading.
Love, Kara