TikTok made me do it!
What's right is right
What's wrong is wrong
I'm gonna sing my song
All day long
I'm searchin'!
- from Searching x Roy Ayers
Before 2023 came to an end, I did an exercise I saw many participating in on TikTok where you simply reflect on what’s in and what’s out for the year to come. Simple enough, I thought. But, as I’m sure you can imagine, I approached this as thoughtfully as I could. I would like to share them with you if you would like to hear.
In the last week of 2023, I listened to The 12 Week Year by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington. I am currently on week 1 of my first ever 12-week year and I’m quite confident this is a practice that I would like to continue throughout the rest of the year. It’s more an approach to time management and goal setting than anything, but so far so good. It’s in.
This year, I’m being really intentional about investing in my social wellness. I want to prioritize maintaining existing relationships with people I already know and love. I also want to challenge myself to expand my community and build healthy connections with others. That looks like accepting and extending invitations, supporting others’ events and endeavors by literally showing up, picking up the phone, and dating people I actually like, respect, and genuinely want to be in a relationship with.
Meaningful community and a full social wellness cup are absolutely in.
It dawned upon me that there’s no reason I need to be buying fish that swam in oceans and rivers in other states or even other continents when the Chattahoochee is right there. Cost is obviously a factor, but whenever I’m financially able to, I want to exclusively buy and consume fruits, vegetables, meat, and fish that come from Georgia soil and waterways.
I made good headway last year with sourcing my vegetables, grits, tea, and honey from Atlanta Harvest, but I have a ways to go. If you have recommendations, please let me know!
Last year I broke up with Delta. Delta broke up with me, to be honest. And, after taking the advice of a generous and patient friend, I made my very first travel point redemption with a non-Delta airline at the end of last year.
Though there ain’t nothing like flying a Delta jet, flying with points regardless of the airline is absolutely in this year.
I don’t really know what was happening the last 4-6 months of last year, but my traditionally tight sleep schedule went up in flames. I was staying up until the early hours of the morning and sleeping in until 11 and 12 pm. It was wrecking my days and, though I don’t exist to work, my productivity took a massive hit. This year? We have a bedtime. A non-negotiable wake-up time. A morning routine. Allat. I ain’t got time to be starting my day so late, there’s far too much to do (and my friends be up at 7 am lighting up the group chat, so I don’t want to miss anything).
Early nights and early mornings? In.
There's not much explanation needed for this one. It's a bad habit and a nasty time consumer. I'm kicking off January with a secular media fast (social media included) and I'm really hoping that this can start me on a journey to simply spending less time scrolling for far longer than I really should be. It's gotta go. It's out.
It's a common issue in the reading community of either being able to finish a book in 48 hours flat or spending three months to claw your way through to the final page. I don't want to place too much pressure on myself, but I really dislike it when I borrow a really interesting, thought-provoking, and seemingly beneficial book from the library just to read 75% of it and then just let it sit on my bedside table for four weeks. It's really frustrating and when it's due back to the library, I feel like a punk returning a book I could've easily finished.
I'm still workshopping some ideas on how to finish the books I borrow, but all I know is that half-reading books is out.
There's a ton of information on it in almost every crevice of the internet, but when it comes to the year that I want to have, a secure attachment style is going to be such an asset for me. In order for that to happen, I have to let go of the stress, fear, anxiety, and avoidance that sometimes prevails in my interpersonal relationships.
I want to thrive in my social wellness bag this year, so anything but safe and secure approaches to relationships is out!
The only thing standing between me and the life I want to live/the experience I want to have is the unfortunate tendency I have to doubt myself or question whether I'm good enough for something/someone. It doesn't pop up often, certainly a small fraction of what it used to, but baby when it pops up, it can get ugly real quick.
So those small, infrequent occasions when I happen to forget who I am and that I am very much that girl are out and can never ever come back in.
My mentor told me to keep the goal simple right when I was about to throw in the towel in my pursuit of the career I wanted. I was complicating it, adding complexity to my search and grief to my journey. But when I simplified it, focusing on the very next step and nothing else, the burden was lifted and the task became much more manageable. I'm applying that to all my goals for this year. Unnecessary complexity is out to make room for more simplicity and focus.
And there you have it, a few of my ins and outs for the year. I pray that you have done the reflection you feel is helpful for this new beginning we've all been graced with. I'm quite excited to see what this year may hold!
