New Years is wrought with great plans. Plans to eat different. Act different. Save different. Be different. We want to believe that at the precipice of a new year we can become new versions of ourselves. We hope to change! Really! We do. But, then a few weeks in, we’re back. In the same routines. Same old habits. Same bodies and minds and frustrations. Stuck in webs of obligations and dependents and bodies and minds and entire systems that are sometimes out of our control.
So, this year, what if we let ourselves off the hook for becoming someone different? For believing that our best selves are before us, if we just try XYZ. Yes, we are capable of change. But let’s take ourselves off the hook for being GOOD, BETTER, BEST. Perhaps today, it is enough to love and dream and hope and nap and search for beauty and truth and try again tomorrow.
Here is a little podcast playlist to binge as you look ahead toward this new year with different kinds of plans (or listen on Spotify!):
Why the pressure to be positive steals our ability to tell the truth with Susan David:
How ordinary acts of love might be the hope we’re looking for with Bishop Michael Curry:
How to lean into uncertainty with courage and curiosity with Adam Grant:
On finding joy in the midst of a mental health struggle with Jenny Lawson:
On simple encouragement reflects the exact truth we need to hear with Morgan Harper Nichols:
