What better way to start this off properly than with a list of New Years’ Resolutions… 28 days into January. Great job, Martin. You’re really nailing this being a better you thing that this is meant to be all about. But we’re gonna breeze right through that.
Anyway, I’d written a big, long, emotional, messy list of resolutions to myself with why this one means so much to me and bullshitty reason why this is going to make my life so much better and to be honest I haven’t been able to re-train my attention span quite enough just yet to make a whole lot of sense out of that, so I’m just gonna keep it real and straightforward with a quick bullet list of my Rules/Resolutions for 2020, and I’ll dive deeper into some of them when I’ve figured out what my dumb brain is trying to say. PEACE.
- Look after yourself — Pull a big restore to factory settings on yourself and try and get yourself energised with some self-care. We’re talking some big-time energy into not drinking alcohol (dry January, hello), limiting caffeine, eating healthier, exercising, sleeping well, and spending some time on things that just relax you, rather than just working constantly.
- Put yourself first — You pretty much do anything people ask you to do because it’s nice to be useful and there when people need something. Now is the time to be selfish when you need to be. Work on your own projects first, make sure you get everything out of life you need, then extend this to others when you’re comfortable with it and can offer the best version of yourself, rather than a deflated you.
- Make more things — You have a million ideas, and they all sit in your dumb little brain. Start to make things consistently, and often. Make something with your name on it, whether it’s a piece of writing, a design, a photo, some music, or anything else, and do this as close to daily as possible.
- Share more — Even when you do make things, you don’t show them off and make the most of telling people what you’re up to. Post daily on your social channels, just to get comfortable with the idea of keeping people up to date and showing off the things you make without feeling bad about it. If you’re making things, it’s worth sharing, whether people like it or not. You won’t know unless you do, and either way…
- Stop being afraid of people disliking you. — If people don’t like something you’ve done, or said, or made: Good. They can stay mad about it. It’s none of your business what other people think about you, and to be honest, most people have shitty opinions anyway, so what theirs is of you shouldn’t phase you.
- Take more photos — Stop thinking people will think you’re a weirdo if you bring your camera to things and take photos of people. People think you’re a weirdo anyway, and this way you’ll have photographic evidence of them thinking about how much of a weirdo you are. Just fuckin’ take photos of stuff so you have cool shit to look back on one day. It also gives you a mad amount of Instagram #content. Fuckin’ A.
- Do things without thinking — Be spontaneous, even if it’s not the best choice sometimes. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes, of there being a better option, or of looking stupid (refer back to point 5; people will forget about it anyway). Taking a bunch of chances and 80% of them fucking up is still better than taking no chances, because the winning 20% takes you forward.
- Stop being passive — Let yourself lead situations. Lead the conversation; Choose that bar for drinks; Ask that friend to hang out (and know where you want to go!); Bring up that tough topic at work; Start that new project you want to work on.
Okay, I didn’t plan this out very well, that’s all I got for the list right now. I’ll update at a later date, cuz I wanted to get to 12 (12 rules for 12 months of the year, yada yada more bullshitty stuff), but for now, this will do.