- Reading: or actually, re-reading, Neil Gaiman’s past New Year’s Day posts. He is one of my favorite authors; everything I’ve read by him has utterly captivated me. And every few years, he writes the loveliest and most thought-provoking New Year’s Day wishes. One of my favorites, from 2011, is at the end of this post.
- Watching: The Queen’s Gambit. So good. Soooo good. I loved every minute of it: the casting, the acting, the costume, the sets, the plot, the pacing. I don’t want to give anything away if you haven’t watched it (So go watch it! Now!) but omg that phone call at the end… I was CHEERING. P.S.: I need to learn to play chess, y’all.
- Learning: a new Zumba warm-up for my virtual and live classes. Despite the doctor’s orders to take it easy, I plan to teach just the one live class while I’m healing. Don’t judge me; it’s just dancing, people. Just dancing.
- Trying: to set some mini-goals. Not resolutions! I wrote an entire article on why I don’t make resolutions and what I do instead. But mini-goals? Yeah, I’m pretty sure I can rock some mini-goals. So to start, for January, I’m going to try to stick to a daily yoga practice. Even if it’s just 5 minutes a day. During quarantine, I did yoga almost every day and my body felt amazing. Time to get back to it!
- Loving: that “fresh start” feeling. I know, I know, everyone else says it, too: “New Year, New Me!” But I actually mean it. The new year is an empty book, and I get to fill each of its 365 pages in my very own words. That is a powerful feeling, my friends!
Neil Gaiman’s 2011 New Year’s Day wish:
And for this year, my wish for each of us is small and very simple.
And it’s this.
I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.
Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something.
So that’s my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry that it isn’t good enough, or it isn’t perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.
Whatever it is you’re scared of doing, Do it.
Make your mistakes, next year and forever.
