February is my nominated month of self-improvement for 2025 … and there is plenty to work on. You might recall I committed to doing a bit MORE of some stuff and a lot LESS of the other. Ramp up the good, dial back the bad habits.
So, how is all that going, Barrie. Let’s be having an honest update.
First, a reminder of the ‘More or Less List’
More or Less
January, it always seems to me, is the very worst month to resolve to ‘do better’. It is the very best month for hunkering down with a good book … it is an excellent month for log fires and hot chocolate … January seems like a fine time for a little less of all the healthy stuff, and a lot more of the comforting bits.
So, don’t keep us waiting, I hear you say?
First things first, accountability is not the same as beating yourself up about the things that haven’t worked out as you planned.
Most of this round up will be positive … because we should celebrate the things that are going as we hoped they might.
But, no question, I am kicking my ass about:
French - don’t get me wrong, French words have been spoken BUT the intention behind my commitments (more French spoken, less pretending I have enough French) was to study … and I have to work out why I have a block on this.
Daytime reading - I have read plenty. Six books finished in my project to read 25 from 1965 to mark my own ‘publication date’. But almost universally, the reading has been in bed, well after the light should have been turned off.
and
Notetaking - I have tailed off after a month of the Commonplace Book Club with
but inspired by a methodology shared by I am committing to kickstart a month of notetaking in March, to see if I can create a new habit.
Okay, so far, so very like my school report cards … “could do better”.
Now For A Big Pat on the Back
There's a party going on right here
A celebration to last throughout the years
So bring your good times and your laughter too
We gon' celebrate your party with you, come on nowCelebration
Let's all celebrate and have a good time
Celebration
We gon' celebrate and have a good time
Kool and the Gang
I don’t know about you but sometimes often all the time I need to go ‘cold turkey’ to banish bad habits, those things I know I need to shake off. The time wasters … the fillers … habits that speak to boredom and ‘Thomson’s can’t-be-bothered-attitude’ (actual words from an actual school report).
There was a pause on Instagram that turned into closing down one of the two accounts I have been keeping afloat, and a significant reduction in posting, which has led to massively reduced scrolling (sorry, friends on Instagram). If that was a partial ‘culling’, I have totally stopped looking at the BBC and The Guardian; a news blackout … honestly, it has given me so much capacity back, and stopped the spin cycle of nonsense washing my brain clean of original thought! Oh, yes, YouTube - gone. Clearing the decks on these time-wasters has given me time for more intentional engagement on Substack, a space that inspires creativity and conversations, human endeavours that add to my life.
I should point out that because all those ‘bad actors’ were on my phone, I have reached a point where my phone is on a window ledge somewhere and my instinct is not to pick it up.
What about those ‘Mores’?
More cycling … yep, you bet … there’s a monthly target of 800 kilometres (500 miles in old money) and by the time you read this I’ll have pedalled all of that and more. With the cycling comes the ‘outdoors’ so I am well on track to spend more time in the fresh air.
Not so good
I should confess that while some of that fresh air time has seen us started to trim fruit trees on our smallholding, we need to accelerate into Spring with gusto. You might have heard the throaty roar of our lawnmower starting first time after a sleepy winter. There’ll be plenty more of that from now on in.
‘Did Do Better’
I am delighted to report an upturn in creativity and writing … our new weekly curation ‘The Encouragement Files’ is not-so-new anymore, seven editions in and thriving.
And, hold the front page, I have re-engaged with ‘Against the Tide’, the dystopian tale I had tucked away in a desk drawer. Over 3000 words of a rewrite have been tapped out … and I even shared a few of them (surreptitiously) in a flash fiction about a writer having trouble getting his story written.
That’s it … apart from wine - less but better ✅
More positives and fewer negatives.
An encouragement to me to keep up the good work!
How are you doing with your new year intentions?
Whoa! Wait a minute. Did I see the word wine-less?? You kidding? I cold-turkeyed on Youtube ( whew... that feels so much better ) and it was not so hard to quit as I thought it would be. But wineless? Uh.. No.
Hand waving, Barrie. Hand waving is key, I find. Somehow it unlocks all those French words you'd no idea you knew.