7 ideas for 2025 resolutions that are in no way about improving yourself

Inspired by my 7 year old niece's list

1. Find the best cup of hot cocoa in town, sometime between now and March. Enjoy the warmth of the cup in your hands, and the linoleum table under your elbows. Taste the brief joy of contrast of a cold winter’s day and a warm cup of something made for you by someone else.

2. Pick a place that is drivable from where you live (or train-able, or bus-able), and plan a whole day there, maybe a weekend if you’re feeling it. Go somewhere niche with something as the main event that is perhaps laughably boring. Notice how it isn’t set in stone what is worthwhile to be excited about.

3. Vow to get a haircut that pushes your usual style this year. Vow to embrace it even if the emotion embraced with it is loathing.

4. Find a new vegetable you love by trying two new ones each week, cooked differently, at the summer’s farmers’ market.

5. Re-read the book that first taught you reading was transporting as a child. See if you can understand and listen in to the first magic again.

6. Keep a common place book or junk journal or a normal scrapbook. Return to it once a month for an hour, and let yourself create whatever on the page to reflect on the past month. Buy some weird stickers at the craft store or at the used section of the charity shop. Do something creative for its own sake.

7. Make a very fancy cake for a very ordinary Saturday night hangout with friends. Take pictures of it, pour wine. Explore more deeply what the term celebrating means.

xoxo,

Margaret