Bridget Jones Already DID The Winter Arc
Here are five lessons we can learn from her before 2025
As any sentimental woman does, I love returning to familiar holiday rom coms year after year, and while The Holiday remains a favorite for me, I also always love returning to Bridget Jones’ Diary, which yes, is a holiday movie because it starts and ends in the holiday season, especially because the core plot point is her starting over her life with goals for the new year in her very fabulous red diary.
Her goals sound a whole helluva lot like what I’ve been seeing (and actively trying to subvert) on Tik Tok.
“To lose 20 pounds. Stop smoking. Drink less. And to find a decent man—not another of the commitment-phobic variety.”
Please tell me this isn’t what the discourse around a “winter arc” has explicitly and implicitly been about the last two months, and tell me why it has been so convincing?
Here are five things we can learn from her before we embark on our own goals for the new year.
For the love of all that is good in this world, please do not make your hopes/goals/resolution for the year based on a negative run in with a potential love interest…even if he is a Mr. Darcy.
Even if he is the man of your dreams, we are not going to try to change ourselves in 2025 because we feel rejected, okay? Movement and exercise IS good for you, and wanting to change or grow a healthy habit is sometimes the spice of life. Do it for something you value, not for something you hate (about yourself or the world).
This is nuanced. As you all know, this has more to do in my world with brain health, well-being, and being able to do activities in the world you like. Wanting to change or grow a positive habit is good! Wanting to do so at all cost and at harm to yourself and your wholeness of well-being is when we have GOT to pause.
Exercise: Great for your brain in winter. Great for your heart health and bones! Not great if it harms you! Having a very chic red diary to record your thoughts, hopes, and progress is lovely. You all already know I feel and live this one. Have a place for you, where you listen to yourself, where you celebrate wins, where you figure out what’s happening.
Valuing your community and friendships in the new year is a good resolution, especially the ones who “love you as you are”.
Sometimes disappointment (in love, at work, and elsewhere) can lead to motivation to change your life. The process of bouncing back, especially when we try to think well of ourselves, can put us somewhere better than if we never had the set back. Bridget changes her job (to mixed results) after disappointment in love with her boss, but it pushes her forward.
I love this movie so much. What are your winter resolutions, or if you love a winter arc, what do you have in yours right now?
xoxo,
Margaret of Bad Art Every Day