Well, what do you know? It's a Christmas miracle! After an unexpected and far too lengthy break, I'm back in your inbox with an important public service announcement about your wins this year.
I know, I know! Who even is she? How does she have the nerve to come traipsing back into my inbox after abandoning me for the last few months?
I'm sorry! I'm sorry for disappearing off the face of the earth and I'm sorry that it's taken me so long to claw my way back. The truth is, I simply could not keep all my plates spinning. I travelled to Vegas and LA back in October, which was an absolute dream! But the week after I returned, still jetlagged and shaking glitter out of my clothes, I started a new job. The next week, I made a start on my Bags of Joy initiative aka collecting donations to make up Christmas gift bags for Women's Aid. My website went offline. I got the lurgy. And then Christmas smacked me in the face.
A really important lesson I've learned over the years is that life is like plate-spinning. Sometimes all your plates are up and spinning at the same time and you feel like an absolute boss!
Look at me and my plates. Look how they spin! How clever am I?!
Other times, it gets to be too much. One person can only manage so many plates, after all. And when that happens, you have two options:
Put a couple of plates back in their box for a while so you can focus on the others.
Frantically try to keep all the plates up at once only to feel frustrated, exhausted, and broken-hearted when every single one of them inevitably comes crashing down.
So my email newsletter took a back seat for a couple of months as I adjusted to my new work schedule and prioritised some other projects. And in case no one's reminded you lately, that ok to do. A balanced life isn't one in which you give the same amount of time and energy to every area of your life every single day. True balance is about learning to pick things up and put them down as you need to.
And I think this message is really pertinent at this time of year. On top of all our normal adult responsibilities (work, friends, chores, trying to keep ourselves alive and healthy etc), we have a whole new set of things to squeeze into our calendars. From Christmas shopping to work parties, travelling to visit loved ones to cooking fancy festive meals, we can find ourselves trying to spin more plates than any one human physically can!
So don't be afraid to put some plates back in the box for a while, Reader.
✨What Did You Even DO in 2024?
There's a trend going around on TikTok where people write something along the lines of, "I felt like I hadn't really achieved anything this year," and then we cut to the next slide, which has a long list of all of their accomplishments from 2024.
💕I love it!💕
I love it because at this time of year (and, let's be honest, plenty of other times throughout the year too), I find myself questioning whether I've done enough. Did I make enough progress towards my goals? Have I become better? Did I even do anything interesting at all?!
This, it would seem, is a universal experience. No matter who you are or what you're doing, you'll always think you could have done more. You'll see the girl on TikTok who just ran her first marathon and feel a stab of shame because you never got into running like you said you would this year. You catch up with a friend who just returned from a 5-star holiday and resent that you didn't make it out of the country this year.
What if, instead of focussing on what everyone else is doing, we celebrated the things we've done? And trust me - there are plenty of things you've done this year!
✍🏻So here's a little journalling exercise I think will be a fun way to reflect back on 2024 and appreciate the things you've done and achieved:
What's something new I tried this year or something I returned to after not doing for a while?
What's something I did that impacted someone else in a positive way this year?
What am I most grateful for this year?
What surprised me about 2024 in a good way?
What's something I accomplished this year that I feel proud of?
And remember, don't compare your life to anyone else's. Those end-of-year wrap-ups are going to start popping up on social media soon and you'll get a front-row seat to some very curated highlight reels of other people's lives. No one's life looks that exciting every day...not even Beyonce's.
✨No Gate-Keeping Here!
It's officially been forever since we had our last catch-up so I have a whole bunch of new favourites to share. These are the ones I think you really need to know about.
Moroccanoil Mending Infusion - I used this while I was staying with my friend, Lindsay, in LA and it blew me away. As soon as I got home, I ordered my own. It's the perfect, lightweight frizz-buster!
A Man Called Otto - I watched this last month on Netflix and it was truly a rollercoaster of emotions. I laughed, I cried...I cried more. It's such a well-done film!
Neutopic Productivity Drinks - It's no secret that I'm a coffee girl. But these drinks have become a staple for me when I need to buckle down for long periods of focussed work. They give me the energy boost without the jitters and the orange flavour is delicious!
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