WIP — Woman In Progress
The young adult woman’s guide to picking herself up.
Well, well, well, welcome 2022.
If you’re anything like me, you’ve spent new year’s eve at home and you’ve spent the first few days of the new year making mulled wine and mulling over every decision you’ve made in 2021. You’ve probably also given some serious thought to all the decisions you’re gonna make in 2022. You’re not alone my friend.
Yes, yes — every year we tell ourselves the same tired old tagline “New year, new me”, the most favourite phrase of every woman’s magazine and self-help crap out there. And we still believe them. Because we just can’t help but re-energize every time the earth makes one more revolution around the sun. Every single year we tell ourselves that this year, every morning we’ll wake up at the crack of dawn (lol), work out 3x a week (lmao), eat a healthy nutritious breakfast (lmfao), and stick to our plans (double lmfao). But we eventually give up. I know. Shocker.
Well, not this year.
This year I’m gonna set realistic goals for myself. To be honest with you, I set my new year goals a little in advance. November 2021 to be exact. I told myself I’m gonna read one book a month, go for a run every alternate day, and eat less junk food. So far I’m doing really well I think (except for the fact that I haven't gone for a run since Christmas but eh, holidays. Whatcha gonna do.) Most importantly, I’ve decided I’m not gonna beat myself up over small failures. If I ever feel like I’m not being productive enough I’m gonna remind myself that those 5 hours I spent this Sunday binge-watching the second season of Emily in Paris is me treating myself for working my ass off all week.
Treating yourself once in a while is good. But it’s really easy to start feeling like you’re not exercising enough or not drinking enough water or socializing enough. And you’re probably right- you haven’t been doing any of it (If you have then kudos to you, please tell the rest of us what it feels like to be God’s favourite.). I’m so sick of all the self-help blogs out there promoting laziness disguised by “YEAH girl you stay in bed all day because it’s good for your mental health”. It’s really not. I’ve tried it. Weeks of burnout cannot be magically expelled by cramping in one full day of junk food in bed with a face mask on (I would like to point out here that there’s nothing wrong with face masks and junk food- I love both and anyone talking smack about them come see me in the parking lot.) But you know what does help in preventing burnout? Go out and buy groceries, go work from your friend’s home, go to the terrace with a cup of coffee and listen to a podcast. It’s tried and tested and it works and how. It’s also your responsibility to make sure you’re not constantly making it a habit of burning yourself out in this glorified overworking work culture. I know. So much responsibility. Where does it end?
Next stop - money. Haha. Yes. The one thing turning all of us into cowards.
I am absolutely terrible with my finances. If I have money, I’ll spend it. If I don’t have money, I’ll still spend it. I am the living breathing personification of the urban poor. You won’t know that from my wardrobe or my Instagram stories- you’ll only know that if you’re my dog. The poor mutt is somehow always there when I’m checking my bank balance and faces a lot of my emotional rollercoaster during the next few days. I’m not gonna give you any advice on money because I have none — advice or money. Let’s just spend less, yeah?
Anyway, WIP- Woman In Progress. I don’t care what anyone else says — If you’re a woman and you’ve failed a lot and you’ve somehow managed to pick up every single piece every single time, then you’re the shit. This year is for apologizing less, adopting more dogs, cutting people off who are built to regurgitate their opinions onto us, and most importantly, this year is to NOT say “I’ll start in the new year” just because you couldn’t accomplish your goals in the first half of the year. If inspiration strikes on 30th December 2022 then you begin work on 30th December 2022. Cool? Cool.
Let’s do this.
