Issue Eight
Thinking Ahead for 2024
Thinking Ahead for 2024
Thinking Ahead for 2024
It's been a long while since I've written anything for myself. For me, sitting down at my desk and clacking away at my keyboard means I'm writing for work. I'm writing for my company or for my clients or for my coworkers. It's enjoyable, but it is — at the end of the day — just work. Which means when 5:30pm comes around, the last thing I want to do is convince myself to stay seated at my desk and continue writing, just for myself instead of for someone else.
The funny thing is, the itch to create is still there. I think that's an itch we all feel every January, right? There's that feeling of a clean cut where people can metaphorically (or sometimes literally) change their lives. It evokes a temporary rush of "newness" where people can manifest what they want to accomplish. I hate New Year's resolutions. If you were to revisit my last "New Year" post from 2023, you'd find a similarly cynical take on the tradition.
It's not that I don't think our lives can be improved or that making a new goal for yourself is bad. It's more of… there's so much pressure attached to starting something at the beginning of the year and then a feeling of failure when a new habit is skipped for a day. I mean, there's that whole joke about how far we can last in a new resolution before we give it up. Does anyone ever actually finish their resolutions? I'd like to shake their resolvent hand.
So now I'm here, struggling with myself and wondering what it is I should write about. Not just here in this moment, but further out into the future as well. My mind is flooded with a bunch of different questions, all aching to tear down any ambition I have to stay at my keyboard for longer than the necessary amount of time. What do I have that's interesting to say? What have I been thinking about lately? Should I write more? Should I write on a regular basis? Do I need to stick to a single theme? Should I start another newsletter? How can I tell the inner me to shut up and just let myself blab on? And what point does this start to feel "fun" again?
Writing is a weird career to have. Because it's fun and it's easy and I know I'm good at it. But I'm also my biggest enemy when it comes to it. I struggle to let myself go and just do the thing I know how to do, and do it the way I know how that's fun and not work-y.
In the back of my mind while writing this, I'm wondering over and over what my resolution is or if it's even worth having a resolution in the first place. I can't in good conscious, dear reader, tell you it's going to be "write more". It's also not going to be "run more" or "drink less" or "pay of all debts". I think those things are all too obvious, and things that ought to be done regardless of what a calendar says.
I think my resolution this year is going to be to take myself less seriously — to get out of my own way.
I'm taking an eraser to my mind's red pen this year. Whether or not that means I'll be writing for fun again remains to be seen. But if it does, you'll see it here first.
It's been a long while since I've written anything for myself. For me, sitting down at my desk and clacking away at my keyboard means I'm writing for work. I'm writing for my company or for my clients or for my coworkers. It's enjoyable, but it is — at the end of the day — just work. Which means when 5:30pm comes around, the last thing I want to do is convince myself to stay seated at my desk and continue writing, just for myself instead of for someone else.
The funny thing is, the itch to create is still there. I think that's an itch we all feel every January, right? There's that feeling of a clean cut where people can metaphorically (or sometimes literally) change their lives. It evokes a temporary rush of "newness" where people can manifest what they want to accomplish. I hate New Year's resolutions. If you were to revisit my last "New Year" post from 2023, you'd find a similarly cynical take on the tradition.
It's not that I don't think our lives can be improved or that making a new goal for yourself is bad. It's more of… there's so much pressure attached to starting something at the beginning of the year and then a feeling of failure when a new habit is skipped for a day. I mean, there's that whole joke about how far we can last in a new resolution before we give it up. Does anyone ever actually finish their resolutions? I'd like to shake their resolvent hand.
So now I'm here, struggling with myself and wondering what it is I should write about. Not just here in this moment, but further out into the future as well. My mind is flooded with a bunch of different questions, all aching to tear down any ambition I have to stay at my keyboard for longer than the necessary amount of time. What do I have that's interesting to say? What have I been thinking about lately? Should I write more? Should I write on a regular basis? Do I need to stick to a single theme? Should I start another newsletter? How can I tell the inner me to shut up and just let myself blab on? And what point does this start to feel "fun" again?
Writing is a weird career to have. Because it's fun and it's easy and I know I'm good at it. But I'm also my biggest enemy when it comes to it. I struggle to let myself go and just do the thing I know how to do, and do it the way I know how that's fun and not work-y.
In the back of my mind while writing this, I'm wondering over and over what my resolution is or if it's even worth having a resolution in the first place. I can't in good conscious, dear reader, tell you it's going to be "write more". It's also not going to be "run more" or "drink less" or "pay of all debts". I think those things are all too obvious, and things that ought to be done regardless of what a calendar says.
I think my resolution this year is going to be to take myself less seriously — to get out of my own way.
I'm taking an eraser to my mind's red pen this year. Whether or not that means I'll be writing for fun again remains to be seen. But if it does, you'll see it here first.
It's been a long while since I've written anything for myself. For me, sitting down at my desk and clacking away at my keyboard means I'm writing for work. I'm writing for my company or for my clients or for my coworkers. It's enjoyable, but it is — at the end of the day — just work. Which means when 5:30pm comes around, the last thing I want to do is convince myself to stay seated at my desk and continue writing, just for myself instead of for someone else.
The funny thing is, the itch to create is still there. I think that's an itch we all feel every January, right? There's that feeling of a clean cut where people can metaphorically (or sometimes literally) change their lives. It evokes a temporary rush of "newness" where people can manifest what they want to accomplish. I hate New Year's resolutions. If you were to revisit my last "New Year" post from 2023, you'd find a similarly cynical take on the tradition.
It's not that I don't think our lives can be improved or that making a new goal for yourself is bad. It's more of… there's so much pressure attached to starting something at the beginning of the year and then a feeling of failure when a new habit is skipped for a day. I mean, there's that whole joke about how far we can last in a new resolution before we give it up. Does anyone ever actually finish their resolutions? I'd like to shake their resolvent hand.
So now I'm here, struggling with myself and wondering what it is I should write about. Not just here in this moment, but further out into the future as well. My mind is flooded with a bunch of different questions, all aching to tear down any ambition I have to stay at my keyboard for longer than the necessary amount of time. What do I have that's interesting to say? What have I been thinking about lately? Should I write more? Should I write on a regular basis? Do I need to stick to a single theme? Should I start another newsletter? How can I tell the inner me to shut up and just let myself blab on? And what point does this start to feel "fun" again?
Writing is a weird career to have. Because it's fun and it's easy and I know I'm good at it. But I'm also my biggest enemy when it comes to it. I struggle to let myself go and just do the thing I know how to do, and do it the way I know how that's fun and not work-y.
In the back of my mind while writing this, I'm wondering over and over what my resolution is or if it's even worth having a resolution in the first place. I can't in good conscious, dear reader, tell you it's going to be "write more". It's also not going to be "run more" or "drink less" or "pay of all debts". I think those things are all too obvious, and things that ought to be done regardless of what a calendar says.
I think my resolution this year is going to be to take myself less seriously — to get out of my own way.
I'm taking an eraser to my mind's red pen this year. Whether or not that means I'll be writing for fun again remains to be seen. But if it does, you'll see it here first.
© Joe Staples 2024