Today marks the start of the year in the Julian calendar, an older calendar that is still used by the orthodox. I have always liked 14 January as a date as it rings like a new start, or second chance to get it right.. after the inevitable let down of the first round of good resolutions.
Perhaps this also because I feel there is so much pressure around New Year’s resolutions and I cannot avoid thinking about the undertones of “failure” and “having to do better” that they carry. It is all about what you have not yet achieved, correcting your bad habits, trying to be a different person..
So how about focusing on things you like and like doing instead? And doing more of those to make you feel happier?
This year I have decided to do just that.. do more of what I like and less of what stresses me out and ultimately makes me unhappy and unfulfilled. Ok so I admit it is work in progress but I am starting with what brings me a little daily joy.
So here goes.. Objective number one is to read more books. I have always had a love for books, to me they are magical creatures, doors to other worlds where my imagination can run wild or simply a gateway to greater insight into how the world around us works.
I also get a lot of fulfilment from reading, ever since finishing Lord of the Flies in primary school. I remember I was gripped by the storyline, however hard it was, and couldn’t put the book down. Since then, I have always felt great pride at the end of a good book. Pride for uncovering it in the first place, pride for sticking with it..
Back in London, I was in this great book club started by four friends who each invited another friend. Being one of the plus ones, I obviously felt great pressure to impress everyone at our first meeting! It helped that I just loved the book but I also remember spending hours reading up commentary about the plot, its historical meaning, and thinking up all these great discussion starters! Needless to say that wasn’t the point at all and we just had a great evening discussing our own interpretations and getting to know each other over a glass of wine!
So a couple of weeks ago I decided that if I aimed to read one book a week, it would help me get through the backlog of fantastic books I keep picking up in quaint bookshops in Paris, London, New York, Brussels… I may or may not reach that target but I definitely am going to try. In fact, just two weeks in and I am through a book and a half… My first book (pictured) was short and powerful – an inspiring essay by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, which certainly made me realise how much more awareness is needed around gender discrimination in all settings but also that the courage of just one person can make a lasting difference. I read it as a manifesto for speaking up and not shying away from the more difficult discussions around the perception of women in society and in the workplace.
My second book is about the writing process as told by John McPhee, one of the greatest writers at the New Yorker, in which he shares many wisdoms and anecdotes about his life as a journalist, novelist and professor at Princeton. I have just finished a section recounting when he moved from a typewriter to the first computer-based text editors which were programmed specifically to meet his editing needs – a lovely step back in time.
Better keep reading…
This is not a designer life... 