Week 51: Closing out 2024, blogmas, newsletter summary, and taking time to notice.

Regular programming.

Hi, I hope you're doing good and you're having a wonderful holiday season so far. To some extent, I am, even though I hate the cold and the harmattan.

To cope, I've just been reminding myself that very soon, it will be over and we'll all go back to normal (I'm not sure what ‘normal’ is, but I would prefer any other season to this dryness).

Anyways, let me know how you're doing and if you think there's something I should know, you can also send me an email, I would very much appreciate it.

I wasn't exactly planning on sending out any newsletter till next year—don’t throw tomatoes at me, I'm sorry. It wasn't planned, it was a decision I stumbled into. I've been feeling tired—not exactly tired, just in the mood to not do anything or plan anything and want to be by myself for a while.

With the end of the year comes the ‘pressure’ to evaluate your year yada yada, and if you're a creator of any kind (on social media), you'll most likely be pressured to want to do a ‘year in review'. I planned to do it, actually, but then, I got too pressured by it, and I changed my mind—because why? Nobody is pointing a gun to my head and forcing me to do anything. It's not like I'm already not doing it by myself.

I'm not saying you should always drop your ideas because you're not feeling up to it or anything like that, but sometimes, you just have to take a moment to think about what you want to do and why?

This just reminded me of a quote I read this morning, it goes something like; “there’s a thin line between taking on a worthwhile challenge and getting yourself into unnecessary stress”. I can't remember the exact words, but it was something like that.

Speaking of challenges, I already started the Blogmas series and today will make it day 10, so there's 2 more days to go!

You guys, I can't even begin to tell you how much it means to me that I got to this point. At the beginning of this whole series, I had power supply issues (still do). Our transformer spoilt. Yes, how unfortunate.

The already bad power supply situation became even bad-er. I was really upset, I had put so much thought and effort into it, and the thought of not having to do it anymore because of the light issues made me so mad and angry.

I was so angry. If there's anything I hate, it's not doing what I said I was going to do. Body go dey scratch me. It's like straying away from my nature.

I decided to still do it, no matter what. I missed a couple of days (3 days, probably), it was IMPOSSIBLE on those days, I didn't have a choice but to do nothing on those days, but here we are now, everybody clap. You can read the blog posts I've posted so far here.

In the middle of all those things, I got my Beehiiv ‘wrapped’ for this year, and before I get into what I want to say, I just want to say thank you to everyone who has read and shared the newsletter this year, it means a lot to me that you're here and you take your time to read the newsletter. You're in a corner of my heart.

If you've ever replied to any of the newsletter, I love you. Some people are currently coming to mind because they always reply to the newsletter, so maybe after typing this, I would send them a big heart (🙈).

Back to what I was saying, when I got the Beehiiv summary for this year, I somehow decided to make a list of the top 15 newsletters for this year and repost them on Instagram, because why not? I get to design the carousels on Canva and I've been really into Canva these days. What I want for Christmas is a Canva yearly subscription for next year.

If you're interested in knowing what the top 15 posts on the newsletter were, you can click here. I'm really glad I wrote the newsletters this year consistently. According to my Beehiiv summary, I sent out 34 posts this year, it gives me something to look forward to.

For example, there are some things I noticed that I didn't journal about, probably because sitting down to talk about those things in details were making me want to faint and I would rather not, but I talked about them in the newsletter, and most of the time, in real time, so it was easier to look back on.

An event that's coming to mind is the field trip I went on this year. I didn't exactly mention it in my journal (although, I can point out the day in my journal because of other things I wrote), but I talked about it in this newsletter and it was interesting to read. I like this idea of documenting my life and my experiences.

I was cleaning out my room the other day and I found some things I wrote in 2020/2021 about what I wanted for myself and who I want to be, and I realised that the Grace of that time and now are actually quite similar, the only difference is that I'm working actively towards the life I want and what I want to do.

A little courage and learning here and there, and here we are. Growth is amazing. Also, write stuff down. You'll never know how much progress you're making if there's nothing for you to look back on. Take time to notice stuff and write them down.

Something I always do at the end of the year when I'm trying to figure out what I want to do for the year—sorry, I can't say ‘goals setting’, I find it really cringe now. There are 257,000 videos on Instagram about goals settings and 2025 rebrand, it's exhausting.

Back to what I was saying, whenever I decide to work on something, I always make sure to write down where I'm at concerning that particular thing, so by the end of year, I will be able to measure the growth and find out if there was any progress at all.

It reminds me of a podcast I listened to recently that said something along the lines of how if you never have something to look back on or compare your growth to, no matter what you do, it will always look like you didn't do anything. You can listen to the podcast here.

Talking about goals and whatnot, if you're setting goals, I think it's really important that you set goals that mean something to you and not just because that's what everyone is doing or talking about.

For example, I read a comment on Instagram recently that validated a thought I've had for the longest time now. I don't think I need to travel around the world (or to places). That is my truth. It's not something I think I would enjoy.

I understand that it's important to see the world and experience new places, and I would, maybe from time to time, but it's not something I'm crazy about.

The comment said something about how, in recent times, people on the internet have been bringing it up a lot and how it's almost like you have to do it or you're missing out on something so huge—you probably are, but then again, your life will still be amazing whether you travel or not.

So, back to the goals, it makes no sense to set goals you're not interested in, but you're just setting them (and will end up forcing yourself to do it, or not) because everyone says you should. For example, going to the gym—I will always mention this. You don't have to go to the gym, there are other forms of being active and keeping fit.

I was going to say reading a book too, but I think everyone should read a book every once in a while, even though it's 5 books a year.

Also, when you're thinking about goals for next year, think about your hobbies too. If you want to be more involved with them and do them more, you'll have to set out time (and systems) for them.

If you want to read more books, state exactly how that's going to happen. Are you going to read for an hour everyday? Buddy read? Join book clubs? What are you going to do differently?

Speaking of book clubs, I just remembered an article that said something about how people join book clubs and gyms at the beginning of the year, and by February, they're no longer active. It's funny and at the same time, it's not.

It's probably because they think just joining those spaces will help them with their goals or anything like that, but at the end of the day, it's about you. Nothing will help you with that. You have to create the system for yourself and stick with it.

Lastly, remember that this is your one life. The people you look at and wonder why/how their life is so amazing is because they take their life (and what they do) seriously, you should too. No pressure, but pressure.

That's everything I wanted to say today, and for something I didn't originally plan on writing, I did well. Proud of me.

This is where I stop writing and wish you a Merry Christmas (⛄🎄) and a Happy New Year (🎊🥳). Have an amazing rest of the year and I'll write to you again in January.

Bye x.