New Year, New Me (Maybe?)

He doesn't usually look this stern.

Looking at the dates on previous posts, I haven't used this blog for nearly four years. But I'm starting 2023 determined to (finally) make some long-desired changes, and an accountability journal of sorts seems to be in order. This won't be great writing or anything, just nonwitty, tired scribblings of my thoughts at the end of each day as I muddle through this.

The past four years have been a shitstorm—marriage upheaval, pandemic, deaths of people I love, child turmoil—and I've managed to tread shit in the process and stay afloat, and we're all generally OK (at the moment), but swimming in shitstorms can take a toll, and it has on me, in myriad ways.

So without belaboring things, I hope to make this the year that I get 'er done—physically, mentally, and creatively. A introduced me to the Daily Stoics, helmed by Ryan Holiday, which taps into the philosophies and life hacks of folks like Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus and others who try to get you to accept that suffering will happen in life, but it's up to you how you get through that. I know that probably sounds like a whole lot of self-help BS that shady people like Anthony Robbins push, but I like the Daily Stoics stuff because it's generally practical advice to get you through the day-to-day and just strive to be a generally better person. 

And so toward that end, I signed up for the Daily Stoics 2023 "New Year, New You" 23-day challenge, which notes that most people start out the new year with the best of intentions, but then crap out a few weeks in. By pointing this fact out, however, they hope to alert participants to keep pushing through when it's uncomfortable. None of this is going to be easy. When that self-awareness is at top of mind, it becomes easier to hold yourself accountable. You know it's gonna suck, but you do it anyway. That's the hope, at least.

Today's "warm-up" challenge: Take an icy water plunge, either in the ocean or a lake, or at least in an ice-cold shower for 23 seconds—the same number of days in this challenge. I could've driven up to Robert Moses to take a dip, but I'm sick and didn't want to go overboard, so I just did the cold shower, after a walk around the neighborhood on a very mild January day. There was lots of cursing (in the shower; not on the walk).

Tweets and treats at @jenngidman.