2025 has me feeling like Batman or Halo

Some of my resolutions + the signs as birds

The Magpie by Claude Monet (1869)

Happy new year! I know it’s the 10th so it’s a bit late to say that but I didn’t say it earlier so I’m saying it now. I haven’t written anything here for a while because I was experiencing a very annoying UI glitch with the Substack editor but it’s fixed now so I no longer have an excuse.

I figured I would talk about some of my resolutions for 2025, because I’m actually committed to them this year. I am not usually a resolution person because I think choosing the beginning of the calendar year it arbitrary and I can choose to improve myself at any point I want. But it does provide a set time to do such a thing, so whatever, I’m doing it.

Writing about my resolutions will also maybe be a form of accountability to get some of this shit done. I might check in on these in 6 months and in a year to see if I actually did anything to achieve these. You’re also welcome to harass me about any of them.

Get a stable job

Since I lost my job in October I’ve been doing some freelance work for another tech publication, and while it is a form of income certainly, it’s absolutely not enough to sustain me and I’m worrying every month about how I’m going to pay rent and buy food. I’m really hoping I can manage to get a job somewhere where I get a salary and benefits, anything that makes me less stressed out on a daily basis. I can feel the physical and psychological toll that stress is taking on me and I really just need to make it stop as soon as possible.

I’m very tired of the regular fatigue, mood swings, nausea, and occasional hair loss that stress is causing me! It makes it even harder to apply for work and tailor my resume and cover letter to everything I apply to when I’m so overwhelmed and tired from the stress of being unable to do it! It’s a vicious cycle. Hopefully I can break it sooner rather than later.

Improve my social life

I’ve been taking the steps to be more social, reach out to people, make new friends, and get out of the house often, but it’s not really enough still. I want to always feel like I have something to look forward to, people to see, and never worry about loneliness. I’ve also never really felt like I had very close friends, so hopefully I can foster some closer relationships this year.

Gain the power of self-respect

For most of my life I’ve been pretty bad at being kind to myself. I very often sacrifice my own well-being for the sake of others, I can be too nice to people unnecessarily, and I beat myself down quite often. Rationally I know I am a good person who is worthy of self-love and self-respect, but I need to actually act on that and truly believe it even in my lower moments.

What this is going to tangibly look like I’m not quite sure of yet. But I’m going to try to keep in mind that I’m actively working on self-respect, and in situations where that care for myself is challenged, I’ll try to make the right choices to be kind to myself.

Lose the depression weight I gained over the fall

I was very deeply depressed for basically the entire autumn and it made me overeat and move a lot less, and I want to get back to a place where I feel healthier and more energetic and feel better about myself overall. I think eating better and exercising ties into the self-respect thing from above, but this is a specific goal that requires that self-respect along with some more discipline. It’s always incredibly hard to get started on this sort of thing, but I know once I get more in the groove of things it’ll be a lot simpler.

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The signs as birds

Aries - Anna’s hummingbird

Taurus - Adelie penguin

Gemini - Grey parrot

Cancer - White tern

Leo - Indian peafowl

Virgo - Barn owl

Libra - Barbary dove

Scorpio - Canada goose

Sagittarius - Australian white ibis

Capricorn - Common raven

Aquarius - Eurasian magpie

Pisces - Tufted puffin