my deepest darkest secret.
I have a confession. I haven't said this anywhere public in a long time because of all the negative PR this thing has.
You know how everyone hates Mondays?
Yeah, I absolutely adore them.
HEAR ME OUT
Don't you love the feeling of newness? I love the fact that your week can literally go in any direction on Monday. Good and bad. All the good days in your life happened on a random week that started on…a Monday.
I know some people hate New Years for this same reason. People feel like it "doesn't matter" and it's "just another day." Well, I adore January based on the fact that everyone has this buzz of excitement.
It's literally a new year!
Everyone has the chance to radically change their lives. Either for the worse or for the better.
And if this doesn't make you beam with excitement then I'm sorry for you haha
2024 can happen again
Most people don't realize how surface-level their lives are. They bounce around in their heads, creating problems that don't exist, and spiral out of control into a state of deep anxiety and overwhelm.
- Dan Koe, The Power of Long Walks
You could have had a good year last year.
Full of job promotions and business expansions. You probably got married last year and made your family so proud by graduating from college.
Or you could have had a bad year plagued with bad news all over. You couldn't catch a break and honestly, you're surprised you even made it through the year.
It can happen again.
In fact, it's a 50% chance that it will happen again (if you just tag your years as either good or bad.)
And the only thing you know for sure you're going to have at the end of the year, is yourself.
You are going to be sitting down somewhere in the world on 31st December 2025, and you'll be thinking about your year that just passed.
Maybe with regret, maybe with gratitude. Who knows?
I, for one, was leaning more on the regret side late last year. I had a very terrible end of the year.
I was pumping out content and doing everything I should but life and family troubles plagued my mind for months.
My anxiety was in overdrive. I wasn't even thinking clearly on certain things.
Till I got an email. On the 31st of December, around 5pm.
This email was from myself.
And then I remembered I had sent myself an email at the start of the year to be delivered on the last day of the year.
How to time travel (I'm so serious)
It's a pretty cool personal habit I've developed over the years.
I've probably done this since 2021 started. The interesting thing is, I always forget I have done this at the end of the year.
I use this pretty cool tool to do it. If you're interested, you can check them out here.
But it's always so shocking to me how one letter I write in less than 10 minutes at the start of the year, was all the saving grace I needed to get out of my head and reframe how I was seeing the end of 2024.
Your Three Non-Negotiables
I have goals for this year. And I had goals for last year.
But the whole point of writing this short letter to myself is never to make myself feel bad for not hitting my ambitious goals.
Far from that.
It's to give myself a big warm hug and pat on the back for making it through the year.
To consistently wake up and chase my goals on an almost daily basis is fucking incredible.
And I know for sure that I am the only one who knows how much work I actually put into chasing these goals. And that means not many people will see, acknowledge and even pat me on the back at the end of the year and say, "you did amazing bro."
That's why I write to myself.
Only I know what I saw.
You have to have three non-negotiable actions you're going to take this year.
It can be a mix of both silly things (to other people) and grounding things that you really care about.
For me, my negotiables last year were to:
Not stop writing and sharing my thoughts with the world, no matter the numbers (✅)
Make sure I watched at least 150 movies (I watched 201 ✅)
Improve my relationship with my mum (they flew in and spent the whole November with me in my apartment ✅)
Find the beauty and joy in your daily rituals, and you will find beauty and joy in your daily life. To love your habits is to love your days, and to love your days is to love your life." - James Clear
For anyone struggling to set some goals for this year. Don't worry about that.
Our brains have interesting ways of figuring out what we want for ourselves as time goes on. You don't need to have your goals set by January of any year.
But if you do this exercise, use it as a chance to be kind to yourself.
The world will beat you up this year. It's cold and rather unforgiving.
Things will go to shit sometimes.
But this could be the single best thing you do for yourself this year. And it all starts with kindness.
NB: If you read up to this point, thank you! I've got big plans for 2025, and it's all starting with a workshop I have coming up in March. More details on that coming soon. It will be a good year and I wish you nothing but the best
Good read? Coffee donations appreciated :)
I appreciate all the support!
See you on social
Love, Mike.