Looking Ahead

I've Got My Eyes on You, Gretchen Rubin

My friend Peg turned me on to the writer and podcaster Gretchen Rubin back when Peg and I were both living in Warsaw, Poland. After I moved back to the States, Rubin’s Happier podcast became one of the first I listened to on a regular basis.

Among other topics, Rubin writes about good habits.

I’m also a writer, but one who feels shortchanged as far as good habits go. In fact, viewed from the opposite perspective, I might qualify as a virtuoso of bad habits, having earned the equivalent of a Rhodes Scholarship in negative thinking, a post-doc in nighttime eating, a Ph.D. in TV bingeing, and most recently, a masters in mindless scrolling. Quite the curriculum vitae.

In addition to good habits, as her podcast title suggests, Rubin’s work also centers on happiness, which some might argue goes hand-in-hand with having a foundation of good habits. In late December, early January, Rubin’s work pairs especially well with end-of-year reflection and planning for the new year. At the end of every twelve months she helps people focus and prioritize for the year ahead utilizing a couple of popular tools. These include devising a numbered list of goals corresponding to the final two digits of the coming year—a 25 in 2025 list, for example. In addition, she advocates selecting a word for the year.

My word for 2024, tolerance, quickly careened into an epic fail, so I changed my word to open-mindedness, which afforded me slightly more success.

Many people incorporate Rubin’s tools into their framework for the coming year. In fact, last summer a sailing acquaintance mentioned her 2024 goal of getting on twenty-four different boats. That struck me as a particularly fun twist.

What I’ve done in the past is more typical and less creative; I’ve made a list of various items I wished to accomplish. While I’ve like that idea, I can’t say it’s ever been particularly compelling. I actually prefer the narrow lens of the twenty-four-boat idea.

This year I may delineate twenty-five things I wish to accomplish. I didn’t do that in 2024, but I may give it a whirl this go-round. See what pops up and not worry too much about whether any of it gets done.

What worked out best for me last year was focusing on a single goal, building my blue-water (ocean) sailing resume. As a bonus, I discovered that while I was out at sea, my bad habits ebbed, as there was virtually no opportunity to overeat, scroll mindlessly, or binge-watch anything. A win-win. In addition, lacking opportunity to indulge those bad habits afforded me more opportunity to push away my big bugaboo, negative thinking. Dodging that bullet for even a stretch of two weeks, comprised nothing short of a miracle.

In 2025 I choose writing as my focus.

Queue the next miracle, please.

Meanwhile, if anyone comes up with an antidote to nighttime eating that does not involve drugs or incarceration, I’m all ears.