Observing change without the hype
Every January brings a renewed interest in self-improvement. Lists appear. Intentions are announced. People behave as though the calendar has issued personal instructions.
Last year, I participated.
Trying new things is usually worthwhile. At the very least, it removes doubt. We don’t need it to transform us; it only needs to tell us whether something belongs.
A year later though, most of us remain broadly intact. The same habits, the same routines, the same small structures holding our days together. Not because we lacked discipline, but because change doesn’t arrive the way it’s marketed.
Change, With Minimal Drama
Life doesn’t reset cleanly. It layers. Habits, moods, routines, they build like layers of paint we don’t fully notice until we step back. We don’t wipe everything away each January. We work with what’s already there.
Trying something new can sometimes tells us what we were missing, but it can also tell us that it wasn’t for us. Both outcomes are useful.
The List, in Retrospect
Last year, I wrote a list titled 50 Things I Want to Do. It felt reasonable at the time. Someone later pointed out that this amounted to almost one new objective every week, which introduced a mild sense of scale.
The list was split between the long-term and the impulsive. Some ideas were meant to unfold slowly, like learning Italian or learning to roller skate, alongside one-off experiments such as dyeing my hair green or walking up Kinder. Some of these were completed. Many were not.
This did not matter.
What Was Learned Anyway
What mattered was what surfaced instead.
I learned that making my own sushi is a waste of time, and that I am not very good at it. I made new friends without effort and returned to old ones without ceremony. I also discovered that I love hiking, not for achievement, but for rhythm and that cross stitch suits me: slow, repetitive and difficult to overthink. All useful information.
Against the Grand Gesture
Trying to become a completely different person on January 1st is like picking up a new medium and expecting mastery by the end of the week. It’s an unreasonable demand.
But trying new things, those tiny rebellions against monotony, tend to be worthwhile, even the pointless ones. If only because you find out what actually matters.
Creativity, Continuing
Creativity does not recognise the New Year. It carries on regardless. Every action belongs to a longer sequence, steady, unremarkable, ongoing.
Once you notice this, resolutions begin to feel unnecessary. Slightly earnest. Well-intentioned.
Mostly, it is simply evidence that showing up and trying things, even quietly, has its own value.
Same Canvas, Another Layer
The New Year does not erase anything. It adds another layer to work already in progress. Your life, your art, your style, shaped less by urgency than by repetition.
Trying new things rarely changes everything.
It does, however, tell you something useful.
Real change tends to arrive later, once no one is watching.