Three days into the new year and it's a whirl of new year's resolutions (other people's), happy new year greetings from businesses, totally unsolicited (makes me wonder how they got my email address as I do not recall shopping there), not to mention emails about sales, leaving me wondering whether I really need this information overload. Do I really want to start buying only because things carry a 70% discount notice (and the items are probably not discounted at all)?
New year is Big Business. There are the emails from various people who believe my finances need further draining, uh, boosting, as I need to 'let prosperity flow' by paying a substantial amount in exchange for advice on 'how to let abundance enter your life, effortlessly'. Obviously they mean their life, definitely not mine, it is a one way exchange, duh. Emails that now begin with 'Amazing Alex' or 'Gorgeous Alex' (substitute your own name here). What's wrong with 'Dear' or even 'Hi'? No, you have to be Amazing. Except that it immediately makes me wish I was not.
Then there are those messages from people that think you need to be more confident and purport to teach you how to be more in tune with yourself, how to discover your self worth. For a hefty fee of course. Really. To feel worthy I now have to be validated by another, who is being paid (by me) to tell me I am wonderful.
The first week of January always catches me in a rather reflective mood, January is the coldest month, it's officially winter and I never feel like going out, if I can help it. I keep on checking the closing date of exhibitions that I want to see because I can't be bothered to go and see them now, I just want to curl up under a duvet .
A remedy to this gloom is to read a lot. This is the perfect month for devouring novels and maybe have a go at writing one of your own. If you persevere you might finish it by February and by then you may notice that days are definitely getting longer, time to go out again.
Actually, January is not all that bad. By week two people are past the new year craze and it's business as usual. "Amazing Alex" becomes once again "Dear" or "Hi" or no greeting at all, let's get straight to business.
So here I am, doing a bit of soul searching, nursing a bad cold that has been with me since before Christmas and rearranging my life or at least tidying things up, literally.
I have signed up for a nutrition course, I felt I needed to take a good look at my eating habits and learn a bit more about what can help me to boost my energy levels. I know I drink far too much coffee, it's time to ease on that. Then I have a long to do list, which I will not bore you with, all personal stuff. All I will say is that no matter what, this year I will not beat myself up for not doing this or that. I am not competing with anyone and I set up my own rules. It's a new year resolution of sort.
Enough brooding. I have some wonderful news to share, only I cannot yet, but I closed 2016 landing an amazing job - er, I should not use this overrated word anymore, not after getting the stream of emails addressed to 'Amazing Alex' - , a truly magical one. Then I got, finally, a hard copy of The Mechanical Smile by Caroline Evans, all about fashion shows at the start of the 20th century. Can't wait to dip into it.
(More books, I know, this place will soon turn into a library)
Here's to a wonderful and why not, Amazing, 2017!
All photos of me are from a fashion editorial in Fashion Shift, taken by Christopher Luk, a Hong Kong photographer. MUA Sandra Nilsen, Stylist Lucy Ansa-Addo
Comments
Post a Comment