We all resolve to do better every new year. We promise self-improvement then forget what we said by March. Was this the year we were going to learn to cook, read more or drink less? The impulse is real and I think it’s important to acknowledge that even if we don’t hit the high marks we aspire to.
With that in mind, here are a few simple tangible things we can all do that are not all that hard. And, to be honest, they’re not too self-improving. But that’s all right. Some have been discussed here before, but I thought I would bring them into one place.
1/ Keep a Non-Intense Diary. I keep a fishing notebook. You can keep a wine diary or a film diary. Anything really. Don’t pour your heart out, just record certain rituals. It can honestly be a list, if that makes it easier to get started. My dad started doing this for special meals when we were kids. Thanksgiving, Christmas, a few others. Just who was there, what we ate, what we drank, some other details. It’s absolutely wild to look back on it. There are so many things you never remember. Just having a book where you list things is really nice and there’s no pressure to become John Cheever.
2/ Read Something Hard. When you’re a student you have to read George Eliot whether you want to or not. At first you complain but being forced to you discover that Middlemarch is great. That gets harder to do when you’re busy and don’t want to pick up a book the size of a brick. But there’s something truly excellent about rolling up your sleeves and getting into a classic. You are connected, in a good way, with history. War & Peace, Moby Dick, Pride & Prejudice. Don’t be shy. Proust. Flaubert. Henry James. I give myself one author or book a year that I’ve never quite gotten around to. I’m not perfect, I still have a 100 pages of Trollope to finish in the next few days. Get a friend or family member to do it with if that helps.
2a/ Read Something Irrelevant. This is related to the previous entry. More and more I read history or diaries or biographies or things connected with what I’m working on. That’s good. But getting into Trollope was nice to read about something that has nothing to do with anything. That’s not true of course. The father of an ex-girlfriend (the one who famously said he was unaware that I attended Eton upon my arrival in his home in a blue striped Polo tie) said the only novels he ever read were Trollope and that they taught him everything he needed to know about human nature. So that’s something. Reading an old novel feels like a contrary act and serves as the antidote from real time social media and the stream of developing stories. By the second day you’ll like it. Who knows, you might read the entire Anthony Powell series.
3/ Sort That Closet. This was the least romantic of the Sartorial Resolutions. But it may be the most important. I just went through the dreaded back of drawers and had some bracing personal discourse. The usual rules apply: get things repaired, be honest if you’re going to wear them, otherwise give them away. Don’t invent potential occasions when you’ll need things. I have fishing shirts that require conditions so specific they’ll never happen and if they do I can wear any of the ten other khaki shirts I have.
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