The Year of Less.

My 2025 theme.

Before we begin: We closed up the TTFA Patreon and moved the archives of Terrible, Thanks for Asking over here, combining all of my work into place (what took me so long??). The podcast will return as a Substack exclusive on January 14, so now is a great time to become a paid subscriber or gift a subscription. If you missed the why and how of it all, go here.

As much as I hate the whole “New Year, New Me!” that this time of year brings (enough to make you this video), I’m also unfortunately a Capricorn whose birthday (AKA a Personal Pan New Year) happens to coincide with the actual New Year, and I can’t help but think about the next year.

But rather than make a list of goals, or resolutions, or to-dos, I prefer to pick a theme, and make a vision board to go with it¹.

Last year, my theme was I Will Enjoy This Life, from the poem by Kate Baer, and the vision board I made for it was this:

caption...

I was (am) burned out and struggling and months away from realizing that I needed to make some big changes.

So I sat on the floor in my studio with friends and ripped through old magazines and the vision came together, clear as day.

I wanted to enjoy my life. Not to just live through it, but to actively and wholly enjoy it. To put down my computer and my phone and go out have some fun (why didn’t I ever have fun?? Why am I the worst boss I’ve ever had??).

I hung this in my studio where I would see it every day, and saved a photo of it as my desktop image and my phone’s lock screen.

Days into the 2024, I was taking a Beyond All Work Boundaries Inappropriate Time And Place Phone Call² about a job I wasn’t sure I wanted to do even though I should have wanted to do it. The conversation had started in mid-December, and every step of the process made it clearer and clearer that this A Very Bad Idea. I could do it: shut up, suck it up, cash the check.

But — as

Caroline Moss

said to me as soon as I hung up on that phone call — does that sound very I Will Enjoy This Life to you??

It does not!

So I said no (and a few other things), and at least 10 times this year I thanked my past self for the gift of a little less misery.

The vision board was working not because it’s a magical manifestation tool but because it was reminding me to do the work to make my life feel better.

And it did.

A poll of my family reveals that I did a “great job” enjoying my life in 2024³. I watched movies I’d always wanted to watch, used my AMC Stubs A-List membership, played video games with my kids, went paddle boarding, read a lot of books, and went on a 10-day trip to Ireland with my mother. I got chickens!⁴

Once again, I spent the morning of December 31 at the studio, making my 2025 board with a roomful of family and friends.

That night, we gathered for the 2024 McHartmort Family Awards Night⁵ and after I’d handed out all of the awards, my mom gave me this, which she’d stitched long before I made my vision board that morning.

Can a vision board work THAT FAST???

A coincidence? You know I don’t believe in those. This is a straight-up sign from the universe.

Welcome to The Year of Less.

The year of No. The year of Enjoying This Life Even More, which is the opposite of less but okay in this context. The year of rest and relaxation and generosity and joy and sweetness. The year of C’s get Degrees and calling your friends on the phone and asking your neighbors if they need anything because you’re running to the store. It’s the year of contentment. The year of whatever. The year of loving ourselves and each other where we are, and cutting everyone a break because my GOD, we’re really not here for that long, are we?

xo,

Nora

• The podcast is back…and I want to talk to you! The phone lines are open This Tuesday, January 7. You can book your 10-minute gab session here. Operators (me) are standing by.

• The December Reading List is here!

• WTF are morning pages?

• Have you made your Dopamine Menu?

1. Twice. I’ve done this twice.

2. A Saturday!!! At 8PM! While I was at Goodwill with Sophie!

3. Transparency: one respondent said “you did okay I guess?” but he’s 8 and was watching a movie and I don’t think he really understood the question.

4. They were eaten by a coyote. RIP.

5. Should I do a mini-podcast episode about family awards/morning pages/vision board? Let me know.