I failed at every single one of my New Year's Resolutions last year...

... but I'm not letting that stop me making some more

Happy New Year, everyone!

I hope you’ve all had a good holiday season, and haven’t done what I did, which was to basically just deal with the stress of it all by asking myself, “What would Henry VIII do?” and then answering that question by eating, drinking, and generally carousing in a terrible, uncontrolled kind of way which, thankfully, did not include any beheading (So, not totally what Henry VIII would’ve done, tbf…), but, honestly, that’s the most that could be said for it, really.

Don’t be me, kids; that’s all I can say.

With all of that said, though, although December is always so stressful I can barely think straight during it, if you’ve been reading this newsletter since this time last year, say, you’ll know that I’m a big fan of January, and that ‘fresh start’ feel it has about it. So while pretty much everyone I follow on social media has spent the last couple of days posting earnest reminders that you don’t have to set any resolutions at all for 2025, and can just continue exactly as you are, all I can think is, “Yeah, but what’s the fun in that?”

In January, I want to change EVERYTHING; from my hair to my career, to that really horrible light in the hallway that’s been there since we moved in, and seriously, why haven’t we changed that yet? I love the idea that my life could change beyond recognition if I can just commit to doing pilates every week or whatever. I live for it. Almost all of my books are about it¹. And yet, so far, I have proved to be really, really bad at actually doing it. As proof of that, here’s a quick look at my 2024 goals, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF WHICH I totally failed to achieve…

The Goal: Make my blog profitable again.

Not only did I not manage to do this, I’m sad to report that, after a full year of trying pretty much everything I could think of to revive my dying blog, it ended 2024 in an even worse state than it started it — and it started it in a really quite catastrophically bad state, so that’s saying something. So I didn’t just fail at this goal, I failed spectacularly. Go, me!

Why I failed: There are actually a few reasons for this which I won’t bore you with here (because, trust me, you’re going to be bored enough by the end of this newsletter without having to read an essay on ‘why my blog failed’ on top of everything else). Unlike most of the other goals I set for last year, though, this failure wasn’t for the lack of trying because I can honestly say that I put a lot of time and effort into it. Literally nothing I tried made even the slightest difference, though, so while I’m not going to claim that blogging is dead, because I know there are plenty of people out there who’re still making a living from it, I think it would be fair to say that my career as a blogger most definitely is dead. Like, REALLY dead.

I’m actually pretty sad about this because I loved blogging, and count the years when my site was at its peak as some of the happiest of my life, but the landscape of content creation has changed so much over the last few years that I honestly don’t think there’s any going back back now for me. So while I will be keeping the site online for as long as I can, I’m now using it more as an author website than a traditional ‘blog’, and I don’t see that changing any time soon.

The Goal: Finish my book series

Why I failed: ‘Failed’ is probably not the right word here, because the decision to pause my Heather Bay series for now was a deliberate one, and I did it so I could concentrate on the two other books I released this year instead. That was definitely the right decision, because the stand-alones have done much better than the series so far, but I will be returning to the series at some point, too, so I’m going to say this one wasn’t so much a ‘failure’ as it was a ‘change of plan’. Because that sounds much better, doesn’t it?

The Goal: Become a Substack bestseller

Why I failed: Oh, this one’s easy — I failed to become a Substack bestseller because I didn’t actually produce any paid-only content, and I think that’s probably pretty important if you’re going to be a ‘bestseller’, no? In my case, though, the fact that my newsletter doesn’t have a ‘niche’ means I’ve always found it hard to imagine what kind of content I could possibly justify charging people for here, so although I do have paid subscriptions switched on (and the archives are automatically paywalled), I’m really just relying on people wanting to upgrade out of the goodness of their hearts, and/or a desire to support me. In that respect, it’s actually been really, really heartening to see how many of you are willing to do that, so while I don’t think I’ll ever reach ‘bestseller’ status, I’m going to take it as a win…

The Goal: Stay debt-free, other than my loan

Why I failed: Three reasons, really —

1. The worst year we’ve ever had financially; so much so that it would’ve been impossible to get through it without credit.

2. My complete inability to stick to a budget.

3. Christmas.

All I can say here is I KNOW, and I’m working on it. No, really, I am…

The Goal: Have as many holidays as possible

Why I failed: I technically didn’t ‘fail’ at this, because we DID have ‘as many holidays as possible’. What we did not have, however, was as many holidays as I would have liked, which is what I suspect I actually meant by this. I also suspect I was being facetious when I wrote this one last year, though, so, moving on…

The Goal: Learn to play Cardigan on the keyboard

Why I failed: Because I decided to give up keyboard and learn to play guitar instead. I’m now on a 48-week guitar-playing streak, though, and, other than writing and horse-riding (Which I did as a child, and would still do now, if finances allowed…), that’s the longest I’ve ever stuck to anything. So even though I didn’t learn to play Cardigan on either the guitar or the keyboard, I’m still pretty damn pleased with myself, tbh.

The Goal(s): Get abs / Care less what people think of me.

Okay, I was definitely joking with these, because they were the resolutions I’d overheard a group of tween girls making last New Year’s Eve, but, for the sake of completion, let the record show that, a) I did not get abs, and b) I do still kind of care what people think of me, although, in fairness, it depends who it is, really, and there are quite a lot of people whose opinions of me are of no consequence at all, so, meh.

Which brings me neatly to my goals for 2025, which I will endeavor to make real goals, and not stupid jokey ones about holidays and abs. Here they are…

1. Double my income as an author

2024 was the year I officially become a five-figure author, and although not all of those 5 figures were profit (a lot of my book sales come from advertising, which we obviously have to pay for), and our financial situation remains dire, it was just enough to make me think that, hey, I might actually be able to do this thing. So my main aim for this year is to … well, do this thing, and try to increase my earnings from my books. The goal of actually doubling my income from it is, quite honestly, completely delulu, and I’ll be happy with any increase at all, but hey: may as well aim high, no?

2. Start up a second income stream

Although I’m currently making enough from my books to call myself a full-time author, my income is still very unreliable and that, plus, the failure of my blog has made me wary of putting all of my eggs in one basket, so to speak. So, this year I’ll be attempting to find some other ways to supplement my income. Some possibilities for this…

• LTK Shop

• Amazon Influencer Program

• You Tube

• TikTok, if it doesn’t get banned

• Second Substack newsletter

• Combination of all of the above

• Something I haven’t thought of yet

3. Run my usual route without walking

I wrote a few weeks ago about how I’d started going for a (very) short run/walk after dropping Max off at school every morning. So far I’ve been doing a combination of running and walking (And, full disclosure, I haven’t done anything AT ALL for the last three weeks because I’ve been so busy with Christmas prep / non-stop socialising / living like Henry VIII…), but, when school goes back again on Monday I’m planning to start it up again, and build up to running the entire route without having to walk any of it. It’s only about two miles in total, so this should be very doable (Especially over the course of an entire year…), but I hate exercise so much that it’ll still be enough of a challenge for me to include it here.

I do have a few other things I’d like to achieve this year, but everything really hinges on Goal 1 and/or 2, really, because, not to be dramatic or anything, but, unless I can make at least one of those two happen, it’s off to the workhouse with me; and you all know how much I’d hate that.

So, there you go: my goals for 2025 — and now I suppose I better go and get on with some of them, shouldn’t I?

Until next week, folks,

1. About women who change their lives, I mean, not about pilates. Screw pilates.