New Year’s Resolutions and Message – 2024 🙂
Time to have some fun I reckon so here comes a concerted effort to broaden the range of fun and frivolity I can have in my mid 40s!
It’s been an interesting couple of years with thoughts and emotions taking me in all sorts of places that I haven’t been before, especially in the negative territory but that has given me a new perspective on life and how to learn to roll a little more unconditionally in the world and appreciate all experiences no matter how they present themselves.
The overall feeling coming into a new year and a new opportunity is to put fun higher on the priority list as I’ve had many years of adventures, exploration, purpose, discovery, impact, etc which have all been fun but I think I’ll be guided more strongly by my fun compass this year! It won’t diminish my passion for positive impact as I know this is just a given these days but time to let loose a little more with a tad less regard to costs, apprehensions, norms and ‘excuses’ we can put in our brains / my brain!
Not sure I will be that much more unleashed but I might stay up after my bedtime a little more often! Watch out world!!!
The fun factor is always there with the NY ‘resolutions’ and got a couple of new ones to keep them fresh as well as the tried and fun-tested old ones for more smiles and randomness…
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Hi Team, a very happy X’mas and a very merry new year from Adelaide, South Australia (by choice, not stuck during covid!).
2023 China opened up and so did my travels and education engagements around the world. The first 3.5 months were spent in Switzerland where I supported a youth program with an outdoor education element and did some snowboarding teaching for the first time in 17 years!
It was then a few months of engagements at our Education in Motion schools in China and back to Swiss for a month supporting the summer program with lots of trail running!
I then spent a couple of week on summer holiday travelling through eastern Europe from Switzerland to Belgrade, Serbia via Austria, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania. Lovely to be interacting with the world again as a traveller and enriching my life with experiences of new places and people.
Back to China for the new school year and making my way round our schools also including Seoul, Singapore and Bali. Somewhere in between that I spoke at a conference in Dubai and took a quick wonderful trip to Iran taking my countries visited total up to 99!
Relationships – the less said the better but always learning and is more of a factor in my life than 10 years ago! However, there might be something blossoming for 2024…
Running – a great substitute for relationships! Loving it still as a sport and an important part of my current life. Managed a few injuries after an 80km run around Belgrade but managed a few more PBs in half marathon and a delightful run where my cheeks were sore from smiling at the Shanghai marathon in a time of 2.37.39 🙂
Work – now in my fourth year at Education in Motion which is a big record for me in one job! Loving all aspects of the job and impact for growing global literacy and competency with our schools, staff and students. This year I was fortunate to present and workshop on 205 occasions with 12,459 people bringing a grand total since 2009 to 2015 engagements with 169,016 people. Who really knows the impact but as I say to students it is better to do something than to do nothing!
So to 2024… The first half of the year is more school visits, travel, running and adventures with the second half of the year a little more unknown but likely schools, travel, running and adventures! Know I’ll be floating around the world and always keen to have a chat, laugh and create positive Teaspoons of Change…
I’m pretty quiet on social media still but give very long and unnecessarily detailed descriptions of countries and running, with photos on Strava if anyone is keen to see different places through the lens of running – https://www.strava.com/athletes/5416198
Keep in touch, I’m always in love with life, humanity and this planet and would be keen to connect to add more quality experiences to this one simple life ✌️
Here are the NY FUNstitutions for 2024 and a scorecard on 2023…
Big hugs, best wishes and happy moments to you all! d’Arcy. xx
2023 in pics! 🙂
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New Year’s FUNstitutions 2024 and review of 2023!
For 2024…
New ones
| My favourite weather for this year will be ‘rain’ – excited for this one and embrace it! Already got in a rain run in Singapore! |
| Find a unique ritual for Monday… Suggestions welcome but thinking of a weekly list of wonderful things about the world, or special meditation, longer morning walk, journal, smoothy or something that is reserved only for this day each week! |
| Pay closer attention to the music of leaves in the wind |
| Write a postcard to my mum each month, as we all should do! 😅 |
| Lock in the diary some catch up calls with my two besties to make sure we connect semi-regularly! |
Carryover from last year(s) to do again (some of them for a long time now!)
| Catch as many leaves as possible but without a target number – too much pressure! Must be different leaves, from different trees, on different days… 👍 |
| Spot a dragon-shaped cloud – It will be Chinese Year of the dragon in Feb!! |
| Look up! Appreciate all that world that exists way above eye level! |
| Favourite colour in 2024 is bright green! |
| Repeat – Meet someone from Angola! Didn’t happen in 2021 or 2022 or 2023… |
| Repeat – Continue to not buy a single bottle of plastic bottled water – 12th year in a row |
| Repeat – Leave voice messages for kids birthdays – Love doing this so much – add your kid to the list if you want a message from me to them (and I have your WeChat / WhatsApp!) |
| Some crazy running challenge or extending my ultra runs and trail running… Details TBC. |
| + the more common (boring) ones of push-ups, chin-ups, didgeridoo practice, Buy Nothing New Month in October & not using big towels, etc… |
Always find new and exciting ways to add plenty of Teaspoons of Change to my life, the life of others and the world! ✊ 😊 🌏
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The resolution results from 2023…
| Make computer folder names more fun and exciting | Nup, crap idea as they need to be functional for a reason but was a good theory and I wonder if any fun can be brought into folder titles by someone else? |
| Find an example each day to say ‘this is a happy moment’ | Plenty. Didn’t remember most days but it’s a thought I try to have regularly… |
| Look up! Appreciate all that world that exists way above eye level! | Loved this one and have made it carry over to this year… So much to see up there! |
| Some crazy running challenge or extending my ultra runs and trail running… Details TBC. | Did 80km in Belgrade but it did cause an injury so just lots of long’ish runs to be had |
| Make sure I cook my own food on the 30th of the month (China is so easy to just buy meals everyday!) and be sure to have jelly with it! Not made jelly much since my 2010 NY resolutions | Fail! It is just too easy and fun to buy food each day in China from so many different places… Jelly, nup not in China! |
| Catch 25 leaves! Upgrade from 20 leaves in 2022 and must be different leaves, from different trees, on different days… 👍 | Only made it to 16 this year as missed a big chunk of autumn in China but still love this one and do need to catch better in ‘24! |
| Spot a rabbit-shaped cloud – It is the Chinese year of the rabbit, still need my tiger before CNY! | Yes! Rabbit cloud found and taken. Not sure I have the photo but got a couple… |
| Favourite colour in 2023 is light blue! Toyed with aqua in the past and always liked navy blue | Was ok and light blue is a favourite worthy colour so didn’t have to push too hard… |
| Repeat – Meet someone from Angola! Didn’t happen in 2021 or 2022… | No, again… Keep it up for 2024 and try a bit harder, maybe go to Angola is best!! |
| Repeat – Continue to not buy a single bottle of plastic bottled water – 11th year in a row | Done! Not always easy but always feels fun and important… Did well in a hot summer |
| Repeat – 4pm each day pause for four DEEP breaths and connect with everything and nothing! | Lost interest in this one as so hard to do it at exactly that moment like when I used to do 10 push ups at 5pm but we do need to pause a little more so need a new trick! |
| Repeat – Leave voice messages for kids birthdays – Love doing this so much – add your kid to the list if you want a message from me to them (and I have your WeChat / WhatsApp!) | Yes, fabulous but did get someone of them a bit late after a few days… Still love doing this and saying hi to kids who barely even know me by now! 😉 |
| + the more common (boring) ones of push-ups, chin-ups, didgeridoo practice, Buy Nothing New Month in October & not using big towels… | Yep, yep, yep for most of these as they are a part of my everyday life but need to remind myself in Oct to buy nothing! |
Living Geography with d'Arcy 