How quickly this time rolls around, the time for reflection, refocussing and resolutions that a New Year brings. Even if you’re sure of your goals and any changes you want to make in 2019, it’s sometimes difficult to figure out how exactly to go about doing it. That’s why it’s valuable and important, at this time when we spend so much time looking inward, to look outward and study what women before us have done to enact and manage change in their lives.
If you’re looking to make practical changes to your life, and the environments in which you live and work, the work of Marie Kondo may be of interest to you. Kondo is an organisation consultant and best-selling author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, which has recently been adapted into a lifestyle series for Netflix. There are two simple concepts that underpin Kondo’s KonMari method to living a decluttered and streamlined life. First is to only own things that spark joy, and second is to store these things in visible, accessible places so that they are used. This practice is something that has been embraced by individuals around the world, and it may be the key to going into 2019 organised and ready for what the year brings.
If you’re looking to be a more authentic, truer version of yourself in the New Year, as loose of a concept as that may be, a look at the life and work of Michelle Obama may be where you need to start. After a successful career as a lawyer, followed by her position as the first African American First Lady of the United States, Obama knows a thing or two about navigating change. In her recent memoir, Becoming, Obama retells her varied life frankly, and underlines that although some may view her only as an accessory to her President husband, she is a person of note in her own right, and that she has something to say - a point we could all do with remembering for ourselves in the New Year.
So whatever you resolve to do in the next 365 days, remember to look outwards to other women, their lives and experiences, to drive and inspire you in achieving your goals - whether it be to Kondo to streamline your life physically, or to Obama to not as much change yourself, but become yourself.
Buy Michelle Obama's book Becoming here, and Marie Kondo's Life Changing magic here.
By Francesca Butler.
Francesca is a London based writer.