First of all, Happy New Year. Second of all, how?! How did 2021 go so fast? I mean, yes, it was quite eventful as far as I am concerned, but still. I did not expect the year to be over so soon. Not that I am complaining of course. As is tradition, one may come up with New Year’s Resolutions. I am very aware that people rarely hold onto theirs. That is why, I have decided to do it differently this year.
Yes, I do have New Year’s Resolutions for 2022. However, I will not start or stop doing things. Instead, I want to go back to doing things I love but stopped doing. I am not gonna lie, 2021 was exhausting. I did not have much energy for much outside of work. So I stopped doing a lot of things. How I subsequently filled my time basically prevented me from going back to doing those things.
I said the word “things” a lot in this last paragraph. My point is, there is always a tradeoff. But in 2022, I have decided that as New Year’s Resolutions, I shall go back to doing all those things I loved because I do miss them a lot.
1. Staying away from TikTok
Remember how skeptical of TikTok people were when it came along? To be honest, I did not care for the app. Even during the lockdown in New York City. I may have been curious at times but never enough to download the app. Plus, I felt I was active on enough social channels already.
But fate is a funny thing, isn’t it? I needed TikTok for work, downloaded the app and created an account. I sporadically posted videos but there was no consistency. At that time, I was not watching any videos on the app. But then, very randomly, I started to watch videos on my commute to work. And became addicted.
TikTok surprised me. The content is so good. It is witty, educational, powerful, interesting, funny, you name it. So, of course, I found myself falling in a rabbit hole. I was spending hours watching TikToks of all kinds. During my commute, at home, before bed, etc. I was loving it.
The problem is, Tiktok has a cost: time. I spent so much time watching videos on TikTok that I did not have any time for anything else. Indeed, I stopped reading, I stopped creating, I stopped blogging, I stopped being active on Booktube, I stopped going to a the gym. TikTok is not the only reason why I stopped doing all those things but it did contribute enormously.
Which is a shame because I did love doing all those things. So, as one of my New Year’s Resolutions for 2022, I have decided to spend less time on TikTok. Actually, I do not want to spend time on the app at all. But knowing myself, one minute of free time and I might open the app, resulting in hours of watching TikToks. Thus, I went as far as deleting the app from my phone. I am determined to stay away from TikTok in 2022 and go back to creating content I love.
2. Getting back to the gym
In the fall of 2020, when the gym reopened, I hired a personal trainer. It went amazingly well. I learnt to use a lot of the machines I was too intimidated to approach before. I got into a very nice fitness routine and was working out. At first, I was training once a week and then twice. I loved it. Not only did it help with my body confidence but it also made me feel so good and energetic.
Working out gives me a lot of energy. The problem is, as 2021 went on, as I grew more tired and weary, I stopped going to the gym little by little. First, I went once a week instead of two, then once every other week, then once a month. And then, in October, I stopped going entirely. And while I must admit I have been very low on energy lately, I kind of miss the gym.
But it makes sense, right? If working out gives me a lot of energy, those energy reserves would stop filling up as I stopped going the gym. The obvious result is that I’d feel depleted and not motivated for the gym. A bit of a vicious circle really. I think what I need is to establish that routine again, where I go regularly and it becomes part of my routine.
Thus, as one of my New Year’s Resolutions for 2022, I have decided that I will start working out again. As soon as January 3rd for that matter.
3. Blogging frequently again
I used to blog once a week if not twice. I was very productive when it came to writing new posts and finding new things to write about. Whether it’d be outfits, recipes, lifestyle, I always had something to write about that I wanted to share. And then the flow stopped. Not out of nowhere. It happened progressively for a lot of reason.
Long story short, I felt like I did not really have anything valuable to share with my readers. Even though 2021 went very fast, I still feel like a lot of things in my life are very slow. And for some reason, I felt that the current things I was going through and my experience were not worthy of sharing. Add to that how exhausted I always was and I ended up not blogging at all or even writing.
I did have some periods where I’d have some inspiration out of nowhere, would write something and then back to silence. My photographer left New York City and moved to Miami in March 2021 and I believe it was the trigger. I had been working with him for over a year and we really hit it off. The photos were amazing and I knew that no one photoshoot would be a miss.
But then he left. So I was left needing to find another photographer that was as good and that I could afford. Because photographers are incredibly expensive in New York City. Since I started to run short on photos to use on blogs, I progressively stopped blogging basically. But I do remember how much I loved it so in 2022, I want to blog more frequently again.
4. Creating content and growing my Instagram profile
This one ties up with the New Year’s Resolution above. My photographer moved city so I could not create content as easily. I have to admit I also fell a bit out of love with Instagram. Low engagement was one thing fore sure. Another thing is that the app requires a lot of time, energy and effort without being that rewarding. After all, why would you spend time and money creating content, researching hashtags, looking up best times to post, engaging on other people’s posts for your content to not be seen?
In general, I felt like maybe I had outgrown Instagram and that it was not really bringing me any joy. At first I created a new personal profile where I would dump random photos. But then, it got flooded with bots so I deleted it and got back to my main one. I posted sporadically, mostly lifestyle content and I was okay with it.
Shooting outfit and new content regularly stayed in the back of my mind but I decided to pay it no attention. Come the Holidays and I needed pictures for Masha Hasel. So I decided to make it a full blown photoshoot with many outfits and locations so that I’d have enough content to last me until the New Year.
While I do need to get back into the habit of shooting and posing, I did quite enjoy that photoshoot and it made me realize that I quite missed it. So in 2022, I have decided that I will be more proactive when it comes to shooting content for my blog and Instagram. I want to post again and find the most Instagrammable locations in New York City.
I have found a photographer through a friend and we will be shooting in January in Noho, Soho and the West Village. During a shopping spree, I got myself some nice dresses which I am quite excited to show you and photograph.
5. Starting reading again
I have had periods in my life where I did not read a single book. Not one. And then other periods where I devour as many books as I can in a week. When I moved to New York City in 2019, I started a booktube channel in French. At the time, I did not really know what to do but I experienced steady growth. I am now close to a thousand followers, but I must also admit I have not been super consistent lately.
While I waited for my work permit to clear in 2019, I had a lot of free time and I read a lot. I was very active on Booktube. Come 2020, I am now working and do not have as much time to read or film videos for that matter. So I decrease my posting frequency. When the pandemic starts and the lockdown hits New York City, I find myself with more time so I read more. 2020 was a great reading year. However towards the end of 2020 I experienced reading fatigue.
As we entered 2021, I read less and less. While I now DNF book happily if I do not like them, I have been in a lot of reading slumps this year. The sheer amount of books that I disliked this year is unprecedented. For me I mean. I still feel like I read a lot of book but based on my previous record, it was not that much. In November, I read two books and in December just one.
When coming home, I am so tired that I just get on my laptop and watch TV shows. Or TikToks. So I did not read that much or even felt like I wanted to read, based on all the books that disappointed me this year. But now that TikTok has been removed from my phone and that I received a lot of very exciting books for Christmas, I can’t wait to get back into reading.
I have realized that maybe reading less but better book might also help with reading slump and reading fatigue. I will be much more selective of the books I read, stay away from genre I know are not my thing despite their popularity and DNF any book I am not enjoying.
Shop the outfit
Dress – SHEIN
Boots – SHEIN
Bag – POP BAG USA
Those are all my New Year’s Resolutions for 2022. Right now, I am aiming to get back into things I used to love but stopped doing for many reasons. I miss doing all those things and hope to get on with them very soon.
What about you? What you are New Year’s Resolutions? Do you have any? What are some things you used to love but stopped doing in 2021?
Thanks for stopping by. Hope you liked this post.
See you soon,
Love,
Corinne.
