Hip Hip Hooray

Everyone and their mother has posted in the past week. An essay on their 2023, a highlight carousel on instagram. Some lowlights for the conscientious. That’s before the 3721 frameworks shared by thought leaders and thinkbois on how to reflect on the past year and or prepare for the coming year.

I’ll try not do the same.

That being said, I’ve really enjoyed reading the personal writing of friends or mutuals I spend time talking to every week. It’s like getting a seldom glimpse behind the curtain - the inner workings beyond the looking glass we see every day. Understanding your friends’ motivators, struggles and dreams is pretty cool. Makes me grateful for the messy way we all show up on the internet.

One thing I couldn’t also help but notice, especially in relation to the posts of longer form writing, is the correlation with down time. Think about it. We slow down for a millisecond, and suddenly there’s space and time to reflect, to forecast. I would wager that most people who try share their work online have done so this week, when they might have only shown up consistently in spurts over the previous 365 days. The point - we should take little breathers more often. Course correction and self understanding is important.

By all box-ticking "big things in life”, 2023 was a huge one for me. Baby, green card, house, travels, time home in Ireland, joyful relationship, big move. It’s felt pretty darn good. However, the box ticking exercise shows the pictures not the film. Pregnancy sucks (and mine was fortunately a healthy one). Decoupling my identity from work (a brutally painful and ongoing battle). Financial uncertainty (thanks immigration). Lots of time alone (honestly a difficult blessing, it gave me the space and time to do a lot of growing). Lack of sleep (wouldn’t trade it for the world). You get it.

Retrospectively, I took a lot of big swings at the end of 2022. In 2023, I did the work. 2024? Here’s having you. Last year was unequivocally the best year of my life, for all the reasons I never thought it would be.

I ignored most of the planning exercises circulating the internet this week but I have to say this thread by Greg Isenberg caught me. We’ve had so much fun at home with family over the past few days getting creative and pushing each other with this one. I might write about it next week. Style points baby!

If you’ve been up to anything interesting, please send it my way. I would love to read what you have to say. And if Greg’s thread is a fun thought exercise for you as it was for me, I’d love to share notes.

Here’s to a good one.

Love, Jessica

What I’m Enjoying

As someone who scrawled “transactional” as a hate-fuelled work of art during the pandemic, I looked forward to reading this, and it didn’t disappoint. I’m a big believer in strong opinions, loosely held, and loved this take.

Kaila is a good friend of mine and someone who embodies the definition of living with intention. Her writing is honest and just hits. Side note - when’s the last time you hand wrote a letter to a friend? Do it and thank me later. Snail mail is a big IN for 2024.

Don’t ask. Just watch. A quick and easy listen on harnessing the good in tech. It’s also a masterclass in giving a great talk. If you laughed out loud at the Duolingo reference in Barbie this summer, you’ll enjoy this.