There’s a tendency to either get over-excited by resolutions and then feel disappointed when the resolve slips, or, at the other extreme, flatly refuse to get involved in the New Year, New You thing

Or maybe, how about we take the pressure off January completely and look at it as a way of easing into the year gently? So there’s no pressure, but we also don’t lose the opportunity to reach for new experiences as we think about the upcoming year. That’s how Holly and I approach January…

For me, the break over Christmas, after the madness of being a jewellery retailer at Christmas, resets my mind somewhat and I raise my head from the everyday and start scouting around. I spend the first couple of weeks looking at predictions for the year and customer feedback and making decisions about where we will put our focus during the upcoming year; then in the last couple of weeks in January, I bring it all back together and make plans.

Holly meanwhile, likes to have a good sort out ready for the New Year and then spend the first couple of weeks writing up plans and goals. The first couple of weeks of January are a real momentum setter for her and it sets the tone for her whole year.

So, although we do approach January slightly differently from each other, we are great believers in taking the time to set some direction and intentions – however, it’s all good intentions with no unrealistic pressures attached to them.

Of course, Countrywoman’s Guide has been part of our conversations; looking back at the interviews already done, looking forward to the upcoming ones and our thoughts about new developments for 2024.

And that’s where you come in, if you’d like to. We’d love to hear your thoughts on what else you would like to see from us…

We hope that by sharing and showcasing the stories of people who have overcome some sort of adversity, we may have inspired you or those around you to believe you can get through things, even when it feels like tough going.

However, there’s so much more that we could be doing…

We chose to base our writing here on Substack as it’s a community that supports writers (take a look around, there are some amazing writers on here now) and it’s also a place where we own the content that we produce and it’s not subject to the same potential of losing the account to hackers that Facebook and Instagram are.

Substack provides us with a home where we can write long-form articles and one that we can e-mail you from, but it also offers us the ability to create a community – one that guides and helps other members.

We can create podcasts, (both private and public), arrange zoom meetings, in person meetings and create chat threads where we can swop tips and support – all managed and notified through our emails to your inbox.

Holly and I are both very keen that our next steps here at Countrywoman’s Guide are useful and reflect what you see a need for in your lives. We don’t want to waste your time with new things that you don’t see a value in.

So, to that end, we’re currently compiling a short list of questions that we’ll be emailing out to you next Sunday and we’d love it if as many of you as possible could fill it in. If you’d prefer, then please feel to drop us a message or have a chat with one of us, or you can also add comments below this post on Substack.

Your input is important to us, we want to shape a community that becomes a really valuable resource for you.

Here’s to 2024!

Holly & Emma x