New Year, Old Vintage
Helping to cultivate a happy 2025
One of my favorite podcasts in French could not be further removed from the kind of thing I listen to in English. It’s further evidence of why learning another language is like the chance to live another life or at least the drug and alcohol-free chance to gain access to a different perception of the self. Here’s an Anaïs Nin quote that I love on the subject:
“Language to me is like the discovery of a new world, really a new state of consciousness. A new word to me was a new sensation. Reading the dictionary, anything at all, can add not only to your knowledge but also to your perceptions.”
At any rate, the podcasts I listen to in English tend to be political and smart or pop culture-y and smart (and always leaning towards snark). Sometimes I listen to pods about books or movies or fashion, but even then they all share that same kind of knowing sensibility. None of them is about self-improvement: how to be happier, or vision-boarding. In English, I tend to look at that sort of thing askance. Meanwhile, the other day, as I was happily listening to my favorite French podcaster talk about journaling about the old and new year, I heard her mention a book called The Happiness Project as a source of inspiration for the questions she was asking us to consider journaling about. A book that firmly falls into the category of self-improvement and that I tried to read when it was trending back in 2015 or so and that I don’t remember particularly caring for. Yet, despite that difference in taste, I was enjoying her podcast very much as always. That’s when it occurred to me that I was cultivating different selves in different languages.
I thought about why I was open to things in French that I’m not open to in English, and I think it boils down to the cultural differences with which we approach happiness. In France, there’s a bracing honesty to the way in which difficult subjects are approached. Positivity in that context becomes the sugar on top of difficult conversations with others or with the self. In America, we tend to cultivate positivity for its own sake— not as a way to seek our truth or grow our own understanding, but as a way to repress or cover up what we don’t like. Smile through the pain! When positivity is laid on thick like that, it can become sugary, not sugar, fast.
That’s not as loaded a criticism of America as it might sound. There are lots of ways to be American. In America, I easily avoid positivity culture, because I can spot its neon hideousness a mile away and flee because from experience I know that it can feel the opposite of what it’s trying to cultivate. Instead of light and sweet, all that forced happiness can feel toxic and heavy. Meanwhile, in France, I can sometimes feel overwhelmed by just how honest French people are. The French can sometimes feel like the cultural equivalent of my very typical New York City born-and-bred mother, who’s one of those people who cannot tell a white lie to save another person’s feelings— something I giggle about now and helped make me who I am, even as I embrace a slightly gentler approach. (I make that specific comparison, too, because every French person I know feels very at home in New York City, and I think that’s partially why.)
Neither culture, French or American, is better, or maybe I just don’t feel qualified to make that judgment, but together they actually go great. Both approaches balance each other out. “You smile too much,” my French family used to tell me. “You look too sulky,” I’d hear from schoolmates in America. As an adult, I feel like I’ve achieved a balance between the two. A little positivity is not a bad thing, especially when it’s coupled with blunt honesty!
That’s all to say, I would normally shy from these kind of questions the French podcaster was asking me to reflect on, but this year I sort of like them. A little sugar feels okay this year. If you’re also into journaling, here they are:
2025 will be the year I…
In 2025, what do I want to start doing? Stop doing? Continue to do?
What qualities and habits do I want to develop in 2025?
Which parts of my life do I want to prioritize in 2025? Hobbies, professional life, relationships, health and well-being, money, hobbies?
What are my three biggest goals for 2025? How will I measure my progress and celebrate my wins in 2025?
In what will I invest my time, energy, money in 2025?
What do I want to become an expert in in 2025?
What lessons/ memories do I want to take from 2024 into 2025?
What do I want more of in 2025? More free time, more traveling, more creativity, more time with family, more family?
Who do I want to be in 2025?
Do you enjoy journaling or self-improvement? What are books or podcasts that you’ve enjoyed on the topic in English? As I said or maybe I just implied it, but I’m trying to be more open to these things in English as well, so please drop your recs below!
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xx
Izzy
Wearing a new vintage cape I was inspired to hunt down by the French creator Elodie Romy. I searched the term “vintage tartan cape” on eBay and etsy and selected this one for only $40, because the lining was damaged. It’s not noticeable though! Paired with secondhand Sézane boots from the Real Real that are still available new here and a thrifted knit dress and secondhand Polène tote also still available new here in a different shade or secondhand in the shade I have here.