Member-only story

Five Things to Ditch in December

Susan Kelley
4 min readDec 3, 2021

--

In Order to Have a Happier 2022

Photo by Moritz Knöringer on Unsplash

#1 The Need to Be Right

We saw this tendency probably more in 2021 than we did even in the run-up to the Biden election, with all of the politicization of social media. I thought we’d never get to see the light of day with online, social media experts jousting each other, but then emerged the economic and medical armchair experts.

To find some bliss in the coming year, keep scrolling. No one changed anyone’s mind online. I’ve learned to move on by, and that was a hard lesson for me — really hard. As a teacher and writer, boy did I want to spread information. But, alas, no one wanted to hear my side of the story. So I no longer need to be correct. I just shrug and pour another glass of wine. Ditch being right, and just enjoy being.

#2 Other People’s Goals

Shedding someone else’s expectations for you is empowering. I’ve watched so many of my friends from college and grad school finally shed the persona of what they thought they were supposed to be, in order to pivot to become what they actually want to be. It’s refreshing. The “great resignation” turns out not to be about people quitting their jobs to do nothing, or to move into other, similar jobs. It’s about people finally starting their own gig, creating their own business…

--

--

Susan Kelley
Susan Kelley

Written by Susan Kelley

Susan is a runner, a mom of 3 grown children, and an avid traveler. She writes about humans, and wrote a book about false accusations of sexual assault.

Responses (1)