I know:

New Year’s resolutions aren’t exactly fashionable these days. Much trendier than telling someone about your resolution is to go around quoting stats about how ineffective they are, or how many are forgotten by mid-January.

Not me, though. I love New Year’s resolutions. I love their shiny, back-to-school, Untamed energy. I relish a calendar year full of opportunity and the excuse to buy gorgeous new pens from Paper Source. Making a list of my wildest, most outrageous ideas and dreams? Yes, please!

I’m all in on irrational optimism—in my case, about creative writing, working on my own cookbook, drinking a gallon of water a day, getting back into triathlons, hiking Trolltunga, and summoning more patience.

I know what you’re thinking, and no, I’m not a sociopath. I also absolutely understand hating New Year’s resolutions. Synonymous with restrictive dieting, unsustainable workouts, and all manner of unattainable goals,the very notion of New Year, New You strikes me as exhausting. New year, better me is more like it.It’s the trying that counts. This year, even more than success, I need to feel hope.

I am ecstatic about 2023. I am all sorts of over-the-moon for what progress was made in 2022, a year wrapped in new love, brilliant adventure, two new residences, and fabulous new friendships. In fact, I’m going to spend all month celebrating what has gone down in the last year, and the endless possibilities of the new one at hand. I want change to be an exciting, momentous, powerhouse endeavor. The way Jangi Borhi channels her joie de vivre with colorful, flowy outfits, gorgeous gray curls, and rock-star energy (page 18). The way Dennis Jones pedals his high-octane health via the right attitude (page 30). And living every day with the effortless grace and faith of Charlie Mae Wilder (page 24). 

If I choose to have one mentality in this new year, it will be that every single day is precious and new, begging for my attention. Let’s fill the next 12 months to the brim with our deepest passions and joyful conversations, epic adventures and simple curiosity, and whatever magic surprises us along the way. Let’s walk into 2023 with audacious optimism for another year of living, loving, and feeling young at heart.