Forget resolutions and words of the year. Choose a New Year's Imperative instead.
(Did you notice that both of those sentences are imperatives?)
I also wrote about on ye olde Wordpress blog at the time.
And here we are! With an abrupt ending but basically caught up to the present.
Will you declare a New Year’s Imperative for yourself in 2025? If so, what? Why?
I have some ideas for mine but am still “workshopping” them. Stay tuned!
-kelcey
Update on Jan 18, 2025:
I chose my imperative and posted about it here!
Thanks for reading The Habit of Art by Kelcey Ervick, a Substack Featured Publication (twice!). I love writing and drawing these posts and am grateful to everyone who follows along. I’m a writer and professor in Indiana. If you like this newsletter, you might like my graphic memoir, The Keeper, which was featured in the New York Times Book Review’s Holiday Gift Guide and is 40% off at the place that rhymes with I-Do-Not-Like-Green-Eggs-and-Ham-a-zon. I edited a book on making comics and visual stories, which you can find here: The Field Guide to Graphic Literature (or here). I have other books too! Thanks for again for being here.
I’ve chosen a word for the year for over 30 years. They range from pretty cliche—think Love and Health—to pretty abstract. One year was Pilgrimage which I never remembered once I arted it my Book of Yearly Words. The words always impact my life in some memorable way. One year I did choose an imperative D. I. N. Do It Now very helpful!
2024 was Mend—the first year since my husband of 30 years died. It was comforting. 2025 is Untangle—one of those abstract words.
Thanks for sharing!
Yep. Imperatives are imperative. And I give myself the grace of allowing them to morph…but only into something bigger or more meaningful.