Reading back my New Year’s resolution for this past year, I can’t help but cringe. “Party’s over and it’s time to get real,” I wrote, not remotely aware of how real it was about to get. “I’m getting married. I just don’t know to whom yet.” Three hundred sixty-five days later, I’ve met and gone out with some great guys, and some additional guys, but my ring finger is still rockless. Save no date. Choose not the chicken nor the fish. Despite my 2024 resolution, I’m still not engaged.
You may assume that I’ve come to realize that finding a spouse is not meant to be framed as a resolution, but rather as an evolution into a version of myself that’s ready for and open to committing to another soul for forever.
Except that last year, my colleague Frannie Block resolved to drink less Diet Coke, and in the past 12 months, an emerald-cut sparkler has landed on her left hand, and she and her new, lovely fiancé just came home with a Cavalier King Charles spaniel puppy.
So my main resolution for 2025? Drink less Diet Coke.
And also: read, and practice the exercises in, The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, a self-help book for unlocking creativity that my most productive friends swear by; eat more apples, specifically the Ludacrisp ones from the farmers market by me; and read more sci-fi, a genre that I used to think was silly but now suspect holds important knowledge that might help us get through the next five years. I could go on: call my grandmother more, pray, go to Gaga dance classes, eat out less, buy fewer but higher quality single-fiber clothes like silk shirts and wool socks. But my therapist and I (Hi, Kevin!) are working on my tendency to overcommit—which feels like yet another “resolution,” but, in therapy, we call it “overcoming limiting behaviors impressed upon me during early development by my parents” (Hi, Dad!).
Seeking inspiration and guidance, I asked my fellow Free Pressers, and friends of The Free Press, to tell me their resolutions. Read what these wise people—including Abigail Shrier, Niall Ferguson, Batya Ungar-Sargon and, yes, Frannie Block—are resolving to do for themselves, for their families, and for their communities below. Whatever you’re resolving to do, or manifesting toward, or if you’re a man, optimizing for, in 2025—I invite you to commit to it in writing in the comments section! I hope you get there. And even if you don’t quite, I really do believe it will be a magnificent year for all of us. Happy New Year.
Emily Yoffe, senior editor: Notice Something Beautiful Every Day
Recently, I was walking home in the early evening when I did something I rarely do: look up at the sky. This was not because D.C. was being swarmed by drones from New Jersey, but because I suddenly realized the sky was entirely filled with row after row of soft, pink clouds. As I stood and admired, I saw others were similarly struck, pointing and photographing the quickly fading show.
This year, I am going to notice something beautiful every day, and make myself stop and appreciate these tiny, transporting moments. Like the one captured by poet William Carlos Williams in “The Red Wheelbarrow.” Like the way, this fall, the scarlet leaves stayed up for weeks until they seemed to obey a signal to carpet the sidewalk in crimson.
Nellie Bowles, queen of ‘TGIF’: Write More and Better
“TGIF” is too much fun. I get to embody an exaggerated version of myself, weigh-in on everything, tell jokes, rant for hours while sitting comfortably in a little home office and speaking to no one. And I have to admit something: It’s too easy. I do it in a few sweaty hours.
So this coming year, I want to challenge myself to write more and write deeper. That’s right: longer rants. Reported stories. What about a screenplay? I bet I could do some mediocre short fiction. These are things I think about. My resolution is to bring ambition back to my writing.
Joe Nocera, deputy managing editor: Be a Better Friend
“You have to be a friend to have a friend,” my wife, Dawn, likes to say, and she’s damn good at it. Her best friend is someone she met as a freshman in college, and they have been close ever since. No matter how busy she is, she always makes time for her friends, going to dinner with them, visiting the botanical garden with them, or just talking with them on the phone. Which is why she has a lot of them.
Me? Not so much. I’ve worked in New York since the mid-1990s, and have gotten to know lots of people I consider friends. But I rarely make the effort to stay in any kind of regular touch. It’s a void in my life that I want to belatedly fill. So starting in January, I am going to follow Dawn’s mantra, and try to be a better friend to some of the many people I’ve gotten to know and like in the 30 years I’ve been a New Yorker. So friends, don’t be surprised if you get a text from me asking if you want to join me for coffee some morning. Get used to it. It’s the new, improved me.
Niall Ferguson, columnist: Finish My Book