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Don’t Start Your Year With Gritted Teeth. Here’s a Better Way.

Fresh starts are over-rated

Karen Nimmo
On The Couch
Published in
4 min readJan 6, 2025

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Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash

The new year is here and you’re amping for a fresh start.

A chance to shut (or slam) the door on the old year and step up for a bright and shiny 12 months ahead.

But easier said than done, right? It’s hard to bundle up the dust and dirt of a difficult year, take it to the tip and push it over the edge.

All the “stuff” you struggled with last year — financial stress, relationship niggles, the domestic load, your toxic boss, worries about whatever keeps you awake at 3am, trail you into a new year.

Especially if your circumstances meant you got little — or no — downtime over summer, or you know the holidays are likely to create more stress or conflict.

But kicking off your 2025 with tight shoulders and gritted teeth will make life even harder. You’ll feel your emotional and mental tank is running low, if not empty, before the challenges of the new year kick in.

So here are four things to think about as a new year stretches out front.

Finish something — or kill it.

I had a client confess recently that her house was full of unfinished craft projects, most of which would never…

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On The Couch
On The Couch

Published in On The Couch

Practical psychology for health and happiness. Owned/Edited by clinical psychologist and writer Karen Nimmo.

Karen Nimmo
Karen Nimmo

Written by Karen Nimmo

Clinical psychologist, author of 4 books. Editor of On the Couch: Practical psychology for health and happiness. karen@onthecouch.co.nz

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