First blog post of the new year! Hooray! I always love writing this because not only does it feel like an official fresh start but it's a little benchmark to another year my blog is still ticking along and this makes me all kinds of happy especially as we now enter it's FIFTH year going strong. So amazing, if not a little daunting how quickly the time has gone by. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and an even more wonderful New Year Eve... Let's hope the Twenties are as roaring as they were hundred years ago. Flapper skirts, beaded head-dresses and jaw length bobs at the ready, I'm not at all opposed to bringing back a little 1920s fashion! Charleston and Gatsby inspiration aside I just wanted to very quickly check in with you guys because I don't know if it's just me but it seems reaching both the end of 2019 as well as the end of a decade has meant that the "new year/new me" talk flying round on social media has been ten fold! And as lovely as these posts are to read, I wanted to share my thoughts... 

Once Christmas is over I often think there should be some sort of public broadcast warning for the abundance of gushing new years social media posts we're suddenly faced with on an overwhelmingly large scale. I should add I write that with no malice or bitterness intended, I genuinely do think the end of the year is a really wonderfully cathartic time, when you can truly reflect back and actually appreciate how far you've come, how hard you've worked and what an incredible time you've had. There's an official end to one chapter in your life and you can enter a whole new one feeling renewed and ready to go. I get that, I'm guilty of doing this myself. But that's the positive said to reading copious amounts of "goodbye 2019" captions. The negative side is when you've not really given your own year all too much thought, you don't feel like a particular chapter in your life is over or you've still got far to go and you're suddenly faced with post after post of other peoples achievements. It can feel a little over-facing, incredibly intimidating and you're often left feeling very inadequate. Again. I get it and I've 100% done this myself also.

I'm not going to start writing a potentially quite patronising post about how you should try not to compare yourself to others... We are all aware this is a toxic thing to do but with Instagram often acting as a hot bed for regular comparisons with people you deem cool or stylish or interesting enough to follow, it's way too easy to get sucked in before you can even stop yourself. It's important to remember two things here, the first being that your Instagram feed is carefully selected by yours truly. You decide who you follow and I guarantee there will be a large portion of people you simply follow because you love their vibe. There's absolutely nothing wrong with this! It's the joys of Instagram- finding like minded people you can feel inspired and motivated by. That said however, if at any point there is content appearing in your feed that makes you feel inadequate or not good enough than please use the powers that be and remove them from your feed with a simply click of "unfollow". It's so important that we remind ourselves regularly that the people you choose to follow are there to inspire not compete with. 

The second reminder is simply that you are on your own trajectory and at a completely different speed to everyone around you. The end of one year doesn't have to mean your times up and if you didn't achieve the goals you set yourself than you've missed your chance completely. That's silly and unrealistic (yeh that's right I just used silly as a serious, adult adjective). I think it's wonderful that some people feel like they really boxed off 2019 but it's not EVERYONE. Please remember to go at your own pace and do not force yourself to match up with everyone else's triumphs you're continually seeing on your Instagram feed. You can't do everything at once because believe me from personal experience- I've tried and you'll just end up wearing yourself down, not enjoying the amazing benchmarks you have hit and kicking yourself for those you haven't. I know this post is a little "after school special" but this past week it's been impossible to avoid feeling a little in the shadow of everyone else's achievements and so I felt compelled to share my two pence...

Whether you've still not got that promotion you think you deserve, you've not visited half the places on your bucket list or you didn't manage to go veggie and your list of books to read is just getting bigger... Please remember setting yourself one year or even one decade to tick of your entire list of goals is a tall order and frankly a little harsh. You are only person controlling your own life, cut yourself some slack and take all the time you need.

Wishing you all an amazing 2020 but politely reminding us all, it's not the be all and end all. 

Sophia xx

Outfit Details: Rust Knitted Turtle Neck- Arket (gifted), Brown Knitted Cardigan- Arket (gifted), Check Tweed Mini Skirt- Arket (gifted), Brown Chelsea Boot- Dear Frances, Gold Pendant Necklace- Alice Catherine X Mikaela Lyons

Photography by Catherine Booty