Ohh....but where do we start.
No pressure for a mega year end issue here being December and all. But bouncing around in my mind has been the notion of “hmm, not much happened this year” but when I give it a bit of a pause it’s a bit like “oh yeah!!”
The Year That Was
January to May is a blur.
Except Arsenal and getting to the Emirates in March!
Then, I resigned from my job and eventually moved out of my apartment over summer, hitting the figurative road for the remainder of the year. In some ways it feels like I have been living out of a suitcase, which I have, but at same time, time just flies doesn’t it?
Visits in Canada. And Switzerland of course. Habits gonna habit. Rituals gonna ritual. Especially when most other things were uncertain around me.
Then it was on to prototype living and life in Malmo to close out the year. My old favourites from visiting there in the past delivered and I discovered some new ones, like sauna and North Sea cold water plunges. But for where I am at and what I want and also need, it’s back to Stockholm to start 2024. Distance makes the heart grow fonder, am I right!?
And I’m thankful to have created space to explore AND return if I needed to.
Looking back I am happy with what I wrote and shared in here. There’s some really good issues (biased) and some reminders for me too. It’s funny, past writing can be cringe, but as it gets better (from my standpoint), it serves as an accountability mechanism.
Because a lot of the time I am putting stuff out there to live by in here each month.
November was a tougher time than I have had in a while. I knew in May when I decided to change things up, that there would be challenges. I had even previously wrote about knowing that it would be hard, but it was still harder than I expected! Lol.
Happy to be on the other side of it and have had just a great close to the year so far and already looking forward to the New Year.
2024.
I have in the past been one of those people - resolutions are overrated, and no need to guilt ourselves into things, but a bit like seasons changing, the calendar year offers an opportunity to say, “You know what? It’s a New Year!”
And that’s something I welcome hearing.
Some This and That below, but a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and best wishes to you all for the holiday season. And a Happy New Year!
Jamie
This and That
Succession finale and a few of its final episodes were some of the best TV in a while. The Last of Us, while enjoyable, was very overrated in my opinion. Didn’t watch much else this year when it came to TV. Nor did I read a lot! May through October was perhaps one of my most social stretches of my adult life, so not much to recommend on the entertainment front. Wait, did I see Elvis this year? Nope that was October 2022.
See what I mean? Time has flown.
Found myself re-watching Tenet (after a tour of the filming locations in Tallinn in August) and Dunkirk in anticipation for Oppenheimer. Have you seen it? Obviously amazing but there’s one scene in it for me that I found especially enjoyable. Ping me to discuss!
Tom Whitwell does a “52 things I have learned” post every year for what seems like a decade. Here it is.
Always some fascinating things in there, like:
Only 28 books sold more than 500,000 copies in the US in 2022. Eight of them were by romance novelist Colleen Hoover.
Came across this one as well. It’s 52 Snippets from the year.
Here’s some food for thought, literally.
“Dark chocolate is worse in terms of greenhouse gas emissions than lamb.”
You may have also noticed my weekly newsletter has been going again. I have done 7 issues so far to close out the year . Last one featuring a Q&A with my friend Oskar on branding. Also embedded in these 7 issues is are some of my favourite pieces of content from the year. Youtube, Podcasts, Writing etc. Here’s the archive to poke around if you are curious.
https://strategyweekly.substack.com/archive
What else?
Let’s keep going.
I’ve been intrigued by Joseph Campbell’s Power of Myth series from the late 1980s since discovering it earlier this year. I have been slowly going through it but was drawn to a clip on Twitter/X the other week which landed well with me. I think it’s from another interview but will share the pull quote and link here to the series.
Joseph Campbell: You must have a room or a certain hour a day or so where you do not know what was in the newspapers that morning. You don't know who your friends are. You don't know what you owe to anybody. You don't know what anybody owes to you. But a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be.
And lastly, leaving with a song that came to mind. Saw someone share a song they listened to on repeat at one point in their life. And that’s something I have always done, but one that stood out was Karma Police by Radiohead, especially the part where it goes....
“For a minute there...”
And lastly, some pictures since my last issue.
All the best!
Jamie
