100 Genuine Ways to Live a Better Life This Year (Genuinely)

Picture this. It’s 8:32 pm on a bank holiday Monday, the first of the year, and I am sprawled out at an angle not too dissimilar to the Earth’s axial tilt, a blanket with stars printed on is draped over my knees like the night sky has been embroidered into my anatomy, and I’m clutching a half drank bottle of Indian tonic water whilst watching YouTube.

Specifically, whilst watching this Struthless video on YouTube. It’s a video by the Ozzy personal growth and creativity creator, Cam, otherwise known as Struthless. And boy does he have some bangers.

But this one, in particular, spoke to me. In the space of 14 minutes, I had learned 32 ways to better my whole entire life.

Thing is, not all of them apply

I’m not an Australian dad illustrator media sensation. I don’t drive. I don’t want a chin-up bar. I don’t have a face tattoo. So some of these tips are rendered null and void for me, unfortunately.

Which is why I decided to create my own. 100 things that — for me — have brightened this very plane of existence in tiny but tremendous ways. Maybe they can do the same for you. Hopefully one or two. Who knows? Here goes:

100 ways to a better being

1. Buy some tealights. The closest star to our sun is still 40,208,000,000,000 km away. Bring some tiny ones into your home made of wicks and wax.
2. Read The Book of the Moon. You lunatic.
3. Get a disgusting phone case (it means you’re less likely to want to use it. Trust me).
4. Invest in a 3 journal system. Mine entails my daily planner, my tiny pocket-sized journal for out-and-about and the big beauty that bares my entire soul.
5. Get panty liners — or just change your pants more often. We all stink, we all dribble, and we all need additional absorbency at times.
6. Carry a bottle of water everywhere you go. You’ll drink it just to lower the weight you’re lugging about #chuggingnotlugging.
7. Learn how to wee in a park — nature calls even when you’re out in nature and not all corners of the universe possess a toilet.
8. Get some fairy lights for the dullest room in your home. Not so dull anymore.
9. Make a list of 30 ways you can be a main character this month. Things like: having pastries for breakfast, pretending you’re talking to a camera crew that’s following you around, renaming a colour, etc. You know the stuff.
10. Play more chess (it’s good for you! You can literally burn calories doing so).
11. Stop saving your best clothes for a “special occasion.” The most special occasion of your life is being here, today. Wear them now.
12. Paint your nails and let them chip. Leave them chipped. Learn to love them chipped. Life can be a lot like a chipped nail.
13. Watch a TED Talk every month. On anything you like. Today I watched one on how gaming can make a better world. Yesterday I watched “what I got for Christmas” ASMR.
14. Stop being afraid to spend money on what you really want to do. Money can be made back, memories cannot.
15. Drink tonic water. I am. It’s healing.
16. Get to know your genitals a little better. Stop dicking around and don’t be a pussy. Get inspecting.
17. Book a dentist appointment. I bet you haven’t in months now have you?
18. Brush your hair, pretty person! And if you’re bald, moisturise your head, pretty person!
19. Shower less. You don’t smell as bad as you think. But we’re wasting more water than you think.
20. Say thank you to your bus and taxi drivers! Because why the hell wouldn’t you?
21. Print off pictures of your month, every month. Nobody has ever regretted making a photo album.
22. Put fairy lights in your prettiest room, too. Even prettier now.
23. Invest in a printer. Not everything should be emailed.
24. FIX YOUR POSTURE. RIGHT NOW. SIT UP STRAIGHT, YOU.
25. Buy some durable shoes. Turns out, your toes start to curl as you get older. Don’t ask me how I know.
26. When was the last time you changed your bed sheets? *Glances plainly at my Bedsheet Police badge.*
27. And when was the last time you bought bed sheets that you love? Be a kid again. By the one with the moons on.
28. Don’t wait for a holiday or a birthday to celebrate a loved one. Buy a balloon for your uncle today.
29. Watch a video about how big the universe really is. Try this one.
30. Look up a map of the continent you live on. Learn where your local countries are.
31. Make up a silly game. Or a life-changing one. I wonder if anybody has ever considered simulating all the world’s issues in some kind of gaming platform, and observing how people solve them. Sounds like it could work. Just a thought.
32. Fall in love with walking places (this does not mean developing a crush on cities that have legs).
33. Talk to yourself more. It’s not weird. People who say it’s weird are weird.
34. Oh and also, accept your weirdness. It’s the best thing about you.
35. Buy a book for somebody else (psst. This is the one I want).
36. Adopt a penguin. Sponsor a cat shelter. Donate a blanket to a homeless foundation. Do something good for a good cause.
37. Collect ephemera. Receipts, bus tickets, cards. Immortalise the little moments. They’re exactly what life is made of.
38. Pick a supernatural creature you like and become obsessed with it for a while. That’s right, I am indeed reviving my Twilight era.
39. Go to the foreign food section of your supermarket and buy something. Even if you think you won’t like it. Thoughts aren’t always correct.
40. Name every appliance in your kitchen. Extra points if you stick Googly eyes on it. I have a toaster doused in ghoulish stickers that I and Ben have named the Ghoster. Turns dead into a ghost instead of bread into toast.
41. Find a kind of ASMR you really like. Even the eating ones if you’re brave enough.
42. Stop feeling guilty for staying up late and waking up later. Our ancestors only went to sleep when the sun did because of the lack of visibility. But this is the era of the fairy light. This is your time.
43. Listen to your body! She doesn’t lie!
44. Have you got a really good pair of gloves? Oh, you do? How lovely.
45. Anybody you know who’s older than you, ask them what their life was like in the years before you existed. The universe has been around for nearly 14 billion years. Our own individual stories are barely full sentences in the cosmic library.
46. Stop always trying to evolve. Start accepting who you are right now.
47. Don’t move out if you’re not ready. Don’t study that subject if you don’t enjoy it. Don’t say yes if you mean no. Don’t do anything you don’t want to do.
48. Learning to drive is overrated. Learn to hike. Cars can’t scale mountains — but you can.
49. Learn all the words to a song that your dad loves. If that’s a dance tune like Darude Sandstorm, learn a dance to it.
50. Bake something sloppily, on purpose. Perfection is a bitter flavour.
51. NEVER SETTLE FOR ANYTHING. Not a job, not a person, not a sandwich. You deserve the best. Crusts and all.
52. Don’t just make the bread — taste it. Jobs should be for enjoyment, not just employment.
53. Buy more loose clothing! We all bloat! It’s human!
54. Cry more. It’s cathartic (and if nothing else, it really tests the durability of your eyeliner).
55. Listen to this. It’s a whole experience.
56. Click this. Not everything has to be useful to be important.
57. Watch this. For when you’re sick of life’s noise, this a reminder that the quiet isn’t everything.
58. Learn about this. It’s a breath of fresh air.
59. Try this. Believe me. Believe you.
60. Stop trying to fit somebody else’s “perfect.” You don’t need to shave your butthole if you don’t really want to.
61. Break something — and realise that even when it’s broken, it’s still beautiful. Kintsugi and boogie.
62. Teach yourself about a new kind of bird. My current favourite is the Little Grebe.
63. Look at leaves more! They come in so many shapes and sizes! We have so much in common!
64. Find your favourite tree. Even if it takes a lifetime.
65. Call in sick. Even if you feel okay. Don’t feel guilty. I hate the whole “work-life balance” crap. Life is life. Work is only part of it.
66. Create a new imaginary friend. Open up to it.
67. Embrace your childlike self again. Be loud. Dress boldly. Make up a language.
68. Chapter title your day. Here’s why.
69. Forget gratitude lists — try gratitude thoughts. Next time you’re on the loo, don’t scroll on your phone. Scroll through your memory of today and pick out the good bits.
70. For a day, pretend your life is an episode of The US Office. Be a Michael Scott.
71. Find a moment to say “that’s what she said.” Slip it in shamelessly (that’s what she said).
72. Stop expecting perfection. Start embracing the mess.
73. Clean that drying rack where you stick all your freshly washed dishes. It’s grosser than they ever were.
74. Wear your comfy clothes like they’re your fancy clothes. Comfort is as priceless as it comes.
75. If you don’t want plants, buy a rock and try to keep it alive (it’s silly, but it’s a thing. And we all want the best life for our thing).
76. If you do want plants, buy a rock and stick it in one of your plants and try to keep both of them alive. The thing in its forest.
77. Play more games. Video games. Board games. Card games. Just not mind games.
78. Draw a self-portrait and stick it on your fridge. The first one. No matter what.
79. Look at something you see every day in a new way. My mom thinks the stones in my fireplace look like new potatoes. I now cannot see otherwise.
80. Buy an extension lead. You’re going to need it one day, trust me.
81. Halloween is a choice, not a holiday. Dress up on a random Tuesday for no reason.
82. Start a crossword. Don’t finish it. Learn to love unfinished things.
83. Look up how many people died today. Be thankful for every moment.
84. Look up how many people are alive today. Be thankful that you’re one of them.
85. Don’t kill your fears — respect them. I’m deathly afraid of spiders, but I’d never kill one.
86. If you have hooded eyelids — know that I love you.
87. Buy a tiny journal and keep it in your pocket. There’s something to write down every day.
88. Use a nice-looking shopping bag for your Big Shop™. A cute tote. An expensive rucksack. Even your daily activities deserve beautification.
89. Next Christmas, don’t buy perfume for your loved one. Make a personalised set of Top Trumps for them instead.
90. Read up on the history of your home. Your town existed long before you did.
91. Put the heating on. You only have a limited number of breaths to take in this lifetime — you shouldn’t have to see them in front of you.
92. Stock up on pens. You always need them most when you have the least (and if you want to be a stellar soulmate like mine is to me, buy your loved one a Scrivener pen — with refills! — for Christmas. A writer’s wand, that).
93. Laugh more! At comedy shows and YouTube compilations and your own farts!
94. Speaking of farts, your soulmate is your soulmate. Blow off in front of them. It won’t blow them away — but you do.
95. Invent a new room for your home. Even if you can’t physically create it, imagine a place you’d love to cram inside your existential HQ.
96. Stop writing in black ink. Stop boycotting blue pens. Stop thinking purple glittery gel biros are lame. Start being cool, man.
97. Grade your days. Aim for a B+ in every moment (because it stands for be positive. I invented it myself).
98. Every day, ask yourself “what little thing can I do today to feel good?” Even if it means buying a better face cream or drawing the moon in chalk on your driveway.
99. Stop expecting everything to do what it says on the tin. Start accepting that the tin, and what’s in the tin, are two entirely separate beings. That’s why there’s no 100th point in this post.

“I got 99 betterments, and settling for less ain’t one.”

99 things. And the hundredth is your own self — because you are capable of bettering your whole lifetime, moment by moment.

So there you go. Have a go. And let me know.

100 (ish) genuine ways. Jen you win, ways. Because you are Jen and what you’ve won is your best life to date. Have fun with it, you.