I failed all of my New Year’s Resolutions within a week of the New Year.

My situation fell into the stereotype of setting restrictive goals that end in self-sabotage more often than not. I had resolved to eliminate gluten from my diet, get off social media, and stick to a morning routine of waking up early and meditating. Naturally, I responded by changing them into something I knew I couldn’t mess up: to channel my inner Stevie Nicks. The idea came to me during a Vevo music video watching binge with my mom. A few glasses of rosé later, tears were coming to our eyes while Landslide blasted through the living room. Everything clicked for me when I heard Stevie sing about the seasons of her life—the problem with New Year’s Resolutions is that they often don’t allow for change. With time, you may discover that they were simply the wrong goals for you.

I decided to let go of the pressure that came with starting the new decade and connect with my intuition. I changed my rules to guidelines and my feelings of working against the clock to surrendering to the changing seasons of my life. Here are 3 guidelines that I created for aligning with your inner witchy woman: 

Trust the seasons of your life. What this means is to follow your intuition and resist manufactured change. Intuition requires peace, or else it may be confused with anxiety. Being at peace comes from honoring every version of yourself—past, present, and the changing future. People aren’t iPhones and progress isn’t linear. You don’t have to constantly race to be the next best thing. 

Honoring the natural rhythm of your life also means trusting your own vision enough to defend your work with clarity and integrity. You can’t let anyone push you around, and you need to protect your energy by practicing moderation. An example of this could be following a night of partying with alone time and peaceful activities.  Avoiding excess in life can protect your future and the quality of your work. Stevie has expressed regrets about failing to heed this advice earlier in her life, especially when it came to relationships and substance abuse.

Live and create timelessly.  You should wear clothes that let you breathe. This doesn’t have to literally mean wearing loose clothes, as Stevie herself often wore tight corsets, but wearing what empowers you instead of constraining yourself to fit a trend. The current beauty standard is extreme and often too unrealistic to uphold. Never compare yourself to influencers and celebrities who have access to plastic surgery, dieticians, personal trainers, and stylists. Beauty trends come and go, but creating your own unique look never goes out of style. 

Stevie’s work has an unmistakably timeless quality about it.  Her continuous presence in pop culture affirms this, as seen in her appearance on American Horror Story and the popular artists, such as Harry Styles, that cover her songs. I feel as though the rawness of her words and emotions is what makes her work resonate on a universal level. Keeping raw creativity alive means following your muse wherever it goes and not taking yourself too seriously. In her interview with Rolling Stone, Stevie revealed that she wrote poems about The Game of Thrones and Anthony Bourdain. Stevie has a youthful and playful attitude that has only grown stronger over the years, and she gathers inspiration from everywhere. 

Value solitude. Don’t be afraid to cancel plans! In her Rolling Stone Interview, Stevie said that life-long mantra is “don’t endanger my show.” She would often decline to see her friends from high school and college when she played in their city to rest for her show the next day. 

What sets Stevie Nicks apart above all else is her strong sense of self. Carving out time to be alone is a crucial part of developing this. You shouldn’t neglect your relationships, but you should put your dreams and peace of mind before all else. Anyone who is meant to be in your life will understand this and encourage you to do your own thing. 

When it comes to New Year’s Resolutions, 2020 has been an entirely different experience for me. I wanted so desperately to start over in the new decade that I put too much pressure on myself. This time, I don’t expect to perfectly stick to the three guidelines all at once. Instead, I will make little effort to achieve them every day. I’m grateful that I failed my original resolutions because they led me to something greater. Setting strict rules for yourself and feeling disappointed when you inevitably fail isn’t living. Instead of feeling restrictive and flat, my goals now feel expansive and multidimensional. This year, leave your and everyone else’s expectations behind and focus on truly living.

Kelly Canaday loves to practice chess moves and envision a utopia. Her work has been featured in NPR Interviews, Into The Void, Twist in Time, The Writers’ Cafe Magazine, Poetica Publishing’s Mizmor Anthology, and The Sagebrush Review. She has upcoming publications in Saw Palm and Blood Orange.

This Article was edited by Executive Editor Sarah Diver

Copy Edited by Tah Ai Jia.