If you’re like me, you spent New Year’s Eve at home with a $12 bottle of rosé. I live by the sage words of “New Girl” character Jessica Day: “I prefer my wine sparkling, pink and under $11.” Close enough.
2024 was rough for a lot of people, to say the least. But when you feel like the world around you is caving in, you can focus on self-care and bettering your own life to help tolerate the external factors you have no power over. That’s something we can all center on in 2025.
For me, moving to a new apartment helped set the wheels in motion for the cliché sentiment, "New Year, new me." But while I live with an overdramatic "go hard or go home" mentality, there are plenty of small things you can do to help fix your life — or at least put yourself on the path to a better direction.
People tend to make outrageous New Year’s resolutions like “I want to go to the gym every day and lose 50 pounds” or “I want to completely cut out [insert vice]." While these seem like reasonable goals, putting that kind of pressure on yourself and setting specific high-reach limits makes it easy to quit after a short time or burn yourself out, making the success a short-term fix.
So, start small and be vague. You don’t need to have one grand proclamation. Make new attainable goals every week that will keep you motivated to keep up with your goals and work toward bigger changes by the end of the year. And if you need help thinking of what you want to change in your life, or simply need some serotonin inspiration, here are five self-improvement TV shows to get the new year's ball rolling.
'Tidying up with Marie Kondo'
![Tidying Up with Marie Kondo | Official Trailer [HD] | Netflix - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/WvyeapVBLWY/maxresdefault.jpg)
I tend to delude myself into thinking that everything brings me joy. As I was packing up my boxes to move, there were several bins I hadn’t touched at all since the last time I moved in 2023. Do they genuinely bring me joy? Probably not since I hadn’t even looked at them in two years. Yet, did I put them in my new storage unit? Yup.
Sufficed to say, I need to take a page out of Marie Kondo’s book and stop forcing sentimentality onto everything I own and making questionable 3 a.m. purchases that I’m convinced I need). Do I actually need 30 Taylor Swift Christmas ornaments? Maybe not. Did I need to buy that “Clueless” purse shaped like a VHS tape? Not particularly. (But also, yes — help me, Marie Kondo, you’re my only hope.)
In 2019, Kondo created the show, “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo.” The series centers on different families whose lives, responsibilities and family members require a different approach to decluttering and creating a more organized space. The main takeaway from Kondo’s method is the question, “Does this spark joy?” If the answer is yes, keep it. If not, get rid of it. For people like me, you have to start small. But you’re likely to find an episode in the eight-part series that resonates with your life and how you can improve your own space.
►Watch on Netflix
'Queer Eye'
There's a reason why Netflix’s “Queer Eye” is nine seasons long despite only debuting in 2018. With so much reality TV focusing on drama and chaos, it’s nice to see a wholesome show that features great representation, positivity, and a genuine desire to make people’s lives better.
The series features a group of five queer professionals — known as the Fab Five — who essentially make over someone’s entire life instead of just focusing on one thing like appearance or home renovation.
Self-care is one of the show’s foundations. If you don’t create space for yourself and your needs, the rest of your life will start to fall apart. Of course, the other cornerstones of the series are self-love and acceptance. Having a wholesome group of people who’ve dealt with their fair share of judgment allows the Fab Five to truly connect with the people they’re helping.
The featured person in each episode is referred to as a "hero," and the cast assists them with everything from fashion and home makeovers to unlearning bad habits and general lifestyle advice. Given the show's long run, audiences will undoubtedly find multiple heroes they can relate to and channel that advice into their own lives.
►Watch on Netflix
'Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones'
Real talk: The idea of living to 100 absolutely terrifies me. But if I follow in the footsteps of most of the women in my family, it might be in the cards. My great--grandmother lived until 97 and was still active and lucid up until her last year or two. My grandma, at nearly 80 years old, was taking care of her mom, when normally, she’d be at the age where someone would be taking care of her.
So, I need all the tips I can get on living a long, healthy and full life. That’s where “Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones” comes into play. In the four-episode mini-series, host Dan Buettner travels to areas with high life expectancy rates to delve into the lifestyles, eating habits, physical activity and mindsets that allow these groups of people to thrive for a century.
These areas are called Blue Zones, and each location has core similarities in the factors that promote long lives with plenty of cultural differences and unique ways of going about each notch on the Blue Zone checklist. Not only does the show give audiences tips on how to lead better, longer lives, but it also delves into the future and the possibility of creating more of these zones in the U.S.
►Watch on Netflix
'MasterChef Junior'
If I got anywhere near Gordon Ramsey, he would call me an idiot sandwich. Not only am I absolutely useless in the kitchen (something I fully blame on my attention span), but I have a 10-minute kitchen rule: If it takes more than 10 minutes, I want no part of it. That’s not exactly the best policy to have when you’re a vegetarian.
So, sometimes I watch “MasterChef Junior” to shame myself into actually trying to do more than heat up frozen food or make mozzarella pesto sandwiches. (Raise your hand if cheese is your main food group.) Naturally, I’m not typically big on cooking shows, but I love “MasterChef Junior.”
On the one hand, it’s lovely to see a patient and wholesome Gordon Ramsey fostering kids’ love for cooking and encouraging them to try again if they don’t succeed. But it’s equally heartwarming to watch the kids help each other out in a way that you rarely see in adult competition series. "MasterChef Junior" may not aim to be a self-improvement show, but you can learn quite a lot from the kids that range from 8 to 12 — about following your dreams, approaching challenges with kindness and not giving up. Every time I watch an episode, I get a bump of inspiration to try new things in the kitchen. From the mouths (uh, hands) of babes and all that.
►Watch on Hulu
'Headspace Guide to Meditation'
The Netflix show “Headspace Guide to Meditation” may not be your typical self-improvement show, but it’s filled to the brim with tools to slow down and better your mental health. Narrator Andy Puddicombe reflects on his journey of becoming a Buddhist monk and the tips and tricks he learned along the way. With episodes like “How to Let Go” and “How to Deal with Stress,” each installment gives you a clear understanding of what it will tackle, allowing you to choose the concepts most relevant to you.
I’m typically not a big animation person, so the chill, relaxing meditative imagery doesn’t do much for me. However, you can easily treat it like a podcast and leave it on while you’re doing other things. Sure, the five-part mini-series is a little corny, but we’ll take help in whatever form it comes. For people without access to therapy and mental healthcare, things like breathing exercises and other coping mechanisms can be a game-changer.
There’s also a sister series called “Headspace Guide to Sleep.” For all of my fellow insomniacs out there who used to get caught in grade school reading with a book light at 3 a.m., this one’s for you. Eve Lewis Prieto narrates this seven-part mini-series with episodes like “Putting Your Phone to Sleep” and “Your Perfect Sleep Rhythm.” It covers a wide range of the science behind sleeping and the steps we can take for better sleep or to try to circumvent chronic insomnia as much as possible.
►Watch on Netflix
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