Aging ain't for Sissies

Fifty‑Four Tiny Ways To Reset Your Year

• Marcy Backhus • Season 2 • Episode 21

Share episode

The snow is piling up, the sun ducks between skyscrapers, and we’re choosing warmth the easy way: small sparks that actually stick. Instead of white‑knuckle resolutions, we map out 54 tiny, feel‑good changes that make 2026 brighter without draining your energy or your wallet. From the emotional comfort of a beloved movie to the joy of a shower playlist you actually sing along to, we explore simple rituals that lift the day and keep your momentum moving.

We get practical about low‑effort wins: homemade salad dressings that make weeknight greens taste like a restaurant, handwritten thank you notes that reset the room, and quick compliments that change a stranger’s face and your own mood. We talk about city elevator kindness, why dogs are instant serotonin, and how rescuing a tired houseplant can be a quiet act of hope. There’s room for spontaneity too—saying yes to a last‑minute lecture, taking a different route home, or buying yourself a small treat for no reason other than it makes you smile.

We also look inward, reconnecting with old passions and unfinished projects that still have a heartbeat. One cake class can unlock an artist. One playlist can shift a morning. One post‑it can save a day. After a year of medical storms and grit, we make space for grace, release the pressure to be perfect, and set a gentle course into the new year. If you’re craving doable ideas and a kinder plan, this one’s for you.

If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs a lift, and leave a quick review to help others find us. What tiny spark are you trying first?

SPEAKER_00:

Hello, and welcome to Aging Ape for Sissies. My name is Marcy Backis, and I am your host. Well, hello, my gorgeous people. Welcome back to Aging Ape for Sissies, the podcast where we refuse to act our age, except for when it comes to bedtime. We may stay young at heart, but let me tell you, if I'm not horizontal by 9 p.m., I turn into a Disney villain, no lie. And especially right now, dang, dang, dang. Dark, dark, dark. Especially here downtown in the city of Chicago. A lot of people don't realize it, but because of the high buildings, we don't get a lot of sun down on the ground. There may be sun, and right now it's sunny out. There may be sun up in the air, but literally on the ground, it is dark most of the day. So I definitely, you know, seven o'clock, I'm like, oh, jammy's on in bed. I don't know. Um, but uh it's been an interesting week here in Chicago. We've had a ton of snow. I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving. My son Alec flew in for a few days, had a great time, missed Kyle. Kyle was in California doing a Kyle Thanksgiving. So um we just had Alec and really had a good few days. It was quick, it was fast, and we got a ton of snow while he was here. It was sure beautiful. It's still beautiful. It's on all the roofs. It's been so cold that it hasn't melted much. So it's still around. We're supposed to get some more snow Sunday, some snow next week. So starting out to be a very snowy December, first time since we moved here three years ago. This is our fourth winter here, and uh, I haven't had this much snow in the beginning. I will be cutting out of here in January. I am leaving for six weeks. So I'm gonna leave uh January 11th, I think. And I'm gonna come back somewhere around February 23rd. During that time, I'm gonna celebrate my 65th birthday in Las Vegas with my sister and some friends. We're gonna do uh Wizard of Oz in the sphere. Then I'm gonna hang out for a couple of weeks in California and then go on a cruise with Lynn for a week down to Mexico, where we plan to not get off the ship and just do spa treatments and walk and talk and eat and have a good time. I'll get home from that and take off and head for a week in Arizona and then do my trick home. It's about a five-day drive. I'm driving. I love driving. I know everybody thinks I'm crazy. I've planned my trip. I am uh heading off for um from Chicago to St. Louis, St. Louis to Tulsa, Tulsa to Amarillo, Amarillo to Gallup, and Gallup to Las Gallup, New Mexico, and then into Vegas, where my friend Annette has a condo that we'll be staying in. So exciting, fun trip. Yes, I'm driving. I enjoy driving. Uh and it gets me a few extra days away from Craig. So need a little space right now. And I'm looking forward to just all kinds of stuff and having fun and turning 65 and living my best life. Today, today, what are we going to talk about today? 54 Little Ways to Jumpstart 2026. And I'm going to tell you, we are going to have this exact same segment on Inside Marcy's Mind. So if you listen to both, sorry. Rarely do I do the same thing, but I think this is a fun thing to have on both. Um, so don't bother listening to Inside Marcy's Mind if you're listening to this one and vice versa. Um I think we've got some good information. The key word here is little. Um, little changes. We're not talking about running marathons and reinventing your life and all of that. These are just little things we can do to jumpstart that 2026. The lazy and brilliant, fabulous way. So hang in there, we'll get started on that. All right, what can we do? What can we do to jumpstart 2026? I found this information in Real Simple Magazine. So if you get it, you'll have the information. But I will tell you, one of the ways to brighten your year is to watch an old favorite movie. What's yours? I'll tell you, my go-to favorite movie is Steel Magnolias. It always will be. It is just, I know what I'm getting. I'm getting a great movie with great actresses, all about women relationships. And there's not much more I can ask for in a movie. As a matter of fact, this afternoon I'm gonna go see Wicked for Good. Haven't seen that one yet, so I'm gonna go see that. But I I love a woman movie. I love a movie about women relationships, and I think far and wide, Steel Magnolias is still the best. Nothing heals the soul faster than revisiting a movie you've seen many times. You can quote it verbatim. Come sit right next to me. I mean, there's just uh so many things. Well, I'm sorry, I didn't even tell that quote right. If you don't have anything nice to say, come sit right next to me. And that was the great Olivia Dukakis. Um, didn't do it much justice, but I can quote Um It's like emotional mac and cheese, right? Seeing a movie that just fills your heart with goodness. So, what do you think about that for a way to start? So at our age, what rewatching a movie is great because half the time we've forgotten the plot anyway, which is true. You ever re-watch something and thinking, oh my gosh, I didn't remember any of this? Yes, I have, and it's crazy. Congratulations. You've just created your own cinematic multiverse. So, yeah, I'm gonna tell you, rewatch that movie. Make a shower playlist. Now, yes, a specific playlist for shower concerts. Because if Beyonce can have an arena tour, you can have a tile and steam stadio experience. Here's a pro tip: don't choose songs that require choreography. We don't need anyone doing hair flip moves and throwing out their neck. Absolutely for sure. But I'm gonna tell you when I um I have a um one of those Amazon, I don't want to say her name. You know her. It starts with an A in my bathroom. And I just tell it to put on 70s music when I get in there, and it plays all the feel-good songs that uh I don't know about you, but songs help me reminisce. They bring back times, they bring back experiences, they bring back places, and they bring back people. I think music is magic that way. So start yourself your own shower playlist. Try a recipe you've been saving. How many cutouts do you have? How many saved Instagram recipes do you have? How many things do you save thinking one day, one day, one day? So I'm gonna tell you, this is risky behavior. Every time I save a recipe, it requires 42 steps, six bowls, three hours in a grocery haul, but costs the same as a weekend in Cancun. So when I'm telling you to try a new recipe, try something simple, something easy, something that sparks joy. Don't remodel your kitchen. Don't buy all new pots and pans. Create a new recipe. You know what? Make your own homemade salad dressing. I will tell you, nothing changes a salad more than making your own dressing. My mom always made all her dressings. My favorite place to grab a salad here in my neighborhood is paisano's. And the reason is the salad is fabulous. It's a chopped chicken salad with all kinds of goodies in it. But they make all their dressings in-house. And my favorite combo is take a little Italian, a little blue cheese, mix it up, and chef's kiss. So try a recipe. Make your own salad dressings. Do something easy. Don't remodel your kitchen. Find something that sparks some joy in you. All right, the next thing we can do to spark some joy in 2026. Kindness that actually makes you feel better. Kindness that actually makes you feel better. You know, being kind makes you feel better. If you're grouchy and you're out in the world, it doesn't help anyone. If you can find that little part in you, even on a bad day, that can smile and make somebody's day better, do it. My friend Shane is great at that. He showers people with compliments. He he just is a ray of sunshine that way. And I I've tried to take his lead. I'll walk down the street, and if I like something somebody's wearing, I'll tell them. And you should see how it lights up their face. Do something simple that way. Another thing you can do is write a thank you note, not a text, not a thumbs up emoji, but a real note on paper with handwriting. Remember how to do that? It's that thing we used before Siri started taking dictation with an attitude, and that is a factoroo. When you send someone a thank you note, it not only brightens their day, it makes you feel like a classy lady from a bygone era, like Eleanor Roosevelt, but with arthritis. That's a fact and a half. Um I talked about it a little bit earlier, but give someone a compliment. Tell them something. Tell them their hair looks great, their sweater is a whole mood, your energy today is giving main character. It's important. Hold the door for someone. You know, find those tiny bits of kindness, and it's not only gonna change their day, it's gonna change yours. Trust me on this. Living in a big city, I ride an elevator four or five times a day. Hold the door for someone, it makes them feel good. Somebody's hands are full, push the button for them. These are things I do in my daily life that make a difference. They make a difference to me, but they also make a difference to the person that I help. Tiny kindness, big heart shift. Good karma. Banked. Not that we're trying to bank karma, but you know, it never ever hurts to bank a little karma. Nature and animals, free therapy. Okay, so for me, the greatest thing of living in a high rise is getting in the elevator and seeing a dog. I love to talk to the dogs, I love to talk to the owners, but I'm always very respectful. I got in the other day and there was an Irish setter, some Irishy looking dog. Anyway, I could tell the owner was training. So I looked straight ahead and I just said, I can see that you're training. I said, even though it's crushing my soul, I will not talk to your dog, but I just want you to know I want to. And he appreciated that. Because when you move into a high rise and you've got to take your animals up and down an elevator, they have to have some decorum and it takes some training. So I always, as much as I want to talk to that dog on dog and pet it, I am very respectful of that. So petting dogs is great. Make sure petting dogs is instant serotonin. And the dog is thrilled. They're like, oh, human's touching me. I love it. They're telling me I'm pretty. The tag is wailing, waggling. If you don't have a dog, find a dog. Walking down the street. If you're afraid of dogs, sorry, I don't have anything for you. I guarantee if you go to Starbucks, you'll find one sitting outside. Not in Chicago, but in California, you will. Plants. House plants. That house light that you've been plant that you've been gaslighting for a year saying you're fine, take a look at it. It's not. Repot something. Look at your plants around your house, make them happy. Get a new pot. Go to home goods. Y'all know we love to go to home goods. Go to home goods. Pick out a new pot for your sad little plant in your house. I happen to be really good at plants. And my friend Joan sent me an orchid. Four orchids to be exact. Huge orchids in this beautiful oh, she sends me the most gorgeous orchids. I can't tell you. This one is the most stunning. Just stunning. And it makes me so happy. She made me happy. She sparked a little joy in me. So save your plant, fix them, read what's wrong with them, do something, help your plant. That'll bring you some joy. How about some little joys for no reason? Just because. Do something spontaneous and fun. But spontaneous at our age may mean something different. Not planned 48 hours event, not requiring orthopaedic shoes, not involving a surprise bill, but something spontaneous. Last night I went to the Art Institute with my friend Mary, and we sat in on a lecture. And I thought we were just going and coming home. And she goes, let's go down to Remington's and get some dinner. And, you know, I wasn't expecting dinner, and it was just fabulous. We walked in freezing cold weather, I might say 10 degrees, but it wasn't windy, so it wasn't bad. It's dry, it's a dry cold. Oh my God, I can't believe I'm saying that. We hustled our bustle down Michigan Avenue and stepped into a beautiful restaurant, had a lovely meal and a good conversation. Again, not expected. It was fabulous. So what are some things you can do spontaneously? Eat dessert first. Or eat dessert and don't eat the meal at all. Call a friend just to laugh. Taking a different route to the grocery store or to the bank, or if you're still working to work. Take a different route. You might see something new. Dance in the kitchen like no one is watching because they aren't. They're all on TikTok. That's a fact. You know, this one's an interesting one, but I, you know, I gift myself a lot. But if you're not into gifting yourself, I am. Um give yourself something small just because. Pick out a beautiful candle. Get a fancy soap. If you're walking down the street and you pass a Ghillelli's, I did this the other day. I went in and had a hot fudge Sunday. Middle of the day, middle of the week, for no flipping reason at all. Our Ghia Deli here on Michigan Avenue is overlooking the river. I sat on a stool, ate my hot fudge Sunday, and looked out at the beautiful river. All the river cruise tours are, their boats are decorated for Christmas. It was so fun. Do something unexpectedly nice for yourself. Lastly, reconnect with something you used to love. Maybe you painted. Maybe you baked. Maybe you did yoga until your knees filed a formal complaint. Whatever it is, go back to doing something that made you feel like you. We spend so much time involving, evolving, that sometimes we forget who we were before email mortgages and whatever decade the rise of genes tried to ruin. Think about it. Go back to your younger self. Did you play the guitar? Did you sing? Did you play the cello? Did you play the violin? What did you do? Go back. Find that. And you know doing it's gonna bring back that joy that you had when you were young. Make life easier with tiny systems. So here's just some ideas. You know, there's nothing I love more than an organizational hack, a time saver, something like that. So here I'm gonna give you a few little things. Create more playlists. We talked about creating the shower playlist. Create a happy playlist, all your favorite songs that spark joy, a chill playlist, a playlist that brings you down in a good way, not in a bad way, but takes that mood from high up here and your energy going to relaxed and chill and ready to just slide into the night. Create yourself a couple of playlists. Write yourself a note. Future, you will appreciate it. Especially if you reach the stage in life where you walk into a room and immediately forget why you're there. A note can save lives. Notes are great. Put them around the house if there's something you're forgetting, or just a note to tell yourself you're great. Revisit something you've shelved. Is there a book that you're halfway through that you never finished? Go back to it. A cookbook. Do you have have you bought some cookbooks and you've never cooked anything out of it? Go back to what we talked about earlier. Pick something in that cookbook and cook it. A project, half done project. Do you have any of those? Go back and finish it. A hobby that you used to do, start it up again. The book you pretended to read for book club, read it. Just a reminder: little sparks relight big parts of us. All the things I've talked about today are small tiny sparks. But these sparks can ignite flames. I can remember years ago, gosh, probably 15 years ago now, Debbie, Mary, and I took a cookie, uh a cake decorating class. Mary and I were fine. We managed to get through the class. We made a couple of decent-looking cakes. We learned how to make a rosette and a shell border. But in our friend Debbie, it sparked a new hobby. And damn, is Debbie artistic and Debbie good at it. Debbie made beautiful cakes for our birthdays. Debbie made beautiful cookies. I used to do a cookie, Christmas cookie exchange at my home. She made beautiful cookies. Who knew that that little class over at Joanne's Fabrics was gonna spark the artist artistry that came out of Debbie. She started making jewelry, she started knitting. There wasn't anything craftsy or artsy that Debbie touched that she wasn't fabulous at. And she didn't know it up until then. I think we were just turning 50. So you never know what's hiding inside of you until you try something new. So let those little sparks relight big parts of us. Do something great for 2026. I'm going to leave you with that, and I'm going to come back in just a minute with a final thought. The holidays are coming. The year is coming to an end. This is one of those times where you start contemplating, thinking about things, looking forward, looking back. I'm going to tell you not to be hard on yourself. Be kind. Don't be so judgmental about your last year. And don't put so much pressure on the year to come. I've had one intense medical year. I've survived cancer, cancer surgery, chemotherapy, radiation. I tripped and fell on my head in the street. Ended up with 14 stitches. I blew out the veins in my throat. It's been one hell of a year. But through it all, I stayed positive. I stayed focused. I put one foot in front of the other. Where I found joy, I had joy. My friends were there with me. I did some traveling once I got well. You can get through any year. No matter what life throws at you. I've got one more scan a week from today. I'm going to scan my thyroid and my liver because I have something on it. Could be nothing, could be something. I'm going for nothing. That's what I'm going to find. Nothing. I'm going to move into 2026 and do my best, like I do every year. I expect you to do the same. All we can do is our best. We can be the best version of ourselves that we try. Don't put expectations on yourself. Don't be hard on yourself. If you're starting to feel hard on yourself, listen to one of my podcasts. No reason to be hard on yourselves. We're in that third act of life, most of us, and we have a finite time left. Make that time count. Hug your kids, hug your grandkids, love your family, travel, be with the people you love. Don't waste time on things that don't matter. And certainly don't be hard on yourself. You matter, you're important, and thanks for listening. Go out and do something positive.

Head Shot

Marcy Backhus

Host