If “New Year, New You” makes you want to throw your phone in the sea, this one’s for you. In this episode, Monique van Tulder – author of A Grown Up’s Gap Year – calls time on the standard New Year resolutions and 75-day “transformation” challenges. Instead of treating yourself like a renovation project, she invites you to treat yourself as the project and turn January into your own creative test kitchen. Monique shares how notebooks, scribbles, walks, paint, and “making something with no outcome attached” have pulled her through turbulent seasons – and why a cheap notebook can be more powerful than any 12-week program. She nods to Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way (Morning Pages and Artist Dates) and to research showing that everyday creativity is linked to better mood, more energy and clearer thinking. If you’re a midlife woman who’s done everything for everyone and is tired of being told to fix herself every January, this episode hands you a different brief. Perfect to listen to while you’re wrapping presents, hiding in the car with a hot coffee, or quietly planning what your January notebook might hold – with zero before-and-after photos required.

Episode Resources & Links:

• Your SPACE Prescription
• Free Weekly Newsletter
• Dear Blokes Downloadable
• Setting Boundaries That Stick - checklist
• Julia Cameron: Living The Artist's Way
• Wild With Sarah Wilson Podcast with Julia Cameron
• Remarkable People Podcast with Guy Kawasaki and Julia Cameron

📚 Get your copy of A Grown Up’s Gap Year the book, from Amazon, moniquevantulder.com, bookshops and libraries, subscribe to the podcast, and take the first step toward your own A Grown Up’s Gap Year.

• Monique's LinkedIn
• Monique's Instagram

In this episode of A Grown Up’s Gap Year – The Podcast, Monique unpacks mid-life maintenance mojo – from mammograms and strength training to swimsuits, perimenopause, and why you should just wear the bikini (if you want to).

You’ll hear:

• Why mid-life maintenance is not vanity – it’s logistics for the adventures you still want (Italian hills, ocean swims, last-minute trips)
• The real talk on swimmers, bodies and confidence: kaftans you don’t actually like, “sensible” shorts, and finding swimmers that let you get in the water, not hide beside it
• A quick, evidence-based nod to Dr Stacy Sims and why women in perimenopause and menopause are not “small men” when it comes to training, hormones and recovery
• The 60% rule: how aiming for “good enough” on decorations, grazing platters and emails can free up the energy you actually need for your own health and happiness
• A listener story about booking five nights at a wellness retreat – just for her – and why maintenance is part of your adventure strategy, not an optional extra

Plus, Monique shares three simple Weekly Actions to get your mid-life maintenance mojo going:

• Book one appointment for Future You (hair, health check, mammogram, GP, physio, strength coach).
• Audit your swimmers and one outfit – anything that makes you wince or tug, goes.
• Choose one area this festive season to apply the 60% rule, and use the saved time for a walk, a swim or a lie-down with a book.

Episode Resources & Links:

• Your SPACE Prescription
• Free Weekly Newsletter
• Dear Blokes Downloadable
• Setting Boundaries That Stick - checklist
• MID Podcast with Dr Stacy Sims

📚 Get your copy of A Grown Up’s Gap Year the book, from Amazon, moniquevantulder.com, bookshops and libraries, subscribe to the podcast, and take the first step toward your own A Grown Up’s Gap Year.

• Monique's LinkedIn
• Monique's Instagram

Design a festive season that actually fits: clear, kind boundaries and small rituals that help you feel at home when “utterly joyful” feels like a stretch. In this short episode of A Grown Up’s Gap Year – The Podcast, we explore Happyish Holidays: how to set festive season boundaries that are clear and kind to you, and how to re-find what feels like home when traditions and family shapes have shifted. You’ll hear a candid story about home changing over time, three reflection questions to locate your version of home today, and a quick TRY THIS to create one small ritual just for you (a morning swim, a solo coffee, or a guilt-free no). We touch lightly on chosen family and low-stress gatherings, but the focus is practical boundaries and small, doable steps that protect your energy. Oh and we link to a fabulous episode on the topic with Glennon Doyle's "We Can Do Hard Things", and a meditation on "Home Away From Home" by author Pico Iyer.

Episode Resources & Links:

• Your SPACE Prescription
• Free Weekly Newsletter
• Dear Blokes Downloadable
• Setting Boundaries That Stick - checklist
• "Happyish Holidays" from the podcast "We Can Do Hard Things" with Glennon Doyle
• "Where Is Home" TED talk with author Pico Iyer
• Konfekt magazine
• Eir Women Trimmed

📚 Get your copy of A Grown Up’s Gap Year the book, from Amazon, moniquevantulder.com, bookshops and libraries, subscribe to the podcast, and take the first step toward your own A Grown Up’s Gap Year.

• Monique's LinkedIn
• Monique's Instagram