Do what scares you, Libras! That's my astrological advice for you this January, above all else.

I know that it's what's written on all the guidance counselor's inspirational posters in your high school. I do know this. However, I have nonetheless elected to title my article today on that very statement. Do what scares you. Why you ask? Because we still haven't done it yet, for the most part. Libras have a tendency of making a few half-hearted New Years' resolutions and not actually having the heart to follow through with them - diets, running a marathon, sleeping more - all abandoned within a few weeks when it got hard.

Sound familiar, Libras?

I explicitly remember watching a trashy nameless rom-com on Netflix and they said something that really changed the way I go about my daily life. You have to be willing to fall flat on your face and fail. For all of you Libra perfectionists and 'never enoughs' out there, I hear you. I feel for you. I am one of you, through and through. That said, this statement was damning, even in that knowledge. I thought I was getting better at being vulnerable and putting myself out there and ensuring that I was living my life to the fullest – even without the bounds of my comfort zone.

Have you guessed yet that I'm a Libra? I've just had a year of anxiety and stress and insecurity, which had largely prevented me from pushing myself or getting out of my comfort zone - but no more. This year, I challenge myself and other Libras to try these tips about changing my attitude towards new challenges in 2020. January, watch you!

Try something new with another person!

One of the quickest ways to get me to do something that will benefit me in the long term is to make sure that I have a responsibility to someone else to actually go through with it. Be it getting up early in the morning to go to the library or on a run, I have realized that one way to get a Libra into gear is to overcome our fear of failure by replacing it with a fear of disappointing other people - it sounds counterintuitive but it works in a reverse-psychology, but actually healthy, way!

If I tell someone I'll go for a run, Libras can either go with their friends on the run and make sure they wake up in time, or just send a picture post-run. That way you can motivate each other, and ensure that you have a productive January.

This means that we can also engage with your relationship with pressure and try to reconfigure it into a more healthy coping mechanism. Moreover, our friends can also use us to motivate them - we're killing two birds with one stone.

So stop what you're doing.

Libras, I urge you to unclutter your lives this January. Marie Kondo it! If it doesn't bring you joy, let it go, it has served its purpose. Letting things go that used to be part of your lives doesn't mean that they didn't contribute to it or bring value - they did, of course they did. The old vinyl and piles of your high school books formed you into who you are today. But that person doesn't necessarily need those things anymore. You have to make space for change if you want to grow as a person this January, and in the future in general.

So, put a podcast on - an educational or culturally enlightening one or just a funny one if not - or put some ABBA on failing that, and start clearing out. You don't have to promise to unclog your whole house, or get rid of everything - that's too ambitious and you'll never do it. Be more realistic, and weigh up who you want to be in the future. Life begins for Libras when we realize that we actually control our own lives, self-possession, and material life.

Unfollow those celebrities on Instagram.

They don't care about you and if you're honest with yourself you can't remember the last time you even liked their picture. Stop being a voyeur on other people's lives at the expense of living your own.

Take breaks from social media. Go on a walk. Listen to music. Join a yoga class. Learn a new language. Take up an online course.

You don't' need to tell everyone what you're doing. Take some time to yourself. Figure out what you want. what you need.

Then, my dear readers, go and get it.

The moment you stop caring about things outside of your control, the moment you can start to live your own life, unfettered again.