I know, I know, the world is drowning in New Year New Start New Decade!!! messages of all the varieties. Here’s the thing… it’s just a day on the calendar. A pin on the page where someone decided ‘let’s start counting again there’. It doesn’t even quite match the obvious natural marker of the solstice.
Don’t get me wrong, the new year can be a handy point to look back and reflect, and there’s lots of good can come from that. And making plans, I’m told, helps you achieve them. Personally, I’m still stuck in the ‘but how do you choose? Is that really what I want to do? I mean, maybe, but a Goal sounds kinda committed…’ stage. This quite frequently lasts all year. Same as last year, when I wrote this, in fact.
And yet, things happened all the same. Maths books were finished. Classes started. Exams applied for and coursework completed (this alone feels like it accounts formost of the year). A child inched ever nearer to reading fluency. We went on a villa holiday, a first for us as a family (‘it’s the sort of holiday you read about in books!’). Trees and plants grew, and were trimmed and harvested. Some of them even intentionally. I worked out, 4 times a week, every week of the year. We added cabinets in the kitchen. We spent time with friends and went on adventures and opportunities appeared that I’d never even imagined this time last year.
As I write this it’s New Year’s Eve. One of my aims for the next year – I’m not going for goal just yet, that page still looks so shiny and important and close to the front in my journal that I haven’t dared write on it – is to write more. I’ve got a plan, and this morning’s 5:45am alarm was a part of it. But I’m holding it lightly. We’ll see.
If you’ve got your goals for the year all written out with detailed first step action plans ready to go, awesome – I kinda wanna be you.
If you’ve barely noticed the new year because every day just flows as it needs to, awesome – I kinda wanna be you too.
If you’re thinking you really ought to have some direction for your year, and you meant to do that photobook from last year, or, like, journal and stuff, and you’re supposed to be starting school on Monday but all the supplies are still a mess from last year even though you had a big Christmas break and everything is slipping behind on the plans for the year already and also you want this one to be more fun and spontaneous but the only time slot for fun and spontaneity is every other Friday afternoon and how is everything the same as last year already….. welcome. I am you 🙂
Just remember, change does happen. Progress is made. Not in the perfectly coloured in checklists, but in the hugs or smiles as you pass in the kitchen. The feeling that a little more of this, or a little less of that, will move you the way you want to go. Plans and goals are useful tools, but they are not the boss of you, and you can change your mind, or recommit, and start over again and again on whatever day you choose.
Beautiful♥️