Sometimes I go gently into the new year and am annoyed with myself for ever being the New Year roarer.
I will always love the symbolic clean slate a new year represents, but when you are 40 you know every day is an opportunity to start something, stop something, add something, remove something, change something. I am a strong believer that you should never wait until tomorrow to start doing something you think will improve your life or stop doing something that has stopped serving you as it once did.
This year I know I want to make some intentional shifts in focus and concentration. I have some things I'd like to accomplish and some things I need to accomplish.
I planned to spend the week between Christmas and the New Year writing down some intentions, but everything is still bubbling up inside of me so I’m going to let it marinate until it manifests itself into some things that feel true.
There's no rush. I will not fail the year if I don't start or stop something on day one, two, five, 30, 300, 364. Neither will you. Intentions don't have to be set and met on January 1 to count. I used to throw shit at the wall to see what would stick but I know my time is better spent figuring out a few things that I really want to work on or accomplish so I'm not spread so thin or doing shit I don't really care about just to say I did it.
While I came to the first week of 2018 conventionally unprepared, I'm working on a long-term project: myself. That cannot be rushed.
The last of us to enter Club 40 crosses the threshold today. Happy birthday Laura! After 27 years of friendship and still sustaining daily contact, we're past the point where you can adequately describe what it means to you. Because it's just everything. I am beyond lucky in the friend department.
Happy birthday to your friend! I was originally feeling a little bummed I didn't hit the ground running on Monday but then I figured, I started the week off pretty much on the couch sick, & today I go back to work for the first time in 2.5 weeks so taking it at a slower pace is a-okay.
ReplyDeleteSpot on. Every day is a new opportunity. There is no rush. There are no rules. You're the most important project you'll ever work on; slowly evolving with experiences and wisdom. Trust the process. Happy 2018, Steph.
ReplyDeleteI gave up on resolutions awhile ago - nothing ever stuck and they just made me feel like a failure after Jan 2nd or 3rd. Why wait for a certain day to make specific changes anyway? Besides, getting my poop in a pile is a daily and ongoing goal. Not sure what I'd do if I ever complete that one.
ReplyDeletei'm just glad to be back to a regular schedule! i love the holidays but the routine halt was wearing on me (i was so tired all the time) but now that i've been back to a normal schedule, i'm rearing to go.
ReplyDeleteYES. I'm in the same boat this year.
ReplyDeleteMy goal/word of the year/whatever is to be intentional, so I like that you referred to this as writing down your intentions for the year. I just need to be more mindful of all things - how I treat people, how I spend my time, the way I use my words, and so on. I've been trying to cook varied dinner meals for a while (intentionally using less meat and eating out less!), and telling Andrew that his 2018 resolution needed to be "stop making such a big damn deal about dinner" and let me cook what I wanted to has definitely helped, though I said that to him at the end of 2017 so perhaps my words weren't as intentional as they should have been ;)
ReplyDeleteEvery day of my life, I'm getting my poop in a pile... I keep trying though. That's the main thing
ReplyDeleteStill getting my shit together. I was annoyed at myself because I ordered the wrong planner and wasn't able to get at least that part ready before starting the new year. I'm hoping to get into a routine next week- work will not allow for that this week. My word is "do," as in stop procrastinating. That's one of my biggest flaws and one I'd like to work on this year.
ReplyDeleteI love the clean slate feeling of a new year, but more for getting back to a schedule that you seem to lose over the holidays. I never really set resolutions or words for the year. I am doing Whole30 this month to try to get back on the healthy train. I have been working on being more intentional over the last few months and plan to continue on that this year as well. I love what you said about not rushing working on yourself. You are so right! It is a constant work in progress, as it should be! I wish you all the best this year!
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday to Laura! And yes to the clean slate, and working on ourselves which cannot be rushed <3
ReplyDeleteI'm not a resolution person -- last year I did a post called "more & less" and it was basically: things I wanted to do more of in 2017, and things I wanted to do less. that's how i roll, it's called being human and learning as you go and making mistakes and bettering yourself at every turn. i'm OK with that. happy new year, friend!
ReplyDeleteI'm yawning my way into 2018.
ReplyDeleteWhat's that adorable house at the top of the post?
It's on the road right behind Ballinesker Beach in the Curracloe Strand in Curracloe, a village in County Wexford, Ireland. The D-Day Sequence of Saving Private Ryan was filmed there. I want it!
DeleteLast year I felt like complete shit rolling into 2017. I was a ball of anxiety with the job change and the politics (not that that's improved...) and just everything. Christmas was stressful and I was stressed and I just wanted to survive in 2017.
ReplyDeleteFortunately, I am feeling SO much better about 2018. I am a roarer this year, lol.
I have a few goals for the year, like getting to bed earlier, reading more, and less time on my phone. I downloaded an app that tracks your phone usage and when I looked at it the first night, I was floored. I could not believe how much of my and therefore LIFE I spent staring at that dumb screen.
ReplyDeleteStill gettning my poo in a pile
ReplyDeleteGood to know I'm not alone!
DeleteI have some general goals for 2018, but I definitely didn't feel as ready for it as usual. I'll go ahead and blame that on being out of town when the new year started. And, like you said, I still have plenty of time to get started on something new. I don't have to start on Jan. 1.
ReplyDeleteI'm currently trying to nail down whether or not I want to add some qualifiers for my reading goal or if I just want to read what I want to read. I'm thinking the latter.
I just wrote a post about how NOT ready I am for this year so I'm glad I'm not the only one! I feel like I tried to prepare and then just.... didn't. A lot of things are in limbo at the moment but I think I'm probably hiding behind that as an excuse and need to just get in gear.
ReplyDeleteI feel like I'm in between both. On one hand, I feel like I efficiently accomplished a lot this week. On the other hand, I feel woefully unprepared for the semester to start again. It's probably because I don't feel like I got a break mentally. I'm not sure. Either way, I'm pleased with how I've managed my productivity and my emotions so far. I'm trying to manage my stress instead of letting it manage me.
ReplyDeletecold
ReplyDeleteholiday palace
ทางเข้า sbobet
goldenslot
gclub