This sure didn’t take long. Checking in on my first week’s accomplishments, I bemoaned the sad truth. We’re only eight days into the new year, and already, I am behind.
Like most of us, I leap into January with lofty hopes, grand illusions, and confidence that somehow, this will be the year I figure out how to manufacture another dozen hours in each day. I promptly follow each week’s assessment of inadequate progress with an absurd ritual of self-doubt. It’s exhausting and ungratifying.
I have excellent reasons why everything did not get done last week. (Hello, too many things on the calendar.) I know why I am so far in weeds bursting into colorful bloom despite my best efforts to eradicate them. (And I wasn’t even saying ‘yes’ to everything.) I could blame any number of excuses, but my goals are BIG GOALS, and I was probably crazy to set them.
I don’t want to careen out of control. I need a compass, something to orient my direction and harness my energy. What’s the opposite of crazy? There it was, my guiding word for 2018.
SANITY.
Seriously, we cannot do it all. Maybe that’s the first step, the recognition that we can’t. Following close on the heels of this awareness is forgiveness, the knowledge and acceptance that we set unrealistic goals in the first place. I’m good at forgiving others when their apology seems heartfelt. Forgiving myself? Not so much.
My 2018 goals were so not doable. Work half-time as a business coach, build my article and copywriting career, write 500,000 new words, edit six novel-length books and release them, and exercise an hour a day. All while pledging to study new subjects, putter in my garden, travel to my bucket list, explore my region, and last (but really, first) spend more quality time with Dear Hubby.
How did I get here? I wasn’t listening to my own sound counsel to others. “Do you have time to do all that with quality outcomes by the deadline you’ve set for yourself?” (But who listens to their own advice?)
Sanity – I want it. I want to get off this treadmill, this hamster wheel, this mountain ascent where no matter how far I trudge, the peak never seems any closer. When we’re rushing without pause to completion, we miss experiences along the way. We check a box when we complete a goal – and forget it. We create a lifetime of memories when we enjoy the experiences.
Look up from the keyboard. Lower the camera blocking a view. Leave something undone. It will be fine. The world will not stop spinning with a return to reasonableness.
SANITY. Care to join me? It’s going to be safe and feel so good. We’ll do it together. Let something go, and enjoy what’s in front of you even more.
Please share your return to SANITY in the comments below. I’ll support you every step of the way!
