Ahhh the new year…. Oh wait, we’re now in February.
Ah…. February of the new year….
Raise your hand if your new year’s resolutions went out the window two weeks in and you’re beating yourself up trying to get back in line. Now, raise your hand if you didn’t even last a week with your “new year new me” aspirations.
Don’t worry, I’ve read somewhere that only 8% of people who set resolutions actually stick to them. Personally I say, to heck with them.
I stopped setting new years resolutions a few years back when I realized that setting unrealistic goals to rush towards only once a year usually meets with burnout, frustration, and defeat. No, I much prefer the journey of setting long term life goals, breaking them down into smaller goals (that are both simple and realistic), and checking in with myself a few times a year to see where I’m at.
I prefer measurable progress.
I keep journals that allow me to look back through years of thoughts, plans, wants, and dreams. It’s interesting to see where my thoughts roamed at 21 or 22; there are many goals I have achieved, some that still need tweaking, and some that have been crossed out entirely. However, even the ones that were crossed out needed to be there for me to realize they were not what I was really looking for in my life. I think that’s where writing things down becomes important: whether its goals, aspirations, needs, desires, wants… writing these down allows a different part of our minds to process our thoughts.
Some thoughts, much like footsteps on the ocean shore, simply need an outlet of expression that can be washed away.
Then there are those that stick, and these become the stepping-stones that help us figure out what our life’s meaning is-at least in my experience.
Words are sacred and have a special power over the part of us that is continually growing and seeking to experience the new; and the most important words you will ever read in anything are those you write about, to, from, and for yourself.
A common theme in my blog is about being present. It’s about mindfulness of the fact that all we really have is now. However, when I look through journals, I’m able to go back to a moment:
Like the moment I decided to start an online business… the steps I took, the frustrations I felt, the fears that set in, and the lessons I learned.
It’s refreshing to see where I’ve come… and I’ve come quite a ways from that girl. There are now things that I am aspiring to become and do with my life that I’m sure the me in my 30’s will giggle at or feel proud of. I always joke that photographs and journals are my way of cheating time, but I mean it. I love that a photograph or a discourse I’ve written can bring me back to that moment-feelings and all.
I daily try to live my life in such a way that if it were my last, I wouldn’t regret anything. Sometimes, that may get me in trouble… but that’s the juicy part of the journey.
….and life is more beautiful when our journey is fully savored.