They say that hindsight is 20/20, right? A new year always finds me nostalgic and, honestly, more than a little stressed. Looking back over the year to celebrate personal triumphs, identify what did and didn’t work, crafting resolutions, and/or choosing a word of the year – these are all things I love to do but if I’m not careful, the enjoyment of a fresh start can be overshadowed by stress and comparison.
This year especially, with the coupling of social media and the dawn of a brand new decade, the masses have been reflecting on their last 10 years. In my age bracket – that’s no small thing – think about this, a 30 year old summing up the last 10 years is talking about 1/3 of their whole life! It feels too momentous to search for an emoji or gif per year and call it a day.
For me, looking back, it feels as though literally everything has changed: jobs, kids, loss, moving, changing careers, graduate school, finances. I am reminded of a fridge magnet I saw in college (appropriate, since I graduated 10 years ago), “The only constant in life is change.” Sounds about right, right?
Here are just a few things I think I’ve learned about fresh starts to take me into the new decade (what are we even calling this? The twenties? The 20/20s?)
-Resolutions: For the first time in many years, I don’t have any resolutions. I do have some goals, as in things I’d like to work towards, but I’m not restricting myself with a 12 month timeline. I resisted the temptation to add something just because I felt like I should. I’m getting better at not letting other people set my priorities and also keeping in mind that I can add, drop, or change a habit any day of the year.
-Planners: I love a good planner, I really do. But no matter how all-encompassing or sparse the pages – I cannot keep up with one. If I need to add something from home, I have inevitably left it at work. When something needs to be written down for work, it’s in the car. Maybe. I have systems in place that work pretty good (online calendar for work, shared paper calendar for the family at home) and I’m not going to over-complicate by forcing my life into someone else’s vision of time management.
-Write it down: Left to my own memory, I tend to forget what I’d like to remember the most, the magical ordinary moments. I have found that it helps me to write it down. I’ve done this in several different ways – documenting on social media, a quick sentence about the day in one of these bad boys , or using my phone to go month by month and writing out with pen and paper the highlights of each week/month/or year.
However you have started off this new decade – I hope that you are doing it bravely, full of hope, and remembering to be kind to yourself along the way.
