This year didn't start how I wanted it to... 😔
If you know me, then you'll know that:
- I love Mondays, 😄
- I love Milestones, 🎉 and
- I love the Beginning of the Year! 🌟
The hard reset that January brings, the natural refresh of a calendar, and the opportunity to create a year filled with growth and new experiences. 🌱
For the last decade, I have always had the first week of Jan off work. My Birthday Week is a great excuse, but I've mainly used it to reflect, re-calibrate, and plan for the year ahead. 💭📅
Daisy and I will go to a cozy restaurant and work through:
- Reviewing the last year: the highlights and the lowlights 📝
- Reading our 3 and 5-year plans from 3 and 5 years ago to see where we are today 🗓️
- Score the different elements of our life in terms of where they are vs where we want them to be (Across Health, Finance, Careers, Relationships, Physical Environments, Experiences, etc) 🏋️♂️💰💼👫🏡🌍✨
- We'll then brainstorm aspirations and plans for the next 1, 3, 5 years (for us as a couple, for us individually, for us as a family, and for the kids too) 🌠🌟🤝📝 and start to plant seeds in the universe of a direction to go in. 🌱🪴
This year, for the first time in a long time, it didn't work out like that, and at first, it threw me.
The kids didn't go back until the 8th of Jan, so having that window at the start of the year wasn't there. Also, I was pretty unwell this last week, so the brain capacity to work through this planning wasn't there. 😔💭🤒
I was feeling like everyone had started the year, and I was stuck at the start line with no sense of direction. But being forced to slow down by your body means you have time to reflect. 🏃♀️🚦⏸️
I then started to feel that it should very rarely matter what others are doing unless it impacts me directly because everyone is running in their own lanes, as the heroes of their own journey. Our timings, pace, and direction are all different. ⏳🏃♂️💨
I signed out of all my socials to stop the habitual thumb-slide through a feed at any given moment. Now, if I want to see something, I have to intentionally check, and I realized that my growing anxiety exists because I'm flooding my brain daily with the best and worst of the world that doesn't impact me in reality. 📴🌍😳
I believed that once I do feel better and do get the chance to plan, it will still be at the beginning of Jan, and 2024 is a long year waiting for us to embrace and make whatever we want it to be. 💪😌🎉
And the belief that 'you're always exactly where you are meant to be' and that things will come good when the timing is right. ⏰😇
And just like that, an opportunity for me to spend an hour in the Mandir alone and then for Daisy and me to plan appeared. It was wholesome, challenging, honest, collaborative, and 2024 is set to be another fun-filled, meaningful year for us all. 🙏🤝🎉
I wanted to share this because I've heard recently people around us say how 'you've got it all together' or 'you don't have the same challenges I do'. 🗣️🧩
The reality is, we don't have it all together, and no, we don't all have the same challenges (look at the world right now - I'm extremely grateful for not having some of the challenges the world has right now). 🌍🙌
But with the right intention (INTENTION is my word of the year, btw, you'll hear me use it a lot in 2024), a belief that where your focus goes, your energy flows, and a bit of self-love, you can turn any false start into a catalyst and get back on track! 💪❤️🚀
Here's to a great 2024... it may be a new year, but I'm the same me, trying to grow, trying to inspire others to be the best versions of themselves, trying to give little transformative boosts where I can, and share stories of this experience with those around me...hope you'll come along for the ride! 👊