A Gentle New Year to You

I had the nicest start to the New Year. I got to spend the entire morning of January 1 with coffee and my two planners, last year's and this year's. I sat on my front porch with a delicious breeze and sunshine, thinking and writing, reviewing December, filling in calendars, and really thoughtfully giving myself some gentle goals (if those pages in a planner are empty, I don't feel like it's ready to be used yet). 

The first page in my book (I'm using one by DayDesigner, found at Target) is titled, "Big Picture:" 

1. Gratitude every day
2. More focused time with Shawn, Alex before he goes to college (!), and Kate
3. Celebrating 2 graduations (!) and Jilly's wedding/reception!
4. Taking Care: of myself and of my family, including mom & dad, Shawn, Alex and Kate

That's it. That's the big picture for 2022, the things that are most important. After 2 flipping years of weirdness, I think I just want to love my people, find things to be thankful for, and take good care of us. 

Of course each of those can be broken down into smaller goals and to-dos. Number four, for instance, includes smaller goals of Movement, Nutrition, and Time Management to take care of myself. But that's as far as I'm going. I didn't write down anything like, "Workout 20 minutes a day" or "Update my 401K by [date]," because we aren't going to invite Failure to just waltz right in! NOPE. The column called "Accomplish By" in my planner has VERBS in it, not deadlines.

I really feel so proud of this gentler approach to the New Year., and happy that I had such a peaceful experience planning it. I'm checking the goals pages every day so far, but I don't think I'm going to obsess over them; its just to remind myself to notice. Do I still have a "wish list" of things I'd like to get done this year? Yes. Get an estimate for new floors. Explore new refrigerators. Paint downstairs bathroom and our bed/bath. Etc. And I reduced the Screen-Time limit on my phone, with hope for better habits. But those are not the goals. The goals are To Be Content, To Experience Joy, To Be Attentive, To Maintain Work-Life Balance and (silently, because I'm hesitant to even whisper its name) To Avoid Stress. 

We'll see how this goes. Perhaps nothing whatsoever will get accomplished but by golly I'll be blissed out about it. At least that's the plan!