What if this year doesn't start with a sprint?
I keep thinking about how loud the beginning of January always seems. The promises, the PRESSURE, the excitement of a "fresh" start. It's that "I can be anything" energy that sometimes, somehow makes me feel like I'm already behind. We are now two days into the new year and I'm already tired of people trying to reinvent themselves as if they're auditioning for a perpetual highlight version of their life.
I am NOT saying growth or reinvention are bad. We all want to grow and evolve, but maybe the growth isn't in the changes, but rather in the awareness of what already is. 🤔
What if this year didn't start with a sprint? Instead, what if it started with a question? I don't mean, "What do I want to achieve?" I mean, "What do I want to nurture?"
This past year, I noticed the moments that really stuck with me weren't the planned moments. They weren't those big milestones or checked boxes. They were the unplanned pauses, the unexpected glances, the ten-minute conversations that lingered in my focus far longer than they should have...because my unconscious self knew they mattered.
This year, I want more of THAT!!
Now...how to get it... 🤔I am wise enough to know I can't receive what I'm still too busy to notice.
Somewhere between the chaos that was December and my pent-up ambition for January, I forgot to clear a little room. I don't mean room in my calendar, I mean in my mind, my nervous system, and my priorities. I forgot to check in with the quiet parts of myself that aren't asking for more, but rather to be recognized.
I want to start this year paying attention to what is, rather than performing for what could be. I want to ask harder questions, even if they lead to messy answers. I want to stop abandoning the parts of me that are slower, more uncertain, and less impressive. I want to trust that those parts aren't in the way and believe that they ARE the way.
If you're here, reading this to avoid finishing your half-written list of goals, I need you to know:
You do not need a complete overhaul.
You need a strategy that builds off your strengths.
The version of you that exists right now is far more powerful than you think.
Allow the year to begin slowly, if that's the pace your energy can sustain. If you are open to identifying opportunities, they will come to you.
Or hell, start the year upside down, in the grass, letting someone you love steer for a while (it worked for Brad).
