How’s the first Monday of the year treating you?
Personally, it hit me like a truck.
I snoozed right through 7 of my alarms (thus already ruining my frankly far too optimistic routine plan for the year), barely flowed through all the poses in my morning yoga practice, and spent the entire day procrastinating grading papers for my job.
Not the most effective use of my time, I’ll admit.
Furthermore, we’ve only had 3 days of the new year and yet I’ve already cried during 2 of them.
2022: more like 2020-too, right? Nope, too soon.
But, that’s okay. If you’re in a similar boat and are starting to feel overwhelmed or disillusioned by any new year resolutions you may have set for yourself and despairing at the minor setbacks, just remember to be kind to yourself. That’s the most important thing, because you’re the one living your life and your reality gets filtered through your mind, so you should take care of what goes on in your head. Too much pressure on just the first few days of the year can set you up for long-term burnout that could take months to properly offset.
Change can start any moment of any day, not just January 1st. Consistency is key. So long as you show up for yourself and do what is important for you to do, ignoring the stress-inducing march of time and everyone else’s judgements, you’ll be in a fortunate and successful spot that others will surely be envious of (not that their opinions matter anyways). Habits are built and maintained when the goals you set are flexible, manageable, and heading in a specific direction. If you can work on them daily, you’ll be amazed by how much you can actually do and how much time you really have. You will improve exponentially. Patience pays off.
Ultimately, we are all human, and the real goal should be not being so hard on yourself. Working hard is important, but so is doing your best within your means, and working yourself to the point of a mental breakdown is not in your best interests. There is plenty of time to learn from your mistakes, which are inevitable, and every failure just brings you that much closer to success. In a way, failure is success. Give yourself permission to fail knowing that one of those failures will be the last.
Even though it may still feel like March 2020, I hope you have a great year in 2022.
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