Alright beautiful. I want you to take a breath with me. It’s a new year, and with it there is a never ending slew of expectations already mounting.
I mean, we are one month into the new year - by this time you should be well on your way to changing everything about your life. If you haven’t dropped the last of the baby weight, if you haven’t launched the six figure business, if you haven’t rekindled your marriage with a romantic flare that rivals something from a best selling romance novel than surely you are failing.
Might as well toss in the towel now because you haven’t hit your target steps everyday this week, and - even though you VOWED to crush that workout routine, you didn’t kick start it Monday and you’re on the trajectory to actually start next week.
Failed.
Pause a moment.
You know I’m not about to tell you to pack it up, the resolutions are unresolved, better luck next year!
Nah.
I am so over resolutions and the desire to craft an entirely new, next level, life.
I am here to say, new year, same me, is a perfectly valid mindset.
It’s ok to not have a lengthy list of thing you absolutely MUST accomplish this year, of resolutions that you WILL achieve THIS TIME.
It’s been a crazy couple of years and, if you’re anything like me, the new year kind of snuck up on you. It feels like just yesterday we were celebrating Thanksgiving and then all of a sudden it was Christmas, and BAM, just like that it is a new year and everyone, everywhere, is talking about “New Year, New Me!” We are a month into that and are those same people chanting that?
I feel like, after the last nearly 1,000 days of all the things, a solid 365 days of sensory deprivation, of no exciting press releases, of watching your favorite, no longer produced, sitcom on repeat is a very valid and worth while ambition and deserved.
To just get through the year without chaos, without expectation, without EVERYTHING that has been bombarding and overwhelming life these days seems acceptable.
Ok, so THAT may not happen… I mean, you are LIVING and BREATHING and therefore you know, in the depths of your being, that there is no such thing as a life without chaos.
Not to mention, how exciting would said life be?
Completely chaos free.
So, what DO I suggest as we enter into this new year resolutions abounding or admonished already?
No matter where you are in the year when the hiccup happens or life jumps in and threatens to derail your ambition, even if only for a few days, there is no failure if you keep going.
Let me repeat.
There is no failure if you keep going.
Our goals aren’t meant to be the ultimate target, the be-all-end-all of our existence. There is no truly arriving at any set destination where we can sit back and say that we have achieved “success”.
Life is a journey.
Life is learning, growing, adjusting our sails and setting new courses in uncharted territory. Life is making the most of the situation we are in, it’s experiencing the highs and lows of it all and coming out better, stronger, and more appreciative of what we have because of the journey we’ve been on.
Even when that journey is hard. Or we’ve come to a fork and we’ve taken the wrong path, made the wrong decision, or had someone come out of left field and throw us a curve ball that causes us to redefine every aspect of what we thought we were doing.
Life is lived through experience. It’s not resolved through attrition.
So, today, whether you’re reading this one month after the start of the new year,(beings I posted it a month after the resolution train) or you’re six months in wondering if a very merry unbirthday and a new set of mid-year resolutions is what you need to get back on track …
I want you to know that you, making the choice to journey through life without fear of failure, is the ultimate success.
Live life, set goals, learn and grow, and appreciate that ups and downs, setbacks and successes are a part of the journey.
Happy new year you wonderfully perfect, don’t need to change beauty.
The next eleven months is going to be great (and if it isn’t … there is always next year).
-Kayla