A Marmite New Year
It’s taken me a few weeks to shake off 2023, Twixmas, and the start of 2024. Like a snail testing the air before it emerges from its shell, I’ve made it to the party, late but not absent.
This time of the year is tough. As you pull back the curtains in the morning and gaze out of the window into the darkness and stillness, the urge to hibernate and take everything slower until the sun reappears is primeval. But there’s also a rush in the air, an urgency to return to normal and operate at full capacity, as the page of a new year has been turned, and the invisible hand of opportunity has been outstretched- and you’ve accepted it.
Like a fresh sheet of paper, the opportunities are endless for a new year, and for a planner like me, it’s my favourite time of the year. Goals to pursue, dreams to accomplish. A year is whatever you make it, and 2024 is no exception. It’s going to be a great year!
And yet, I find myself hesitating as I write that last sentence, for a slightly odd reason.
Time is already ticking onwards, with half of January gone already. Gone never to return.
For me, this pure fact instils a deep-rooted sense of panic. Panic that I’m not back on form, not smashing my goal list already, and not firing on all cylinders. Time moves onwards but my task list holds unmoving and undone.
It's like I missed the start.
I find myself in a tornado of conflict, wanting to rest and wanting to do it all, brought on by a change of timescale and the self-imposed pressure to operate at my optimum, always (yes, I know. Not a good look).
I must remember that nothing has changed, other than the date on the calendar.
And it’s this thought and perspective that provoke a change in my usual strategy for a new year. Instead of attacking the year like a person possessed, to take things at a different speed. To focus on the journey rather than the destination. To take the slower ride when needed (like now) and to recharge, ready for those soon-to-be-needed bursts of speed on the year-long opportunity-fest.
Who said that 2024 had to start at full speed in January? (And come to think of it, who decided lots of things we swear by in a New Year: resolutions, crash diets, punishing and restricting ourselves?)
This year I’m choosing my own timescale and tackling my goals at my speed. In a sense, I’m being kind to myself. I’ll achieve my goals, but the calendar won’t hold me to ransom or make me feel bad that I haven’t done it all yet.
I’ll get it done, in my own time.
And with that, I’m retreating back into my warm shell, on this cold and dull day. 😁
