Imagining the New Year – a blog linky

Well, a happy new Gregorian calendar new year to you!

And as you can see, I’m all about the linkys at the moment. This time, I’m joining Helen at thebusymamas blog in imagining the new year that started…oh, a few hours ago.

I meant to post this yesterday, but Roz decided she would beat her holiday record so far and actually make it to midnight awake. It was close. She fell asleep around 11:45p.m. and I was pooped. I mean seriously, if they bottled whatever it is she runs on, give me some because I need it!

But I digress.

So, what does 2015 have in store for me? Who knows. At one end of the spectrum, today is just the first day of another month and doesn’t make a hoot of difference. Life will go on as normal except that now instead of a 4, I’ll have a 5 at the end of every date I  write. In the middle of the spectrum, is the fact that I will be now on the slope towards forty. Forty! I can’t actually believe it’s going to be here in a few short years. F&*%$!!!! And on the other end of the spectrum, this is the calendar we use, so it is a very very real new year, with deadlines and Roz having to start actual school, my finishing third year….yikes! So it’s a nice idea to take it in small chunks. Not in resolutions, because those are reserved for my birthday, just chunks of things I generally have a will to do can imagine achieving and want to fulfill.

1. Take each moment as it comes.

I struggle to do this a lot. I sit here thinking, I have my self-evaluation to finish for college, then an essay due in February, then I have to start my case study, and I also have a performance review at work, and I have to complete my scorecard for work by mid January and, and, and…and before I know it, I’ve imagined being fired and failing college, Krys has left because I’m a mess, Roz doesn’t love me because I’m a mess and I am in a spiral of despair.  It seems very dramatic but I swear I have such an imagination that I scare myself sometimes.

So I have to remember to take each day as it comes, each deadline as it comes, make my lists and breathe. I truly believe the secret to a well constructed life is to remember that most things are manageable in small bites. Any journey happens only one step at a time, regardless of how many steps there eventually end up being.  If you have a deadline, set up tiny deadlines for yourself all along the way. If it’s planning to finish an essay, like me, set a week for reading one chapter in one book. Set another day for just setting up your fonts in whatever word processing programme you’ll use, chop the essay up into the three or four themes you need and tackle each on a different date. set a date to have a first draft, and leave enough time at the end to allow for any mishaps.

Or if like me, part of your core personality is that you get your best work done under extreme pressure, then remind yourself that that’s okay, that’s who you are right now and you won’t change overnight, but set these bites up anyway. It can’t hurt and it stops the despair from being so great that you get paralysed by it.

2. Give my Journal a good kickstart.

At the moment, I journal for college. Once upon a time, I journaled because it was a way to get things off my chest and set my mind straight. Even on days where nothing happened, I wrote about whatever mundane thing happened and how I felt about it.

I want to start this again, this every day journalling. The lovely Emily over at The Nest sent me a lovely journal as part of our Kris Kringle over at the Irish parenting bloggers, which I plan to fill completely. Even if it’s only one word to describe my mood that day. I cannot recommend keeping a diary enough. It’s not only a way of tracking events in your life, but also a way of sorting through your emotions  of the day in a very honest manner. It also gives you a tangible way to review the passing of your emotional life and to see how you felt about things as they happen. If you can use it as a place to be absolutely completely honest with yourself, what a treasure it will be for your mental health.

I kept a diary from the time I was 11 till I was 20 and sometimes I read over them and am blown away at how much I went through, how much I’ve grown, how naive I was, how wise I was….very much worth restarting on a daily basis..but with no pressure.

My very thoughtful present from Emily

3. Self-care

Oh, this one is so important. And I don’t want to put any pressure on myself at all because that will just defeat the purpose.  So here are the things I want to do > Take more walks, even if it’s just a five minute walk during my lunch break to sit by the river Liffey and take in the sky. Less eating al desko as well because it’s an unpaid lunch hour for a reason. I should use it for me. Go to bed a little earlier to get that little bit of extra sleep. Forgive myself when I make mistakes, try to beat myself up less and be less judgmental of myself. They seem simple but oh boy…

4. Get out there more and take risks.

This seems easy, but is tricky . I love my own company. In fact, I could stay in for two weeks and have a whale of a time all by myself, but no man is an island. By nature, we are social creatures, us homo sapiens, and at my core  I do love the company of people. So I’m just putting this out there for me. Even if it’s just smiling at someone on the street, or talking to someone at the bus stop. I love talking and I love listening, so yeah, I’ll do that more often.

Risking letting the world see all of you is never easy because most of us fear being judged, but I have found that the more you open yourself up to the world, the  more you see that we are all on the same journey and many people, regardless of background, share our fears, our aspirations and dreams and being connected to the world makes this life so much easier to be in.

Trust me on this one.

5. Learn a new skill.

Whatever it is. I have had my eye on doing a cartwheel, because I’ve never been able to complete one my whole life! But seriously, I have rekindled my love of cooking and crochet and Salsa and I just love learning new things all the time. even simple things like how to do a cartwheel. I have my eye on archery lessons this summer, so here’s hoping. But if money fails, there are literally hundreds of things to learn with a good You Tube search. And hundreds of crafty things to try out.

6. Trust that everything will work out.

Because often times, it just does.

*                   *                    *

This is part of a blog Linky from Helen in The busy mamas blog. To join in and to read more posts, go to her site and add your URL.