2023 and Me

With the new year coming up right around the corner, and the new moon tomorrow, I’ve been thinking about my 2023 goals. I want to set some reachable goals for 2023 and some challenging ones. I’m not a new year new me type of person but I’m feeling like 2022 really brought me a whole new me. There’s a lot of things that contributed to my new me, negative and positive. Since I’m thinking about these things, I wanted to share some of the questions I’m asking myself over the next week -ish.

What are my 2023 goals? As a mom, wife, writer, Non-profit President, and Receptionist.

What didn’t work over the past year? How can I improve it?

What would I like to focus on improving over the next 12 months?

What goals need to be revisited?

What are my writing goals?

That’s just few things I’m thinking about. These are usually where I start and then I dive deeper and narrow them down to the bone. Helps me go through the year with Razor sharp focus. Just kidding, not razor sharp focus just nice neat way to remind myself where my priorities lie.

“A goal is not always meant to be reached; it often serves simply as something to aim at.”

Bruce Lee

Progress

It’s crazy how fast time flies and how things progress.

Nathan Chen

Yesterday I talked about appreciating the things you finish on you daily task list. Today is a great day to remind you to think about how far you’ve come. Time flies and you smash goals. You complete daily essentials, you complete big goals, you add to big goals that aren’t finished yet. Taking time to appreciate the big picture is a part of the growth. It allows you to see the present for what it is. Appreciating your progress is a reminder that things pass. Good things. Bad things. Things that you loved. Things that you hate. They all flow out of the present.

I’d love to hear how far you’ve come. What goals and dreams do you have? Anything for 2023?

Let’s Talk About Babe

You’ve done enough. It’s okay to be tired. You can take a break.

Shauna Niequist

There’s a scene in the movie Babe where the farmer says to his pig, “That’ll do, pig, That’ll do.” (I added a youtube clip of it. If you’re ready to watch a silly scene click on it.) What’s great is that Babe can talk to the other farm animals and completes his goals with less effort. Not only is it less effort, he’s more polite and allowing the animals to choose for themselves rather than forcing them around.

Today flew by me without any moments for me to stop and think. This scene in Babe reminds me that it’s important to allow moments of appreciation be part of my day. No matter how much effort it feels like I’m putting into my daily goals, I want to take time to appreciate the things I complete throughout the day.

How about you? Do you take time to appreciate the completed tasks big and small? Do you allow yourself to have done enough? To take a break?

The Flu, Tea, and Bliss

A cup of tea is a cup of peace.

Soshitsu Sen XV

The first thing I did once I was home sick from work on Friday, was make myself a cup of tea. I combined that with my favorite YouTube channel and my favorite blanket and I was zonked for a good 24 hours. Laid out with the weirdest dreams, mixed with randomly waking up to my husband and daughters cheerful voices. What I learned from this whole being sick thing is that I love the sound of my family just being themselves. They brighten my day especially when they are enjoying each other’s presence. I’m kinda surprised by this because you’d think someone home sick would be irritated by any noise that disturbed their rest. I loved it. I woke up to Sala excited and inviting me to play with a fairy toy she hadn’t played with yet. I woke up to Nova and Simon having a healthy disagreement mixed with laughter. It truly is a rich life to have a healthy home filled with love and laughter even under stress. I’d choose a healthy home first anyday. ANYDAY. We all work hard on it and the joy that fills our home is the fruit of our labor. Things aren’t always perfect around here but there’s bubbles of time that feel like the closest thing to heaven.

Oh and sidenote: I’m feeling much better this evening.

WordPress Prompt

What cities do you want to visit?

The first place I want to visit outside of US is Venice. The second place is not a city but I really want to go there, is The Kentucky Derby. I’m not sure where my dream to visit Venice came from but my dream to visit the Kentucky Derby came from My Fair Lady. There’s a scene where Audrey Hepburn is wearing this beautiful outfit at the horse races.

How about you, what cities do you want to visit?

How I Rethink My Sick Days

Home sick today. Tea, soup, and naps on deck. I’m in my new flannel under my coveted weighted blanket and feeling loved by my husbands chicken soup. I used to get super discouraged whenever I got sick. These days, I like to think of my sick days as upgrades. I’m not sure which part of the internet I read it first but now it’s stuck. So today, I’m home upgrading to Human 37.5. This whole idea reminds me of an alien invasion movie where the aliens couldn’t thrive here because they’d never upgraded their systems to avoid the viruses we have here on earth. Fiction makes myths work. lol And this whole idea makes me smile. It’s kinda silly but it works for me. I’m gunna be over embracing my entire self, weird nerdy parts and all. Please excuse me while I reboot to get the latest antibodies.

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Without anxiety and illness I should have been like a ship without a rudder.

Edvard Munch

Overloaded Critic?

Tonight I’m drinking tea and reading my novel out loud to myself. I like it when I can just focus on reading and let the critical part of my mind have a break because it can get overloaded. That’s when it begins to feel like nothing in my book is right. Sometimes it even gets wild and tries to make me feel like I can’t do anything right, which is very untrue.

Attentive?

At this point in the cycle, I’m focused on how attentive I am to my needs. It is hard for me. I’ve been working on this for a long time. I often neglect my own needs in order appease those around me. Honestly, most times I don’t even realize I’m neglecting myself. I am still learning what I need when I need it, and at what point to prioritize those needs over other things going on around me.

I think what will help me learn to manage my own needs would be to check in on myself throughout the day using a journaling app or paper journal. Once I can easily recognize my needs, then then I can do it less. Being attentive to myself will become more intuitive. Well that’s the goal at least.

Boy, while I write this, I can’t help but think that it really does take a long time to master this human thing. It’s work that requires daily intentions. Makes me truly understand how important it is to be kind to everyone. If just being a good well balanced human requires this much homework, imagine how hard it is was when you add academic or career homework onto to the pile.

So what do you struggle with when it comes to being attentive? Are you more attentive to yourself or are you more attentive to others?