Baby Steps into 2023
New year’s resolutions… pah. Not a fan. But I went back to work yesterday, and I can’t help but feel a certain kind of freshness and resolve that comes with a brand-new wall calendar, a clean notebook, a new TO DO list, and an empty desk pad.
It smacks of promise and a fresh, clean beginning. It is inspiring to know that you have a blank year ahead and you can create and do with it what you want. I feel very energized and inspired and hopeful.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like my challenges vanished with some magical pop of champagne at midnight on New Year’s Eve, but somehow the cobwebs have cleared and my resolve to tackle the year is stronger. More energetic. I guess a bit of down time and time spent with people who make us happy is restorative like that.
Instead of setting new year’s resolutions, which tend to be forgotten by the time January 31st rolls around, I think we should take baby steps into 2023. Small, actionably steps that are achievable. If you want to make a million rand this year, putting that on paper or a dream board is quite a big goal. But if you break it into smaller actionable steps, focusing on the things you can do daily to achieve that, it becomes easier.
Think about dieting. Losing weight is probably one of the most common New Year’s Resolutions. When we start with “I need to lose 10kgs this year” that can seem overwhelming. But if we say, right, to lose 10kgs, there are baby steps I can take, daily actionable steps, to make that happen. Things like getting up 15mins earlier a day to make time for one baby step – be it 15mins of exercise, or a glass of hot lemon water, or time to pack a healthy lunch. That seems achievable. And if you add up the cumulative effect of those baby steps and focus on those, before you know it, you are on your way to that goal without feeling the enormity of it.
The other upside to taking baby steps is you can enjoy the journey and aren’t continually waiting for that holy grail to be reached before you can feel happy. Until you feel you have achieved something worthwhile. When we set goals that are far off, there’s a mental process that makes us feel we can’t be happy until we reach them. Either we succeed or we fail. And unfortunately, this is probably why we fail. Waiting to be happy becomes tedious and sucks the joy right out of everything and it feels like a mammoth task that we slowly lose enthusiasm for attaining.
So, this year, instead of making massive New Year New You type resolutions, make New Year, Better Me baby steps.
If I had to say what my main resolution was, I would say it is to eliminate things that don’t directly feed what I really want for this year and for my life. Again, that sounds big. I am terrible at saying no so even thinking about it gives me a guilty anxiety. But! At the end of last year, I was completely overwhelmed and so thinly stretched that I was feeling it physically and honestly if you had said BOO to me, I would have promptly burst into tears because my nerves were so frayed. The baby step for me is to start saying no to things that aren’t aligned to my wellness – mentally, physically, and financially. I am proud to say that I have resigned off a functions committee at my son’s school which took up so much of my time! And I have graciously opted out of writing (for free) for other publications. I have decided to draw boundaries and so far, so good. Granted, it’s only the 11th of January, but baby steps. And so far, I feel quite good about the boundaries and what’s more, the world hasn’t ended because I said no. 😊
You don’t decide to just get a 2000-piece puzzle done as you tip out the box. You do it one piece at a time. Initially it’s a broken frame, then a whole frame, then a few random clusters of joined pieces, and then it starts to come together. One baby step at a time.
So, as you step into 2023, take baby steps. Don’t try eating the whole elephant in one go. Small bites, baby steps, focus on the immediate actionable steps you can take, and do those, and before you know it, the bigger picture will take care of itself.
Happy New Year! Happy baby stepping!
Natalee x