Why Wait?

“The days are passing by—much to our joy, much to our dismay. We change and grow, sometimes just the way we want, sometimes in ways we never imagined—much to our joy, much to our dismay.”

Dear Universe,

It just hit me. The new year is literally days away. Days away.

It was because I saw this tweet: “If you haven’t started working on 2015, you’re already behind.”

At first I was startled! Frankly, I found this frankness to be a little harsh and heavy-handed.

Here I am worried about finishing 2014 in a positive, happy way and it turns out I should already be focusing my energy on 2015? Really, Universe?

Sheesh. No pressure there.

Except there was. Immediately, anxiety and guilt sizzled underneath my skin.

After a few minutes, and some deep breathing, I calmed down.

Maybe this tweet has a point. Maybe it’s time to start thinking about 2015.

“Make New Year’s goals. Dig within, and discover what you would like to have happen in your life this year. This helps you do your part. It is an affirmation that you’re interested in fully living life in the year to come.” ~Melody Beattie

Now, that doesn’t mean I’ll make a blueprint for 2015. I simply want to preserve some time to let my mind wander.

The New Year can be an emotional time for us. We reflect on endings and anticipate new beginnings. We get excited for what’s next while we worry about change. It can be a topsy-turvy of highs and lows, thrills and spills (i.e. tears).

But maybe, just maybe, if we can think about the New Year ahead before it arrives, we will feel less anxious and more prepared.

Maybe this extra time will cause us to be more mindful of the resolutions we commit to instead of creating a list we can’t maintain past the month of February. That makes us feel like failures, which defeats the purpose. Often, this causes a setback we can’t return from—until the following year, that is—when we recommit to the resolutions.

As I thought of the tweet, I realized I wasn’t giving myself enough credit.

In this last week I have started to prepare for the New Year.

I have started to get back into my routine of working out, meditating, practicing yoga, and reading and writing more. I have started to clean out things which no longer serve me, sorting through and organizing clothes and papers. Over the weekend, I even baked and cooked—on the same day!

Take that, tweet!

The reason these things are coming together now, when I have been craving more time to do them these last few months, is because I am on break from work. With this additional time, I promised myself to carve out a bit of it for the things important to me, things I have been missing lately because my days have been busier than normal.

I also have this hope that if I create my ideal schedule now, I will be more likely to carry it into 2015, even when work starts back up.

So I’m vowing in the next couple of weeks to keep this up while making some time alone to reflect, examine and focus.

This way when I come up with things I want to work on and work towards in 2015, I know they will be thought-out and meaningful, not rushed and resolution-y.