Before anyone asks or comments, I look tired because I am tired.
Today’s itinerary consisted of the following:
03:00 – wake up for work
04:00 – start work
05:00 – eat breakfast
05:30 – work some more
09:00 – take “lunch” break (mostly taking laps around the building so my body doesn’t feel like mush, or reading a book)
09:30 – some more work
12:00 – leave work
12:15 – pick up race gear from Running Room
12:30 – spend the next hour on transit trying to get home
13:00 – real lunch time
14:00 – nap
16:30 – wake up from nap, groggy
16:45 – shower and change into race gear
17:00 – do transit thing again
18:30 – warm up for race
18:45 – start race
19:25(ish) – finish race; proceed to Pizza Pizza and stuff face
20:15 – struggle through even more transit
21:00 – arrive at home; get accosted by cats
21:05 – feed cats (they couldn’t wait)
21:10 – start laundry
21:50 – start writing this post, as promised
So yeah, I’m tired. But I couldn’t leave you all in 2018 without one last word.
I like to think I’m good on my feet. My knees and ankles may challenge such a statement, but because my body helped me make it this far – I’ll simply take her word for it. I completed my second ever wintry Resolution Run 5K, and I feel great about it. Why? Because a week ago, a sinus cold was dragging a large cloud through my eye sockets. My sinuses are relatively cooperative – for now.
I’m not big on resolutions in January, because I try my best to commit to things as I’m ready to take them on.
Goal-setting can be a challenge, so I do what I can to make plans on my terms.
Now, for those of you who have known me for a while, I know you’re keeping me honest by saying that I commit to plenty of things that I am not ready for. You would be correct in saying so, but that’s not really the point.
Goal-setting for the New Year is driven by 90% public opinion, and 10% personal anxiety.
It can be stigmatizing because of the idea that making changes on January 1st is somehow less valid, or less likely to be successful, by virtue of being a “New Year’s Resolution”. When I first started writing Maya’s Monday Motivation posts in 2015, there was no hashtag, no routine, and no resolution. It was a Monday in June and I needed a boost.
Every week, I’d post a short note on Facebook and be on my way, to take on the million and one tasks that awaited. The reason I’m able to do it today, and why I assume people continue to read them, is because I have so much support from the people around me. I’m often reminded that I haven’t yet posted and someone’s commute won’t be the same, or that someone shared my post with a friend who needed to hear those words.
Goal-setting should be 50% celebrating little wins, and 50% winning with others.
In my professional opinion – take that as you will – the number one way to ensure your goals are realized in 2019 is uplift others and support their goals. Celebrate their small and big wins. Career changes, paying off student debt, making your first mortgage payment, getting your driver’s license, writing the first page of a book, cooking your first meal on your own…
Goal-setting does not have to be a pain in the butt.
My energy in 2019 is exclusively focused on protecting my energy; I resolve to be kinder to myself, and to the people around me, and I resolve to protect myself from those who are unkind to me and to the people I care about.
That negative energy is a weight I am happy to let go and leave behind in 2018. Be as good as you can be every day, and you’ll have a big win to celebrate come year end. Move – forward, upward, onward – but don’t get caught up in measuring each step along the way.
This is your year. Stretch a little, grow a lot.
With love,
M
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Maya McDonald 