This post I am taking almost as a continuation of my 2021 goals post as well as many of the other New Years posts and challenges that are being posted everywhere telling you what to eat, what to get rid of, and how to lose all that weight you gained in 2020. And sure, I have personal goals as well, many of which I didn’t share in that post because they are personal and I don’t want to be pushing people to live a certain way.
But what is missing from most of these goals and posts are the reassurances that you don’t have to do everything. What works for one person will not work for everyone else. And you probably won’t be able to do everything that you want to do without burning yourself out.
I know that I always want to start January 1st with a million different goals for myself and feel like if I have failed if I miss even one day. This makes it hard to get back on track for me as I feel like one missed day counts out the whole year.
Of course this isn’t really true. One day doesn’t discount the entire year and everything won’t change on January 1st.
We have to set realistic expectations.
For ourselves
For the year
For others
As I write this I just finished my second day of my new job. This job has me going into work every day for the first time in almost a year and boy am I tired. Some days like today it is physical exhaustion, but others included mental exhaustion from the amount of new information I was taking in. I need to be listening to my body and knowing that I can’t do everything I could before as I just don’t have the time, energy, or frankly desire.
I have to understand that my long to-do list might not get done every day, morning yoga may happen in the evening to get a few more minutes of sleep, and not everything has to be done perfectly.
Realistic expectations are important to have for others, but also important to have for yourself.
fivestarredlife.ca 