Easing into the new year
New year, new me? While I love doing end of year reflections and setting goals for the new year, I have to admit that I have been stuck this time round. Sickness and travel made that I couldn’t get round to it before the end of 2022, and 2023 somehow have left me feeling uninspired. I have an overall ideas of what I want the new year to be like, what goals I would like to achieve - I’m just struggling to put pen to paper simply because there has been so much going on in my life with two little ones at home, a part-time job and a dream of a business that I would like to set up in the next 12 months.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels that the past year has flown by. I have a now one-year-old to accentuate that change even more: in the past twelve months, my son went from a helpless newborn to a proper toddler who learned to crawl, (nearly) walk, eat solids, play and clearly show us what he wants or doesn’t want. I know that children learn so much in the first year of their life, but it is also a reminder to me that anything can happen in 12 months.
Looking back to January 2022, I was at a very different place as I was navigating the postpartum period with a newborn and a toddler. The days and nights felt blur as I woke every 4 hours to feed the baby or sit with him while he was crying, not knowing exactly why he was unhappy, just accepting that he needed to be held close for a while. I remember looking out of the window and seeing light at one of our neighbours, feeling reassured that I was not the only one up at odd hours. I had put my coaching diploma on hold, because I knew that I needed time to get to know this new little human in our lives, to find a rhythm as a family of 4, to adjust to life with two kids, before being able to focus on anything else. I knew that I had 7 months to stay at home with my son before I would go back to my part-time job, and felt reassured by that stability.
Fast forward to 2023, and I have a one-year-old who just started walking on his own a couple of days ago! I have finally finished my coaching diploma and am now a qualified life coach. My work contract only runs until the end of February, so I’m slowly preparing to leave the team that I have worked with the past three years and to start something new. This year, I gave myself the permission to take the time to start my own business. It’s something that I have been thinking of for a while, and to be honest, it was a difficult decision. I’ve been raised in a household where both my parents worked and as I do enjoy working, it was always clear for me that I would want to contribute to our family finances. Giving up on this and jumping into the unknown has been a big effort for me - and at the same time, I might not have dared to take that step if my contract did not run out.
So here I am, with loads of goals and ideas, and somehow not finding the time or space to put them to paper. I still feel stuck in this strange period of time during Christmas and New Year’s where people are on holidays but the big celebrations are over, it feels like it’s soon time for something new, but still not really. That’s the time I usually use to reflect and set goals, but this time, I simply did not manage to do it because life got in the way. I’ve tried to put the pressure on myself to set yearly, quarterly and monthly goals, but then felt paralysed because it just seemed to much to handle. Which is why I’m easing into January. This month is not the big start of something new for me, but a permission slip to take the time to reflect, set my goals in four weeks rather than in an evening, rest and look after myself. I’m setting the foundations of a new business and a new work rhythm and it feels like something that I want to be kind to myself and allow myself the space that I need in order to start in the best possible way.
If you haven’t set any goals yet for the year or haven’t started with new habits and routines at this point, here’s a permission slip from me to you to ease into January, be kind to yourself and take the time to really focus on what you need at this point in our life!