Big shout out to all of you Monday Warriors out there. Today I want to blog about how to know if you should keep on doing something. And I’m not talking about the pandemic, but, kinda, I am.
We often spend time in January thinking about what we want to change, what we want to fix or accomplish in the year ahead. That’s not the same as looking at the totality of your life and asking what should stay and what should go. Julie Morgenstern, in “Time Management from the Inside Out” proposed that we look at time the way we look at a closet… as a fixed volume that we need to decide how to fill.
Sometimes we have to clean out our closets, discarding what we don’t use, in order to fit in what we want to have handy. Time is like that, too.
I’ve found the best way to know if we want to keep doing something, is to stop. Just stop. Let go of it. Then look at how you filled that time. Do you like the changes? Are you better off? Do you long to add it back to your life again?
The pandemic did that for us. A lot of things stopped. Things like dining out, commuting, and throwing out used PPE.
What stopped for you? What were you doing in 2019 that you are no longer doing? What are you filling that time with? How is this new normal working for you?
One thing that stopped for me in 2020 was my volunteer work at our local hospital. My therapy dog has now passed and I don’t have an easy way back to that work. Looking back, I gained connection and meaning from those Sunday visits to patients. That’s something I want to add back. That’s a pretty good do-over goal.
What have you added to your life during the pandemic? Make a list. What do you want to keep and what should you toss back?
I added worry about politics. I’d like to toss that back.
I also added 8 hours solid sleep each night. That’s a keeper.
What about you?
What, if you stopped doing it today, would you never miss? Cookie Cats Bubble Pop comes to mind. Fretting over my annual review is another. Time to take a serious look at those things.
When you list out the things you were doing, that you would like to restart, think about the components that made those activities special. My current dog will never be allowed in a hospital, but I can recreate some of what made my volunteer gig special, by finding a new one that directly connects me to other people in an open, non-judgemental way. Something where I can speak to and see the person I’m helping, that’s what I miss. Something that broadens my perspective. I can have a do-over on that.
So before you give up on January, before you go all-in on 2022 – see if you can find a better do-over and a few old things to toss out so you can fit in a better do-over.
And that? Is just a good way to start the year.