A Life of One’s Own

I love the excitement of Christmas; the lights, the presents, the family gatherings,  the decorating, Hallmark movies, the whole she-bang.  But I have to admit that New Year’s has its own charms. 

This week between Christmas and New Years lends itself to much personal reflection, and for those of us who are introverts, we are in our element.  I love the whole process of cracking open a new journal, and reflecting about the year behind and planning the year ahead.   

What better time to plan for a brand new life than at New Year?  

I know this sounds overly ambitious, however, if not now, when? 

The life that we have today is due to choices we made yesterday. Our tomorrow depends on choices that we make today. 

For the most part, I am pleased with my choices.  I live my life with very few regrets. I have a lovely home, great family relationships and amazing friends.  I have had an educational and career path that I am proud of, and it has brought me a lot of joy. 

But… there are always things niggling at the back of my mind, dreams that have gone unfulfilled, only because I have made active choices to do things of lesser importance, instead of things that would take me to my goals.  I am almost sure that I am not the only one.  

This year will be a different year. 

This is the promise that I am making to myself today.  This is the year I will walk more, spend far more time on wooded paths, and do far more day trips to visit waterfalls.  This is the year I will build the dream gardens around my home. This is the year I will really learn about blogging and content creation and course creation.   This is the year I will learn to take great photos and figure out Instagram.  This is the year I organize my barn and enjoy my fire pit and stop going to bed so early.  This is the year that I will read more books instead of refreshing my Twitter account.  

If we don’t take advantage of the time we have now, we will live next year, and it will look remarkably like the years that have gone before, and that might not necessarily be a bad thing, but how would it feel to accomplish it all? 

Journal Prompts: 

In an ideal world, where you didn’t need to worry about financial or family expectations, would your days look different?  

What time would you get up?

How would you spend that first morning hour?

What would you wear?  How would you style your hair? 

Where would you be living?  How would it be decorated? 

How would you spend your days? 

With whom do you spend them?

Would you build a different social life? 

How does your ideal day differ from the one you live now?