Getting Started, No Matter What Day it Is

 I saw a post on social media yesterday that coined the word "Blursday" -- suitable for those days during a vacation when it's a challenge to figure out what day of the week it is. 

A perfect fit for the last week. Or today, for that matter.

Mind you, I know that it's New Year's Day. But I still have to stop and think about what day of the week it is, a condition that is unlikely to improve significantly until I go back to work later this month. 

Since it's the first day of a new month -- and a new year! -- I'll spend some time today setting goals for the month. This is a practice I enjoy, especially in the months when I keep myself in check and set goals that are likely to inspire growth, rather than frustration. 

Each month, I set goals in the areas of health/self-care, reading, writing/creativity, organizing, and work, with an occasional addition based on what I am working on/want to accomplish. Some goals are meant to nudge me forward, others to rein me in, keeping me from setting enormous expectations that will only frustrate and overwhelm me.

I use a specific notebook for my goal-setting, so the first step today will be to set up that notebook. I don't usually need to do this but today, as I turned the page from December to January, I discovered that I'd used the last page in the section of my notebook that's formatted the way I like for this task (big blank blocks, as opposed to typical notebook pages). Undeterred, I headed to my office in search of pages in a similar format and found some old calendar inserts that will do the trick. They are outdated, and will need a little primping to bring them up to snuff but, to me, that's a bonus. I get to start with a bit of creativity, which is sure to enhance the whole process. 

Doing this process twelve times a year, as opposed to the one-and-done of New Year's resolutions helps me to pause each month and consider what matters to me in the moment. Old goals can be updated, or scrapped entirely, and new goals can be added or used to replace a goal that has been accomplished or one that's no longer suitable. If I don't quite hit the mark, it's not a problem -- I can try again the next month.

Some people do New Year's resolutions. Others do monthly goals, or choose words to represent or shape the coming year. Still others ignore this process entirely. 

Which one are you?

Image by Rosy / Bad Homburg / Germany from Pixabay