As I sit here relaxing this afternoon, I am struck by the fact that I do not feel sad that Christmas is over. This is unusual for me. Even more interesting is the fact that this feeling does not result from a sense of let down or a sense of relief after all of the preparations. So what is going on?
Why don’t you join me? Don’t set any artificial goals for the coming year that should magically make things happen just because you began on a certain date. If you want to take my road, appreciate each and every day to its fullest. Enjoy the people that are around you for who and what they are and include them in your life to the extent that they make you happy to be around them.
It seems that this year I did not feel any stress for the holidays. The tree went up at its usual time, before Thanksgiving, so that we could welcome the Christmas season on Thanksgiving night. As always, the most difficult task was to figure out what to get for everyone on my gift list. And thank goodness for online shopping because not only did I buy gifts in this manner but also by exploring the internet, I got ideas that would never have come to mind otherwise.
I did spend a few hours at the mall which also yielded a number of gifts that were unique and different from some of my choices in the past. The mall Santa and the Christmas music that filled the air really put me in the holiday mood. I listened to a radio station that played the music of the season for one entire month. I believe that I saw every Christmas movie out there between my weekend marathons and at least one every night during the week.
My family members were not available for the holidays although we did keep in touch with each other with regular phone calls. But, I am very fortunate that Kirk’s family is here and we spent Christmas Eve at his brother’s home with all of the family and we were at his sister’s on Christmas Day to share presents and a few hours of fun together. The rest of the afternoon and evening were for Kirk and me and I must say that it couldn’t have been nicer. We have our own special traditions and they just seem to become more important and special as the years go by.
What a wonderful holiday season! And in a few days, it will be the start of a New Year. Ah, that is the daunting date that seems to have made me feel sad that Christmas was over in past years. January 1st used to represent the time when I had to set big goals for myself for the coming year. I had to set new career goals and personal achievement goals which I never seemed to be able to meet. The New Year was routinely a matter of facing all of my failures of non-accomplishment from the previous year. No wonder I was sad to see the fun of Christmas go away when I knew that a week later, I was going to feel miserable.
Well, that is over. Last year for my New Year’s resolutions, I decided to make no resolutions. For the first time in my life, I did not decide to lose x number of pounds nor did I decide that I needed to do things differently about my work situation so that I could put myself in a place for future advancement. And boy, am I ever glad that I did.
In the past year, I lost more than 20 pounds. At work, I received an award for a special program that I instituted among my co-workers. My work has significantly changed so that I have an opportunity to learn so much more that would perhaps put me in a perfect position to obtain an advancement that I could never have devised myself. Now that is a real set of accomplishments and I didn’t plan a single one of them.
Why don’t you join me? Don’t set any artificial goals for the coming year that should magically make things happen just because you began on a certain date. If you want to take my road, appreciate each and every day to its fullest. Enjoy the people that are around you for who and what they are and include them in your life to the extent that they make you happy to be around them. If you are not doing the work that you would like to be doing, start a search for something new but don’t get discouraged if you don’t find what you want in your time frame. The right work will show up at exactly the right moment and in the interim, just be grateful for the opportunities that you already have in your current work and learn all that you can in order to take that knowledge to a new opportunity. Make 2011 the best year of your life. It can happen if you just remember that it is all up to you.
Happy New Year!!!
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Barbara Jacoby is an award winning blogger that has contributed her writings to multiple online publications that have touched readers worldwide.