This time away from work and my usual time pressured daily routine has done me a world of good in so many ways.  The first and most obvious one has been its gift of time.  Time to relax, time to drift along during the day and not feel guilty about the nothingness that some parts of the day end up being and also time to reflect on how the last year has played out and what, if anything, needs to change for 2018.

The good things about 2017, its predictability and steadiness were also its limitations with regard to my personal development and growth.  I’ve coasted along, made excuses for the way I’ve dealt with challenges and let things slide for the sake of convenience and ‘less stress’.  Paradoxically, I’ve also felt good about ‘how busy’ I’ve been and ‘how much’ I get done each day.  It’s been some kind of invisible badge of honour I’ve worn with a certain degree of (foolish) pride for the last year or so if not longer.

Unsurprisingly, something had to give and this summer has allowed me to identify what these things are.  I’ve noticed that I’m very impatient these days.  I’ve also allowed myself to be distracted by the charms of social media and the internet in general when what I should actually be is more present in the situation at hand.  Distraction can be the answer at times if it helps diffuse emotions and prevent rash actions but it’s not the answer all of the time.

Which brings me to my intention for 2018.  To be more present in my world.  In all of it.  Not just the nice, fun and feel good parts but also in the hard, ugly and challenging parts that have to be gone through and not avoided.

Some practical actions I plan to implement this year are:

1. Streamlining how I blog.  A maximum of three posts per week and for those to be written on my days off rather than eating into precious family time.  I’m hoping that this will also improve my content and spare you too many of the boring details of my rather repetitive daily life.  All bets are off when I’m away solo in all those exciting new cities for work, though….
2. Limiting those evening trips down the rabbit hole that casual browsing on my phone become after a hard day at work / adulting in general / parenting.  Persisting with no phones at the table.  Keeping casual scrolling for the darkness of preschooler / big school kid bedtime.  A work in progress.
3. Periodically logging out of Facebook and Instagram on my phone.  I need to keep Twitter at all times, though because that’s often the most efficient way of keeping up to speed with current affairs.  Both of the political and celebrity persuasions.