And so starts another year… it can be easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of life and the many responsibilities waiting for us at the other end of the end of year break to routine. I am consciously making the decision to consider what will help my mind stay calm and focussed as things heat up – the things that reduce the noise in my head. Instead of asking how to be better this new year, I am asking myself how to feel better, how I want things to be – not the big things, just the little things. Because our lives are actually collections of lots of little things that add up to a meaningful whole.
How do I want the day to play out? Most people, including me, have constraints around them and what they must get done in their day, but we do mostly have a choice in how we approach them. These choices might be small: mindset, how we prepare ourselves, what we do to fill us up and give us the strength to face the day. Is it regular exercise? Meditating? Consciously changing our evening routine to help us to get a better night’s sleep? Drinking less coffee and more water? Putting our thoughts on paper? Getting up 10 minutes earlier so we have time to think about the day?
Children and adolescents can also benefit from this conscious consideration about how best to structure their day. Sometimes that means us considering what this should look like and sometimes it looks like asking them what they think helps them feel more calm and what might make it harder to manage. Getting young people involved in this thought process about what works and what doesn’t provides the foundation for them to be able to problem solve their own lives as they mature into older adolescents and adults. It may seem logical – obvious even – that if we get in the habit of reflecting on what makes things go well and what might be making things harder than it needs to be, we are providing them with a life skill to live with intention and not to move through life only in a state of reaction.
My conclusion so far is to do the thing that I more often than not tell myself I don’t have time to do: read for pleasure. This helps me put my thoughts in order and gain a new perspective better than most things. I am still considering what other small things will make a meaningful difference to how I approach my day in 2025, but this is a good place to start. Now your turn.