I hope you’ve enjoyed a beautiful festive season and the start of 2024 is looking bright for you. You’ve probably seen loved ones, ate a bit too much, felt a bit guilty and started exercising… You may have been joyful, although maybe felt a bit sad as well: it was the end of a year, you may miss other times, some people, desires yet to fulfill… But Christmas is all about rejoicing on the riches we have, the luck we’ve experienced and the gratitude for all that’s lived. Plus, the excitement for all the good that is yet to come – there’s always something positive in the horizon, even if we can’t see it just yet (some of us don’t have an eyesight we can rely that much on anyways ;p). Anyhow, 2024 sounds good to my ears.
I do love there’s a global theme of decoration for Christmas everywhere, there’s no other holiday that sets the mood like this, globally.
Setting the tone for 2024
Now that we’ve put all the christmassy stuff away, have you reflected on the past year, written down the resolutions for the new one? Me, I do it all year long… But one can’t deny that it makes sense to do some planning and list making at the beginning of the year; “Laying the calendar in front of you, as if it was a map. Let’s mark the days off. Choose where we want to be that day. How we we’ll get there. Seeing all the zig-zags we made last year but also how far we’ve come… ” -Speaking of calendars, scroll down or just keep reading to see how I get mine ready (and get yours).
Maybe we could just set intentions for this year, so we won’t be crashing our expectations from too high. If you prefer goals, though, you know how to decide (choose the S.M.A.R.T. ones). But that’s not something I really stick with. I need emotion. I want to set intentions, decide how I want to feel and how will I get there. For last years’, I decided to go with the motto “what’s done with love it’s done well”. I’m not sure I got far with that, although I did accomplish something: more rest, less pushing without results.
As for this year, well… maybe I’ll keep the same… Or should I appropriate the “I’m lovin’ it”? Marketers are almost psychological geniuses after all. Let me explain though. I want to focus on the joy of doing in the present. It’s too often that I find myself thinking I should be doing things that make me happy… But they aren’t so enjoyable if I have to follow some sort of schedule, to be productive with my free time.
Does it happen to you? How can it be that we end up believing we “should” be practising our hobbies? Aren’t these things for fun and pleasure and personal growth/meaning?
So, this year, let’s enjoy more of what we love, so we can actually live more.
The season of making
As happens every year, I missed more time to prepare for Christmas. It seems it would be the perfect moment to sit quietly and make stuff, be it sewing, painting knitting, ceramics or whatever. Maybe just making the garlands and ornaments would be really nice. Instead, Christmas preparations become hours of shopping, in life and online, and stressing about not knowing what to gift. Yes, it’s pretty to go window shopping with all the decorations and lights, and kind of fulfilling to know that we are surrounded by so much stuff, and people and food and music…. But in between all this, all the gatherings and presents and dinners, I miss the time to stay peacefully, to enjoy the vacation without the rushing. I’d love to be able to disconnect from everything, to break with the routine and known places and people… To stop with the omnipresent expectations and just relax in nature.
May the creative mood stay with us
I did try to grasp a bit of the making spirit during the holidays, making a small garland of crochet and seashells, and I painted a postcard… so not all was lost.
You may know that I kind of dread the winter once the festivities are gone. It’s a long way until summer, and the cold has just began. Anyway, my purpose year after year is to find ways to enjoy this season (the outdoors is still very appealing).
Nonetheless, I’m always afraid that with the vacation days gone, and back to the demands of daily life I will loose all chance to keep up with creative projects, this blog, new hobbies… But let’s not forget that when we do more, we actually get more done too. And not all things that we do take our energy, but also fill us with it if they drive us. Let’s take things one at a time. Stress is the real enemy, not time!
And the days will pass anyway.
Here’s a bit of behind the scenes of the making of these things.
Are you ready for this year? and the next one?
Now, to get going, here’s something easy but so useful. Does ever happen to you that you’d like an excel calendar of the next year? But either you use the google or apple calendar or you have to start looking for a nice template to download…
Well, there’s a better, quicker, very customisable way to get one.
- Go to sheets.google.com
- Look for the Annual Templates, select it.
- Edit the appearance to meet your taste.
If you want to change the year of the calendar, let’s say we already want the 2025, it’s really easy to do so. Click on the big number on the right and change the formula. Instead of “today” write the date “01/01/2025” and the whole calendar will move forward one year.
TADAAA! Now just customize it and start marking all the important (vacation) days!
☞ Find mine here for 2024 and 2025 ☜
Make a copy to your drive and then modify as you please.
Now let’s get planning!
PS: the days are getting longer already around here 🙂 Will we beat the January blues ????
~~~
Sea you soon!
L·S
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