One of my pet peeves is how the first week of any new year is steeped in pressure to perform. Flush with resolutions and renewed energy after the holiday break, the unspoken expectation is that we should all get after it. Like now.
It has not escaped my attention that this pressure perversely coincides with the coldest, darkest days of the year. I do not want to get after it; I want to wear thick wool socks and eat soup and go to bed at 8PM. As a mammal in the dead of winter, this seems like a reasonable instinct.
Of course nothing is stopping me from doing these things–in fact I have done all them this year already. But also…there are emails to read and meetings to attend and errands to run and Christmas decorations to take down. And that’s just Monday.
However, in an effort to make this transition to “real life” less jolting, I’m encouraging myself to ease in this week. My plan is to pad my schedule with lots of breathing room, keep my to-do list thin, go to bed early, and otherwise relax.
The fact that it was 11AM today before I realized that I’d inadvertently skipped breakfast (well…second breakfast, technically, as I am a human-sized Hobbit), I’d say it’s not going especially well. But I hold to hope. I have just one meeting left for today and no one will ever suspect that I’m attending in thick wool socks.
