I suspect I’m one of the few people who thought January flew by! Not quite blink and you’ll miss it, but it definitely didn’t hang around.
I couldn’t sleep on Thursday (I find myself waking up a couple of hours before my alarm – a habit I’m not keen on keeping), so I thought I’d get up and do something productive with my time. Very blurry-eyed, I made a coffee and settled into the armchair in my office and felt this sense of calm. The room is (finally) decorated and organised, and bar a few finishing touches (curtains, another rug and some pictures on the wall), finished.
I can be affected by ‘shiny new’ syndrome – ie I start something and then move onto something else before I actually finish it (I recently had 4 rooms on the go in my house, for example!) but I don’t think that’s always a bad thing. Sometimes you have to press pause on something you’re doing as you can’t actually complete it (my dining room needed curtains I didn’t have and there were a few 2 people jobs that needed doing and I’m just one person!), and sometimes you just need a change of scenery. Maybe you’re bored with something and just want a break, or you realise you it’s not right for you and you don’t want to finish it.
Our brains are all wired differently and for some people, they won’t start something until another thing has been finished. This can lead to inertia, or even frustration if it never gets done, and if this happens to you (or your partner), it can be a source of conflict.
What’s the solution? Only starting something that you have set aside time to finish? Spend all your spare time getting that thing done? Or just live in the moment and trust the process? In the past, I’ve been accused of not seeing things through and I carried that with me for a long time. I realised it’s not true though. I finish things I’m passionate about. If I’m ambivalent or a bit ‘meh’ about something, then yes, I can hit pause and move on to something else.
I understand my personality a lot better now. I tend to work better to deadlines as that keeps me focussed but I also need some flexibility as life doesn’t always go in a straight line. In fact, it rarely does!
I’m also a lot more compassionate with myself. I trust the process. I trust that if I really want something, I’ll find a way to make it happen. I also know that things can take a lot longer than we think they will.
So, I’m going to embrace ‘shiny new’ syndrome, with a bit of a packhorse mentality alongside it. I’ll continue to throw myself into what I’m passionate about, and plod along with the other stuff. And if I realise along the way that what I want changes, I’m OK with hitting pause, maybe indefinitely. In fact, I’ll actively do it as time is so precious I want to make the most of it.