Once, I forgot to go grocery shopping before Thanksgiving.
In my defense, it was my first Thanksgiving after a tour in Korea — making it the first Thanksgiving in several years where my meal wasn’t coming from a mess hall — and my first as a single dad. So I found myself with little besides hot dogs and sandwich bread, and that thanks to a gas station that had remained open.
A quarter century later, you’d think I would have learned.
But I keep getting smacked in the face with this lesson: You have to plan for things.
Not the boring maintenance things that people typically plan for — I mean the fun stuff. The good things. The enjoyable things. The fulfilling things.
Yes, as you get older you will start having to plan things you hadn’t had to in the past. Salt and sugar intake. Whether or not something is too spicy. How much energy you have. If you need to take the trash out tonight or tomorrow before work. When to sweep or do laundry or if you have to save money to replace that garage door.
Here’s what doesn’t get emphasized: If you don’t do the same thing with the good things, if you do not deliberately prioritize relaxation and connection and fun, it just won’t happen.
Don’t make a plan to read a book, watch a play, go bowling, snuggle with your love, take a walk in the woods, painting, writing, whatever it is, and it simply will not happen.
Yes, spontaneity is good and nice — when it has space to happen.
But the demands{1} of modern life will fill all of your available space and time. Those demands will grow and expand to fill every second of your time, leaving you only enough time to barely recharge before having to address those obnoxious demands again.
Yes, sometimes those demands are fulfilling in themselves{2}, but for most people, that isn’t quite the same thing.
So whether it is a new year for you or not does not matter.
Plan to take some time for yourself, doing what you find fun, fulfilling, or both!
The world will wait.
{1} I mean demands here, because our modern life demands a whole hell of a lot that is not required or necessary.
{2} Children, pets, significant others.
Featured Image by Lars Nissen from Pixabay