Do Your Job

Start your day off right.

Start your day off right.

 

Mark my words; this year is going to fly by.

I have no idea where I realistically stand with my New Year’s resolutions, but I can safely say that the calendar is filling up fast. The question is, am I saying yes to plans that include things that I wanted to work on? Am I safeguarding my time to take part in activities that I want to do, rather than things that I feel I should? Am I saving as much money as I said I wanted? Am I doing a good job balancing my workout regimen with all of the good food that the world insists I sample at least once?

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Wait- I don’t even like donuts…

There’s so much that I want to get done, and at the same time, when I look at it all collectively, it can feel a bit paralyzing. Such are moments where I find myself surrounded by a truckload of half-done good intentions: I’m sixteen pages into a new book, the Bruins game is playing on mute in the background, my toenails are just painted and propped up to dry, and I’m adding to a list of things that I’ll need to procure before I pack and move out in less than a year. I’m also thinking about a single banana in my fruit bowl that is more than ready to be made into muffins. Maybe I should cook that up tonight, too.

It’s lots of stupid stuff, and in many ways, my penchant to embark upon as many tasks as possible keeps me from accomplishing anything that I really wanted to get done in my precious spare time. Substantive achievement with no physical payoff. The hard stuff that requires me to slow down, dig a bit deeper, and appreciate the world around me.

“What y’all here for?” - Marshawn Lynch

“What y’all here for?” – Marshawn Lynch

So what matters this year? In the grand scheme of things—regardless of whether the Patriots take home another Vince Lombardi trophy tomorrow—what do I really want to get out of 2015? I think I know the answer.

Beauty in the off season.

Beauty in the off season.

I don’t want to spend every single month with my head in a sandcastle of minutiae, as is my custom. At the moment, it is freezing outside, and while I cannot dropkick the groundhog through the goalposts at Foxboro for being such a waste of meteorological space, I do recognize that winter is not going away any time soon. And hibernation, as much as I want to do it, is not a healthy option (I know, because I tried this last year).

As we roll into February, I want to spend my days working on the good habits that I teed up at the start of January. Additionally, I don’t want to wish away a present that may not, in my eyes, feel like Megan’s Ideal Existence. Does anyone else think this way? Do you project forward to a potential future that may or may not be better? I do this all the freaking time. From wondering what my post-Navy career will bring, to stressing that the Bruins will flame out come the playoffs, I place my stock in a future that promises me absolutely nothing.

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Like I said, this year is going to move pretty fast, and before you and I know it, Labor Day will be slamming the door shut on summer, loved ones will be returning home from deployment, and we’ll all be shaking our heads at the fact that we see Christmas candy stocked in CVS before the trick-or-treaters even show up at our doors.

What to do, before this tide suddenly rolls in and swirls around our ankles? Adjust your vision for a bit more of a close up. Look at the sand beneath your feet and take notice of what’s there. How it feels. The winter blast and annoyingly tilty sun might not suggest it right now, but the only guaranteed pleasure we’ve got resides in the work we do to experience each day.

On to Arizona.