Take it easy, man...

So it's the new year, 2014, and I've been writing some posts about getting your shit together and figuring out who you are and what you want this year, mostly because I figured it would be on your mind anyway, and this is the kind of thing I like to do, really.

But it occurs to me that we do this every year, and that it's sort of rote and rhythmical. There's nothing wrong with that, humans have done things cyclically for fuckin' ever. Going through the New Year Resolution pattern is as much a ritual for us as anything else, and that's great.

But chances are, you know the drill. If you don't, there are plenty of folks writing inspirational stuff, presenting new life hacks, setting schedules for getting things done. That's important stuff to do, too. I have a "Make Plans" blog post coming up soon, too, I bet. Because that's sort of where I was going with the inventory and theme posts, and it's worth repeating this stuff as reminders.

But before I get on with that, I thought I'd take a minute to point out that there's no rush to get all this stuff done. It's January 2nd. If you've already mapped out your New Year New You, and you're already hitting the gym and eating less and signing up for that certification program at the community college, or researching other career fields that combine your interests and your experiences in line with the theme you found in your life, great! Good on 'ya!

But if you haven't yet... That's also cool. The thing about being god is you can do whatever you want, whenever you want to. I don't know about you, but most of the times I've made a big production out of changing everything about my life, I made it a couple weeks and quit. The times I've just sort of decided I wanted to be different, without a lot of fanfare, the changes have stuck with me. Maybe short-term projects need a lot of fanfare to get things going, and maybe the longer term changes to your lifestyle don't, because they are deeper and more meaningful, and don't need all that bluster and steam to get things going.

I don't know, honestly.

But I don't want any of my readers to get all fired up about making a big change in their lives, and then two weeks later feel like shit when they miss an improbable goal they exuberantly identified as a key milestone in their planning process. Feeling like shit is bad, mmkay?

Take some time, look at your inventory of skills, think about the theme of your life, and figure out who you are, and what makes you really happy in your life. Then look for ways to do that more ... but spend time thinking it through. It's better to start implementing meaningful change things in your life in February in a way that works than to start some over-thought huge-ass project exactly on January 1, 2014 that has fails by January 12, 2014.

You're an image of god, you can do what you want whenever you want to. Take your time to figure out what you really want before you go jumping in on everything big. You didn't get where you're at overnight, and chances are, you won't change everything overnight either. Jumping on bandwagons is no more effective in real life than it is at MLM or Ponzi schemes.

Don't change your life just because it's the New Year. Change your life because you want it to be better.

Whatever that means.