2024 You Were a Doozy: Annual Recap
Starting off 2024, if a random stranger told me that I would get engaged, get married, start a new job, move to a new city, and have to adjust to a new lifestyle all within a 5 month timeline, I would have first been terrified that a stranger was saying all of this to me but immediately after I would disregard everything that came out of their mouth.
To be fair I am a notorious planner and I was banking on maybe half of these things happening in 2024. But being the overachiever that I am, I had to go for a full 100%. I was forecasting that I would be engaged in Q2 (yes I plan things in quarters, please leave me alone) and I started the year with the goal to leave my previous job as soon as I came across the best opportunity. Everything else however felt like a blindside especially since they were not meticulously accounted for. In hindsight I did want everything to happen on this list but I was imagining a slower timeline, not a rapid 1.5 quarter timeline. But, now that I’m in a much better headspace and I can be objective I realize that it would have been unrealistic to expect these events to happen slowly and one event occurring would only trigger something else happening immediately after.
How did I feel going through all of this? In the beginning it felt exhilarating, as a lover of change and as a person who looks for any opportunity to reinvent herself, I was looking forward to this new chapter. But after a few short weeks in this new life I felt exhausted, de-centered, and constantly anxious. It felt like I was on auto-pilot and like I was watching someone else live this new reality. I had decision fatigue because of course not a day could go by without me having to pick something, and I found myself missing my old life for the ease and the familiarity.
After allowing myself to wallow in feeling like I was making all the wrong choices, here are the three things I did to try and make sense of this new reality.
The first thing I did was being more intentional about taking space in this new life. Taking more space at work meant being more vocal about my opinions and what made sense and what didn’t. Taking up more space at home meant redecorating so it felt like it was my home too, creating house rules, and not feeling guilty for being disruptive.
The second thing I did was stay connected to my previous life and friends. This meant keeping up with the routines that I had previously (e.g., daily affirmations) and seeing the same group of friends that I had established previously. This is something that was much harder and that I’m even working hard to feel like I got right, shoutout to the friends who understand and give me grace.
The last thing I did was force myself to start new traditions and try new things to break up some of the monotony I was feeling. This blog and learning how to cool (Martha Stewart count your fucking days) is an example of this!
Well it worked, I feel a certain sense of ease and the best thing is it finally feels like I am taking back control of my life instead of being in the backseat and allowing things to happen to me. I’m being more intentional and I guess that feels good? Anyways, I’m keeping my fingers crossed for 2025.
