Just Keep Swimming & Other Solutions To January Blues

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‘Just keep swimming’

– Dory

Sigh. Is anyone else prone to January Blues? The run up to Christmas is a blur, the holidays are a blast.. And then it’s back to the grindstone, with a lot of work to catch up on now all the fun’s been had, an empty bank account, and all these resolutions, which don’t seem so shiny when it’s time to actually sit down and *do* them. To make things worse, NZ has decided to make like UK and rain on my 2014. Note to NZ: It’s meant to be *summer* here right now, not monsoon season.
The list of things I haven’t so far achieved could go over more than one blog post. I’ll stick to something good that’s happened – I swam today. It may not seem like a big deal but, having put a fat cross against last year’s ‘fitness’ resolution (don’t even tell me how very un-measurable / un-quantifiable / un-specific / un-viable-when-still-eating-copious-amounts-of-fried-chicken that resolution was) – I decided that this year I would swim once a week and ride Enid into town (an epic proposition, trust me) at least 3 times a week. And that last can be either in the direction of house to town or swimming pool to town, so I can kill new year’s birds with stones. I have also resolved to eat no fast food this year^ (I wish you could change the size of font on this thing so I could have written that *really* small). [^definition of ‘fast food’ includes McD and KFC, does not include pizza and Chinese/Thai/Indian takeaway. Or fish and chips.]. I once swore off fry-ups for a while and that actually worked, so I have high hopes.
So my to-do list is long and getting longer, and I did not want to get up this morning to be the ‘new me’ that swims and cycles constantly. But having got home from road-trippage and epically failed to clean the house, write my blog, start to fix my novel, or, hell, even unpack the car – at least I *did* get up today and do one thing I wanted to do – I swam before cycling to the ‘day’ job. If I just keep swimming, January will be over before I know it and I’ll have put in place some good habits and done more things on the list. I admit I did do one other thing on the list and take down the Christmas decorations, but that was sad. 
If you’re finding it hard to do anything – do something. You’ll feel better. If you do something good several times a week, you’ll feel fantastic. And once the anti-countdown to the end of Jan is over, you’ll be in the swing of it. That’s the plan 😀
Who else is struggling with the brand new start to the brand new year? Is it just me that has heard it’s unlucky to have decorations up past the 6th? (Ooh inspiration strikes for blog post on superstition). I started another item on the resolutions today and visited a few new blogs, commenting where I cared. I want to find one new blog I care about for every day of the year and find time to follow it. The world is full of blogs and there are stories all around us, just waiting to be discovered – but that’s another post for another day…

12 thoughts on “Just Keep Swimming & Other Solutions To January Blues

  1. katkinnie

    Just keep swimming indeed my darling. I set the intention to hit up yoga 5-6 times a week. I managed Fri, Sat & Sun in a row, but couldn’t be arsed this morning, so had a lie in to 7.30 instead. Didn’t beat myself up, but rather back patted myself for the first 3 days & promised myself I’d go tomorrow. All good. 🙂 Lots of love x x x

    Reply
  2. swiveltam

    I totally believe in: Take the Path to Become the Path! You are well on your way. I will take your advice keep writing, keep doing “plank” and keep not eating poorly 🙂

    Reply
  3. Aussa Lorens

    January is just an odd month. I don’t feel particularly blue but I do feel like I’m sitting on a launch pad and need to make decisions as to where I want it to send me! I feel like January is really just an extension of the whole New Years thing and you get to keep deciding what kind of year you want to have.
    Oh! And I hadn’t heard that about decorations! What does it mean if I still have my boyfriend’s birthday decorations up since October 31st?!

    Reply
    1. saralitchfield

      Haha, it means you don’t have to decorate in 10 months time?! It *is* odd!! December was such a kerfluffle and now I can’t remember how to get back into some kind of routine.. I like the idea of a month-long launch pad though – gives a bit more leeway to make the right decisions and do a bit of trial and error than deciding you have to be infallibly ‘good’ from Jan 1…

      Reply
  4. Sinistra Inksteyne

    It’s the going back to work that does it, I find. Although at least the weather isn’t being all alluring outside the office window. Ideally of course the weather would be blah until five and then a gorgeous summer evening would ensue. Ah well, dreams are free…

    Reply
  5. Kit Dunsmore

    I love Dory and her “just keep swimming” philosophy. I apply it whenever I’m feeling overwhelmed, especially when the goal I am shooting for has so much work in front of it.

    I also want to be reading and commenting on more blogs. Thinking I should devote a certain amount of time to it, but have yet to figure out how much will do. Currently trying to catch up on posts I missed in the last few days. Will have to skip some of them, I fear.

    I like the “January as launch pad” analogy because I feel the same way. I do a lot of soul-searching and goal-setting in January, and often find myself excited and energized as a result. But then when it’s time to actually get to work, it’s not always that easy.

    Hope the blues pass and you can find some fun in the new year.

    Reply
    1. saralitchfield

      It’s the only thing to do when things are overwhelming I agree! Know how you feel – massively full inbox on the return from holiday and there’s five things that pop up to replace one thing you catch up on!! I try and have social media mornings before work sometimes where I just surf the internet for all I’m worth! But it’s hard not to feel like you should be working, which is why it works better for me if I do a little every day!

      Good luck with the soul-searching and goal-setting 🙂 I’ll definitely find the fun eventually this month! Hopefully it’ll find me first!

      Reply

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