With a new year, I always get jazzed for a fresh start.  I am all about a clean slate. I grew up a military child.  When I tell people we moved every three years (give or take) throughout my childhood, the first response is usually ‘Oh, that must have been hard’ or ‘Where have you lived?’  We lived in six different places before I went to college and I loved it.  I had plenty of friends who moved way more often – like every 18-24 months – so I’m not complaining.  I didn’t have a hard time starting over, making friends, or adjusting to a new school. I actually looked forward to the reboot and deciding how I would define myself differently at the next stop. 

Fresh starts are almost a fixation.  I am very quick to get rid of stuff and, not to my credit, relationships.  I guess I have always known there is something new around the corner so I’m not hung up on clinging to whatever is in front of me.  However, I am tweaking this perspective. I want to very much appreciate what is in front of me for what it is, not the expectations of what I hoped it would or could be.

So what am I going to refresh in 2020?  I don’t care about resolutions and making up some new rules for my life overnight.  I don’t believe that’s how true behavior change happens. You get it right for a bit, you mess up a little, you adjust what wasn’t working and get back on track.

I had this idea that popped into my head and it really fits with where I want my life going.  The Year of Less is what initially came to mind but that sounds like a ‘glass half empty’ angle.  Instead, The Year of Enough has a more positive ring.  It just seems like everything in life is speeding up and becoming this race to more and bigger.  I mean honestly, we have technology doing so much more for us on a daily basis and yet we are still so busy.  If you saw the to do list I make for a day off. Gee whiz!  

I truly believe this culture of comparison has created so much of the emotional and mental health challenges that are tearing us apart – anxiety, depression, addiction.  There is a limit for what we can consume and process (mentally and physically) and I believe we are reaching it. We are bombarded by so much information that there is no time to sort it, prioritize what we truly care about, and then decide how we will act on it meaningfully.  

The Year of Enough is about me stopping before I buy something, write my to do list, or check my email and asking myself Do I really need to buy/do that now or today?  I think there is a lot of power in pausing.  This is not about becoming a procrastinator or even cheap.  It’s about being more selective about what I spend my energy doing, and giving the task at hand my full attention.  There are really only a handful of things that are truly important, so I want to close the other tabs that seem to keep popping open in my mental browser.

What are you going to refresh in 2020?  What are you going to cross off your list?  What are you going to let yourself do, the hobby that you love so much you lose track of time, without checking your phone?  What are you not going to buy? What are you going to unsubscribe from?