Originally I had planned to publish this around my birthday, back in November. As that passed, I targeted this for the New Year… and now it’s mid-April. Oh, the passing of time.
Whereas some yearn to be older, I’ve always felt conflicted about birthdays, age, and the passing of time. It seems as I get older, the years get shorter and shorter. What’s helped me to cope is visualizing the person I want to be in the coming year. I ask myself: have I accomplished everything I wanted to this year? Have I become the person I envisioned a year ago? By making progress in my life, I can point concretely to where I spent my time and thus, feel that the years have efficiently passed.
To keep me on track and moving forward, I started setting timelines for my goals. For example, 23 was the year I would buy my first house. Because of this self-imposed deadline, I was motivated every day to make progress, even if it was just browsing Redfin for five minutes a day. These small steps are not only the building blocks of lofty goals but also the daily activities that end up being my life. And so, that is how time passes, through the incremental steps towards our goals in life.
There’s an idea that we all are procrastinators when there is no deadline. And I think that’s how many people let their lives slip by without ever realizing their dreams. We are never triggered to work on the right thing, so we continue to let our instant gratification drive our life in the form of social media, TV, games, partying, etc. While it’s fun at the moment, when you look back on your life, you feel empty because nothing substantial came out of all those years. With the expanse of time looming ahead, some never realize how impermanent we really are.
So the question remains, who do I want to be in a year? What have I set myself up for? I hope to buy another property in SF soon, continue to live intentionally, rid myself of what I don’t need, be mindful about what I consume, and continue to pursue all my hobbies (running, knitting, blogging, real estate). Most of my goals are like this – unmeasurable, uncheckable, but a continued practice towards living a better life. Last year was a foundational year for me; I traveled for almost half the year and questioned deeply what I wanted for myself. I have a vision for what that is and hope to share more soon.
Thank you for being here. <3
Leave a Comment