Is it OK if I try my best to just keep going next year?  You know, hang onto my hat and all that?  New Year’s Eve makes for an unavoidable dance-off with the ghost of your year past, but right now I’m happy enough to look back on the various jigging, twirling and (at times) tango-ing of the past year and feel – Enough!  I’ve done enough!  I’m happy to sit the next one out.  I’m not saying there’s no room for improvement – I’m just saying survival – physical and mental – remains the priority.  Anything else will be a bonus.

This New Year’s motto may have to be ‘Plough On’.

As an aside, I had just turned to ask my husband what the equivalent term for ‘standing still’ would be when you do a work review.  You know – when you chat to your boss and you both go through how you performed over the year, where you might improve, what you learned etc.  All very useful etc.  He was stumped.  Stumped, I suppose, because it’s not OK to ‘stand still’ – certainly not in your professional life at any rate.  You need to keep improving, ‘more’-ing.  You did ten reports last year?  Fantastic – lets aim for fifteen this year.

But in my job I’m into quality over quantity.  There will be no graph showing ‘upward trends’ to please corporates – just gut feelings, because this is Mama territory and my gut is really all I have to go on.

As CEO / COO / CFO in my current role (well, with a fair amount of input from himself as Chairman) I held a little AGM earlier.  In my head.  I decided to give myself a ‘5’ (full marks) across most aspects of the job.  Alright, maybe a ‘4’ for some – general undertaking of ‘crafty’ type stuff and amounts of time spent watching cartoons could certainly do with improvement – but apart from that I really felt that for this year at least, I’m OK to rest a little on my laurels, sit back and just try to keep the show on the road for another year.  I might not feel so generous every day mind you, but there’s something about the harshness of mid-Winter that can make you want to be kinder to yourself.

So that’s my introduction to the following, which I feel are more wishes than resolutions.  Wishes that may or may not come to reality but which, if there’s any bit of energy left in me, I shall be willing to take place:

For Me:  A little more time, a little more writing, some more inspiring podcasts, some live music, some reading (and time in bookshops), some rest, some exercise, more time with friends, more outdoors.

For Mine:  More time together, much happiness, more support when I can, good health.

Some of you may be aiming to do less this year – you are the people I truly salute.  We are all only human and we are all enough.

Happy New Year, XOXO

My ‘Best Of 2017’ via Instagram

This blog post has appeared on: themword.ie