12/31/2024: Cabin Day 3

The fast approaching new year is upon us. I don’t feel any different as I wake up to breakfast on this fine day out in nature. I only wish I could stay here longer. 

I’m trying to think about what I want out of the next year, and I’m trying to differentiate the mindset between temporary resolutions and tangible ongoing goals for the long term. In my mind, a solid plan isn’t an empty whimsical promise to try something new and just give up after a month or two. I’m after a true transformation that begins with that first step and that persists for years to come. 

I guess I can say that I’ve worked toward this outlook on life for the last couple of years, but there are definitely times throughout where I knowingly dropped the ball and purposefully left it for a while. Though I’m better off overall, I know I’ve got a lot of hard work to do in 2025 to feel like I’m putting forth more than a mediocre effort. I’ll celebrate the wins so far, learn from my shortcomings and just keep trucking along, as we have to do.

Being the avid planner that I am, I usually build up these ambitious dreams in my head that look promising on paper, but when it comes down to executing those goals I often find myself unable to deliver, and this is where I know that I could give myself a little more grace. I can’t do it all at one time; I just have to start and stick with the stuff I actually started.

I’m of the opinion that if we have multiple reasonable options before us that we can’t go wrong with the one we choose; I believe that some paths will lead you back to the right one, or at least that some are parallel and just as good. But maybe the reality is that there isn’t a wrong path at all. 

I don't know of a journey that didn’t teach me something that didn’t shape me on my way to finding myself. One different decision or direction would have made me someone else entirely. That’s a wild thought, but it’s true. We’re only who we are and where we are because of every single choice we’ve ever made, and I can say in my experience that I’ve never been so glad to be myself, right here and now. 

Some of us won’t grow in the same ways as others, but then again that’s their chosen path. Others will try multiple paths with vigor and wonder and will always be lost. Some will set down what is presumed to be the right and practical path, only to realize they’ve been walking someone else’s road all along, and that there was always a fork in the road that has yet to be explored.