Just like that, the Christmas decorations are put away. The time from October to December felt as if the entire world was one lit with lamps, diyas and adorned with decorations.
The festive energy helped the autumnal blues in-between. There was the next festival in sight to look forward to, as we talked about in one of our earlier articles. It’s the first week of January now, and it could feel like a fresh, but a daunting start.
The first week of the year can be daunting. The pressure to be a ‘new you’. Pressure to start afresh. Pressure to do something different. Pressure to make new year resolutions and stick to them. Pressure to make the year the best one possible. While some of us can find motivation in this, most of the times, it just leads to unnecessary stress.
What can you do to ensure you have a good start to the first week of the new year, realistically speaking? What can you do to ensure you are ready to combat the overwhelming amount of online traffic going in the direction of extreme tides and later ebbs of enthusiasm?
Sort out your priorities:
As the week begins, you’d have noticed tons of content (including this one, haha!) about things to do for a great 2024. Sorting out our priorities in a realistic way can help in curbing the initial overwhelm. Make a sensible to-do list of things that are urgent, things that can wait, and things that one should start working on so that eventually one may get to finish them at a reasonable pace.
This is a much better exercise than starting out a superlative hyperbolic list of all the things you should be doing to make the first week of 2024 memorable.
Keep the rhythm flowing:
While most companies in India are having regular workdays with perhaps a secret Santa event and a party or two, being in a globalised, connected economy means one could experience that post-festive ebb and overwhelm vicariously as well. One of the better ways to combat with it is to simply keep that sense of normalcy intact in any way possible.
If your working schedule and ethic have been helping you to achieve targets and excel in your career, it might be a good idea to keep that rhythm instead of trying to shake it up. Sometimes it’s best to not fix something that isn’t broken! Why break the momentum of something that has been working fabulously? Keep up the normalcy in your to-do lists and work routine, and let the internet and media do the enthusiastic work.
However, if you are someone who wants to ‘feel festive’ in spite of everything and have been feeling that Fear of Missing Out (FOMO), then the next point is for you.
Let the lights remain in your heart:
As the decorations come off, and the LinkedIn pages start to act like festivals don’t exist, let the lights in your hearts shine. Festivals and events will come and go, but you can still attempt to meet your loved ones more often. You can still keep your workspace pretty and colourful in your own authentic way. You can still give yourself the gift of optimism and attitude of abundance, and you can still do your best. You can still take out time for yourself in ways possible by practicing mindfulness and you can still see the world as a gift-bag of opportunities to learn, shine and provide for yourself and your loved ones.
As we step into 2024, let us try to stay anchored to our dreams and think about maintaining a sense of rhythm and harmony. Team UHR wishes everyone a harmonious and prosperous 2024!