On Friday, the first half of 2022 will be done with six months remaining. For many people, the first six months of the year were hard, scary, draining, and many other adjectives that don’t describe “a good time was had by all.”
In the 94th episode of the podcast, which came out yesterday, I talked about how hard it is to focus when you’re feeling overwhelmed and I included some things that might work for you to feel less overwhelmed by it all. They won’t make you feel all better nor will they make all of the problems we’re facing miraculously be solved, but they may take the edge off of how you’re feeling, even if just a little bit.
I’m not going to rehash what I said in that episode. It’s short. You can go listen to it. I want to talk about looking forward. What do you want the next six months to look like for you? There are six areas that you might want to consider for this exercise.
- Self-care – I’ve said it over and over again, you can’t accomplish anything, you can’t help others if you don’t take care of yourself. You won’t have the stamina or strength if you aren’t doing what your body and your mind need from you. So how will you take care of yourself during the next six months? Any new habits? Any old ones you’re going to dump?
- Accomplishments – What do you want to accomplish in the next six months? I’m going to record my 100th episode of the podcast within that time period. I’m also going to create a new course for instructors at the university and I’m going to make some great memories with my family and friends. What do you want to accomplish before the end of the year? When are you going to work on that? How are you going to make that happen? Most of what I mentioned is already in the works, not some distant dream. You aren’t expected to solve world hunger or figure out a way to get family members to stop arguing about politics by then, but there are probably things you want to do that you can do in the next six months.
- Contribution – How do you want to make a difference in the world in the next six months? This could be something local or something to help people on the other side of the plant. Will you make donations or volunteer your time? Will you write letters or give blood? Will you help someone at the grocery store bag their items or say thank you to the bus driver? What will you do to make the world a better place?
- Learn – Have you always wanted to learn a new language or how to play an instrument? Sign up for a class, read a book, watch a video on YouTube, or download an app. Take steps to learn that new thing or more about something you’re already familiar with.
- Feeling – How do you want to feel throughout the rest of the year or when looking back on these coming six months? Is there anything that you can do to help you experience that? Maybe there’s something in the previous four points? Maybe it’s something entirely different. What could you do between now and midnight on December 31 that might make you look back and think, “the second half was better than the first”?
- Gratitude – When midnight comes on December 31, or the next morning, what will you feel grateful for? What could you feel grateful for each day until then (remember the journey is important).
There are a lot of things that we can’t control in life, but there are also things that we can. Sitting back and waiting for the next six months to happen probably won’t make you feel better and it certainly won’t make the world any better. What will you do with the time you have left in 2022 to make things just a little bit better?
Featured image courtesy of Jernej Furman under a CC-BY license.
