There are -60 days left in 2023 – Use them as your build up

Not your countdown

With a new year coming in at fast approach, it is easy to start the “countdown” as it were.

I suggest you view it more of a build up though.

In reality 2024 isn’t going to be this completely new thing.

Like countries, the scenery does not simply switch as you cross a made up border that we as humans decided on.

The trees stay the same, the animals don’t listen to our borders, they have their own.

So, in the same respect, a new year is not necessarily a new beginning as much as we would like to see it as.

I don’t have anything bad to say about resolutions though, go at ‘em if you want.

But stop thinking like you’re running out of time right now. That the clock is counting down as if it’s Time Square on December 31st.

These 60-ish days remaining of our current year are an opportunity to build up on the things you want in life, the habits you keep saving for next Monday or next year.

I implore you to take on a new perspective of the days ahead of you.

They are vast and beautiful and dripping with possibilities.

I realize that opportunities can be hard to recognize at times and even harder to grab but it’s not too late, you’re not behind right now in this life. The days are just going to keep coming whether you do something now or wait. I’d prefer to start my build up now.

Which in my life is what I am actually currently doing. On a very random sort of day I started using my stationary bike first thing after getting up. Then I moved onto walking and now three weeks have passed and I’m still getting that movement in first thing.

For me though I realized building up meant that first thing for me was just going to be whenever I got up. The 5am wake up for this habit was not required, the movement was the only important part.

It’s so easy to put stipulations on how we feel that we should be working on something, especially ourselves.

I personally don’t get tired of those lists of people who did things ‘later’ in life, so let me share a few with you.

Colonel Harland Sanders was in his 60s before he formed KFC.

Susan Boyle became an overnight success story at the age of 47.

Julia Child was almost 50 before she published her cookbook and introduced French cuisine the masses of American households.

You may not be a writer on the verge of a world famous book like Laura Wilder who published her first book in the “Little House on the Prairie” series until she was 65.

You may not become a household name in fast food options or for your singing abilities.

But knowing that you can still start now or later is amazing. A man named Fauja Singh took up marathon running at the golden age of 89 and kept it up for over a decade.

There is still time for you to do those things you wish.

But I believe that there is less chance if we are always looking at things as a countdown, like we are running out of time to do them.

The time left in 2023, or any year if you read this at a different time isn’t an end all. It’s not something that has much power over us and our choices if we don’t like it.

If we choose not to use it as an excuse to push off starting anything.

If we choose not to let it tell us when we can begin.

You can build yourself up right now and then keep it going into a new year as the dates change but our surroundings don’t really do very much.

This is your build up beginning.