Get ready to thrive. This month, reset.

Phew. Hello, 2022. [Please don’t be 2020, too]. Anyone else feeling…off in this new year? I have been “off” schedule since Thanksgiving and feel like sliding into home here by the skin of my teeth. I’m a creature of habit. I love routine. I like planning -- in the near term, don’t talk to me about 5 years from now! I often go to the same restaurants, buy the same groceries, work out on the same day a week (yes, often just one), and go to bed and get up at the same time. I crave the reliability of a schedule and a routine, I like knowing what to expect and generally how my day will flow. I like dropping my son at school at the same time every day, grabbing a coffee with my littler one, and walking back home, sitting down at my computer to start my work day promptly at 9:30. I like a midday break, a walk outside if the weather is nice, and if I’m extra-productive that day, a 20 minute late afternoon power nap to recharge.

Ironically, one of the hardest things about leaving corporate life for a more flexible work environment for me was just that -- the flexibility. Because despite my planning and routines, I am also a procrastinator. Tell me I have one week to turn around a full article that’s been researched, fact-checked, and interviewed all pertinent characters, and I’m all GAME ON. Give me three weeks -- or gasp! a month -- to do the same thing, and I will probably still do it all in one week. I join flash fiction writing challenges for fun -- meaning, I get a prompt and a couple days to generate a story with a word count limit -- and spend a weekend doing just that. I LOVE deadlines. 

Perhaps it goes without saying, that the last nearly two years (?!?!) of COVID uncertainty have been especially rough. I’m sure they have been for you as well, and by and large I’ve been mostly fortunate through it all. But the uncertainty, man, it throws me on the regular. 

This year, for the first time since 2019, we made the various treks to visit our family for the holidays. Vaccinated, boosted, tested on the regular, and feeling like we missed so much important time with loved ones the last two years, we decided the risks were worth taking [eff you, Omicron!] None of our family is local, so that means we Thanksgiving’d in one state, did a hybrid Christmas/Thanksgiving in another, and Christmas’d in yet another. 6 airplanes, 3 states, 2 toddlers, 1 month. Ooof. It’s more travel than we did in all of 2020 packed into a few weeks. 

So today, on the first day of the new year, all I want to do is push the “reset” button. In the little things - I want to sleep in my own bed, resume my frantic mornings racing to school drop off, sit down with my coffee at the computer promptly at 9:30. But also I want to reset the big things. What do I want to do with my time? Are my days looking the way that I want them to? What is serving me and what isn’t? I’m not a huge resolution person -- mostly because it’s hard for me to start a brand-new habit and stick to it and then I feel badly for not keeping said resolution -- but I like this idea of a reset. A fresh start. A new beginning. With that in mind, I might make some small tweaks to my routine. I might start working out more than once a week. I might get better at scheduling date nights. Or making more time to just have fun with my kiddos. I might set better boundaries with my work schedule, treat my time as precious as I know it is. 

If you had access to a real-life reset button, what would you do with it? What would you start fresh? A relationship? Your work schedule? Time with friends? Family? Would you make a new routine, or take on a new project? 

We’re going to be bringing this intentional reset to the forefront this month. Our founder Melissa (who is the opposite as me when it comes to goals) will be sharing what her plans are for the year, and how she’s planning to tackle everything. We’re also helping you find your personal brand niche -- in case you’re looking at resetting your brand. If you’re a business owner, working professional, aspiring influencer, or side-hustler with big dreams -- we’ll be providing quick ways to get your own digital strategies started. 

Our contributors are kicking off the new year with a reset as well. Resident DJ Lissie Jacobson is back with a Spotify playlist that is the perfect soundtrack to all your fresh starts, and Megan Collins of The Manicured Shelf shares her book recommendations for a new beginning. 

I hope you join us this month in resetting, in being intentional with what is serving you and what isn’t. Let’s collectively leave whatever wasn’t working in 2021, and start fresh in 2022. Let’s dig deep, find what will allow us not only to survive but to thrive, and then take the small steps to get there. It won’t always be easy, but it will always be worth it. And we’re right here with you, cheering you on.