The meh week got exciting

Week 01/2023: Week of 2 January 2023

The meh week

If week 52 is the void week (a description I read somewhere that describes the week between Christmas and New Year for those of us who are lucky to have off when we don’t know what day it is and don’t care), I want to dub week 1 as the meh week. It’s the week where I went back to work but I didn’t get a lot done, I’ve abandoned my 22 for 2022 and I kind of know what I want to be doing but I haven’t made any sort of plan.

Yeah, I know. I don’t need a plan. I can just get stuck into the next thing on the list, right? New year’s planning never works out anyway and there’s no difference between 31 December and 1 January. They’re just days like any other day.

Meh.

I know last year I focused on the word “settle”. I decided to use January to get settled into the year, and then I made this outlandish list of things I was never going to get through while I ended up doing a bunch of other stuff that wasn’t on the list.

So I don’t see the point of doing that. No list!

But did I do what I said I was going to do this week?

I said I wanted to work on my shoulder exercises, which I did. I also wanted to write a blog post on the book Stolen Focus, which I haven’t done, and I wanted to work on the creative writing course I’ve been doing. I did that.

I also said I wanted to plan my 23 for 2023, without knowing if I wanted to do that this year since 22 for 2022 got a bit boring when I realised I’d over-committed myself.

A new challenge

I decided—in a rush of excitement—that I want to make my 23 for 2023 a list of things that are outside my comfort zone. Things that terrify me.

If you’ve been reading for a long time, way back in the vault that was 2016, I decided to do a month of doing things that scared me or made me feel uncomfortable. (Here’s the post about it.) It was along the lines of Kendra Wright’s Year of Fear, which I found very inspiring, but was only for 30 days. It was fun. (I think . . .)

So my 23 for 2023 is a variation on that idea but I only have to do 23 things in 2023 rather than a thing every day. I started to make a list and got to about 11 things I know I want to do and am avoiding because they make me uncomfortable.

(Just to clarify, the idea is these are things that my fear is stopping me doing, not things I’m going to do for the sake of terrifying myself. Like jumping out of a plane. I am not doing that.)

After about 11 things, I realised if I actually listed 23 things, it wouldn’t leave any room for spontaneous opportunities that terrified me to go onto the list . . . like stepping off a perfectly solid dock onto a tall ship parked right next to it.

Yes, I did that and it was scary!

Kramstable was going on his own adventure on the Lady Nelson on Monday, and I was part of the crowd of parents farewelling the group. I was standing round taking photos and one of the crew asked if we’d like to get on and have a look around the boat before they left.

Of course I would! But getting on involved stepping off the dock over the gap between boat and dock and onto the deck. And back the same way, which brought back memories of the time I fell off a dock, leaning over to put some stuff on the deck of a boat. (I was ten, don’t judge me!)

I was apprehensive but I wanted to see the boat more than I was scared so I did it, with a little help from the crew lady. It was really cool to see the spaces the group would be occupying over the next week and I’m grateful to have had the chance.

So there we go, I had a cool adventure on day 2 of the new year and ticked my first thing off the 23 for 2023 list before I’d even finished the list.

Introducing 23 for 2023

I’ll post the full list (with gaps for last minute things that get presented to me) once I’ve made sure all the scary things I want to do this year are covered.

This will be way more fun!

23 for 2023 update

Stay tuned.

Status to date: 1/23 comfort zone challenges complete.

What do I want to do next week?

My shoulder exercises. Document the window replacement in my house. Work on the creative writing course.

Week 1 summary

What was the best thing about this week?

Seeing the Lady Nelson again was cool and getting to go on it was great. Also scary.

What did I learn this week?

I learned what flashing on a roof is. This came about because the plumber came to look at the leaking bathroom roof.

What did I notice this week?

Plovers on the beach working out the best way to get away from me.

What I’m reading this week

• Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg
• All Hands by Megan McGrath
• Gild by Raven Kennedy

Habit tracker

• Morning ritual (Goal = 7): 7
• Move (preferably before 3 pm) (Goal = 7): 7
• Morning writing (Goal = 7): 6
• Mental health break outside during my work days in the office (1 day): 1
• Finish work by 5.30 (Goal = 4): 4
• Shut my computer down before 9.15 (Goal = 6): 7