2022 – The Year of Finding You

Who Am I?

Do you ever feel like you have completely lost sight of who you once were? Like once upon a time, many years ago, you had this thought of who you were going to be and what you would accomplish along the way. And then slowly as you went about your journey, you gradually let pieces of yourself slip farther and farther away? Have I lost myself?

That’s the peculiar position I have found myself in. I’ve been asking myself so much here lately:  Who am I? What do I need to make myself truly happy? Where did I turn so far in the wrong direction that I don’t even recognize myself?  I have decided this year I am going to wholeheartedly commit to finding myself and finding my true happiness. I hope each of you are ready to go along for the ride. 

That’s not to say that I am not happy.

I feel it’s important to say that I am happy, just not that overwhelming make your cheeks hurt from smiling too much, “all is right with the world” happy. Let’s be honest, the pandemic has lasted far longer than any of us thought possible and that doesn’t help the situation in any way, shape, or form.

But that is not what started this ball rolling down an ever so slippery slope. Call it a mid-life crisis if you will, but I am spending the last year of my 30’s reevaluating who I am, where I thought I would be, and what makes me truly happy.

Just Going Through The Motions

The first step to solving a problem is admitting there is a problem to begin with. Like most other 30-somethings I found myself just going through the motions. My daily routine began feeling like instructions on a shampoo bottle: lather, rinse, repeat. Sadly for so many of us, I think it goes on like this for so long that we just go with it, thinking “why rock the boat” until we absolutely lose our ever-loving minds.

And that is the precipice I found myself on. On the  same cliff edge my mother was on before she completely lost it at age 40. But that is a story for another day. 

So how do I find that person again?

Maybe it’s not so much about going back to that “old version” of yourself as much as it is evaluating those things that you had planned and seeing how much of that will make you happy by adding it to the you that you are now.

My goal for January is to really take a look back at who I thought I was going to be by 40. Who I thought that person would be and things I lost in the process. 

• Planning – I have always been an incessant planner. Whether it be what we are having for supper for the next week or a vacation we were taking six months in the future, I always felt relief from laying the groundwork ahead of time. I do not do well from a “fly by the seat of  my pants” mentality. To help my year-long journey of making “2022 – The Year of Finding You” I ordered a planner to help get myself back to my organized self. 
• Journaling – I would hope that it doesn’t come as a complete shock, but years before I became a contributor to The Basic Moms, I absolutely loved writing down my thoughts and feelings about each day. Those old high school journals are long gone, but the desire to pen my feelings remains. So to start myself back on my path, I ordered this awesome Tree of Life journal. 

So as my journal and planner arrive, I will be doing a Venn Diagram of Me. I will look at who I was, who I am, and who I thought I would be. 

One big piece of this puzzle is to also remember that some alterations along the path were made for the right reasons and that  this process isn’t about changing others, but about finding myself.

So while January will be revisiting my love of planning and journaling, I may discover that those things don’t bring me the joy they once did. And that is 100% okay. This is not meant to be an end all, be all of how to find the old you or even how to find the new you.

This journey is more of how to find your happiness in your life now. I hope you all will stick along for the ride over the next 12 months.