Finding Resolve... Realistically Speaking

When your life is full, resolving to take on something new almost invariably means that you have to give up something, in order to be able to accommodate the new.

I think it's one of the reasons why so many New Year's Resolutions fail: We say we're going to take on some challenge... and while our intentions may be good, we forget that we don’t actually have the time or the room to make that challenge succeed. OR we apply ourselves well, but now the rest of our life starts falling apart instead, because we forget to pay attention to it.

One of my goals for 2025 is to take my art more seriously and dedicate more time to it. Which means — realistically speaking — that the time to do so has to come from somewhere... I am already "fully booked " as it were.

The only real "space" I could take time from was my TV and other "time wasting entertainment" so that's what I have to keep in mind when pursuing this particular goal.

Anyway, it got me to thinking about time, and our "time budgets."

Many people experience this sensation of"not having enough time" in their lives. Taken in isolation, it's a funny thing to say, because we have neither less nor more time than we've ever had... a day still has 24 hours in it, and we still have 365 days every year in which to get things done!

But that's not how it works, is it?

The more I turn over this conundrum in my head, the more I realize that the real issue is that the "goalposts" of life have been moved. That is to say, the amount of stuff we are expected to regard as a "normal workload" has been changed. I look back to my youth and to how my mother said she was always "busy" and she was, but what kept her busy in 1975 would look like a "light load," in 2025!

A lot of people might point to everything we have in our lives today and make the argument that we are also a lot better off, but are we really?

If we have to give so much of ourselves to have this "more," perhaps to the point where we are too tired to truly enjoy our bounty, what's the point? Life seems a little out of balance...

The example I heard not so long ago came from an acquaintance who was able to hire a housekeeper to come in three times a week... but she had to work ten more hours every week to be able to pay for that housekeeper!

Is that really in balance?

But getting back to my realistic resolve here, I'm empasizing not trying to undertake something I likely would not be able to achieve... regardless of whether I might want to.

In the case of my art, I know that I must find time to engage in more social media, in order to improve my negligible online sales. I've dabbled in this in the past, and the experience taught me that I need to spend a good 60-90 minutes a day, once you count photography, post creation, account building and so forth.

So... no more "lazy TV after dinner!"

We'll see how it goes...

Thanks for stopping by and have a great remainder of your week!

How about you? Do you remember your available time, when taking on new projects? Leave a comment if you feel so inclined — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — Not posted elsewhere!)

Created at 2025.01.20 17:50 PST
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