Personal essays
Take a look back before walking into the new year
Walking
I’m trying to get exercise back into my regular routine.
There are these treadmills at the gym I’m going to that do all sorts of fancy things that I mostly don’t need or want.
The other day I checked out one of the features that allows you to select a city and walk around it.
As you walk, the screen shows what you would see straight ahead of you.
I was warming up so I walked ten minutes in Barcelona.
After my workout I returned to the very same machine and thought I might continue my walk.
Nope. I started back in the same place and covered the same ground.
The city-view feature of the treadmill is not for me. I don’t seem to be getting anywhere.
These particular treadmills sync with my Apple Watch which records my walks. That meant that the statistics from the second walk were added to the stats from my first walk.
At the end of the month the stats from all of these walks accumulated into an achievement that encouraged me to keep going.
There are so many things that we do where we don’t feel like we’re getting anywhere that it’s good, once in a while, to take a moment and take stock of what we’ve done.
Look both ways
Tomorrow is the first day of January - the beginning of a new year.
We make our resolutions and go to parties where we think, “Ok, but starting tomorrow.”
January is named for Janus. And we’re taught when we were kids that Janus is the Roman god of beginnings which is why the month is so-named.
Janus has two faces - one looking back and one looking forward. We often are so busy looking forward to the new promises of the new year that we forget to look back.
Let’s do that on the last day of December.
Take a moment and think of all you’ve done this year.
It never feels like much as you’re doing it. It feels like walking on a treadmill getting nowhere.
But at the end of the month you’ve walked miles and at the end of the year those daily walks really add up.
Before you make rash decisions about all of the changes you think you need to make, stop and take stock of where you are.
What’s that behind you
I watch too much tv. I sit around too much. I scroll too much on the internet. I waste a lot of time.
All that is true. And yet…
This past year I wrote and published a newsletter each and every week no matter what was going on in my life. I recorded, edited, and published a podcast each and every week. I continued a video series and then paused it.
That’s fifty-two newsletters, fifty-two podcast episodes, and eleven videos.
I wrote and published two books this year. I revised and updated two other books.
That’s two new books and two new editions of existing books.
I attended a bunch of conferences where I delivered talks and workshops.
To be precise, that was twelve conference presentations and ten workshops both public and private.
I spent the summer taking walks in preparation for a walking trip I took in September. I took a tai chi class in September and need to resume that practice. In August I went to morning yoga class on the beach for three days and am just recently getting back to that. I’ve joined a gym and have been lifting weights every other day for two months.
I spent the year meeting friends for coffee in person and online. I traveled and met friends at conferences and in their home towns.
I don’t have numbers for these but I am so much better for all of the time I’ve spent with others.
I could do more in every one of these categories and more. I waste a lot of time.
But somehow, looking back I can see that I’ve done quite a bit more than I realized while living through it.
Don’t dwell in the past, but as you pass through the gateway from one year to the next, take a moment to look back before looking forward.
Essay from Dim Sum Thinking Newsletter 249. Read the rest of the Newsletter or subscribe