Getting it good

If there's any month for some self/life/love/work evaluation, January usually gets the job. New year, new you! headlines will cry out. Change, change, change, best, best, best, forwards, forwards, forwards: this is what we all need to keep going through life happier/healthier/lovelier/more successful.

Resolutions made in that burst of Januaryness will fade as real life gets its grip back and the old routines, preferences and realities fold you back into your life. The perfect body/partner/job will disappear on the horizon as commitments and deadlines replace dreams and ideas. Instead of change, change, change it becomes can't, can't, can't. 

Perfection doesn't exist. The plan is just to make it good. That doesn't necessarily mean huge sacrifices and a wipe-out of all you have now. Before anything, it means a fair assessment. What you have, not what you haven't. In a world defined by our need for more, it only takes a second to sit quietly and count what you have right now. You'll surprise yourself. You might even see it's already some way to being good.

Good, with moments of both brilliance and despair, is good enough. There is nothing wrong with making something better; one step - one sure, solid step at a time. Jumping a mile ahead, only to get injured, fall down or completely collapse is a lesson that says, 'I am still there, but take your time.'

I have a tendency to jump in with two feet without thinking. No, that's wrong. I am the sort of person who will jump in with two feet without thinking. I used to have no patience and now I have a little bit. This patience helps me look around once in a while. I may have moved just a couple of steps, but I can still see a dream on the horizon. I'm still there. I don't need to try and hitch a ride and change the itinerary. 

January comes from the Latin word ianua, meaning door. The future will never be your idea of perfection if the present isn't good. So open the door inch by inch. Throwing it open might only lead it to it swinging back shut with a bang.