Too Many Projects Syndrome

It's that hiatus between Christmas and New Year, that lull, the time when weeks of too much food, drink, work, stress, buying, spending, travelling in snow and general fretting finally gives way to... a rest.  Whew. 

Which of course turns the mind to New Years Resolutions.  I don't tend to do New Years Resolutions.  Don't see the point.  Why wait till the 1st January?  Why set yourself up for failure at the bleakest time of the year, the time when you're mostly likely to need the comfort of bad things - be it calories, alcohol or retail therapy?

But then, I'm also prone to making resolutions very regularly throughout the year.  Catch me out at any time of year - and if you can get me to be honest and up-front about it which is unlikely since I'm a fairly defensive kinda gal - I could confess to several resolutions bubbling away on the back burner.  I don't call them resolutions though.  I call them projects.

I am definitely someone who has 'Too Many Projects Syndrome.'

So, what are the projects sloshing round my head just now?  Well:

• There's the Creative Writing course I'm actually doing, which leads to the Someday I'll Write a Novel project. 
• There's the Very Small Business (VSB) project.  But then, there have been various VSB projects that I've worked on over the past couple years.  None yet have led to much.
• There's the Weight Loss project.
• There's the Overcome Injuries project.
• There's the Get Back into Running project - oh how I desperately miss running.  I glare daggers of envy at runners when they pass me.  
• There's the Healthy Eating project.
• There's the Reduce my Clutter project.
• There's the Save as Much Money as Possible project.
• There's the Make Nice Presents for People project.
• Etc.

Much of this is all about the changing and harnessing of habits.  There's an excellent blog called Raptitude that discusses habit change.  The blogger, David, explores habit change through a series of very focused experiments.  I love his honesty, about himself and his processes.  I can't remember which post in particular it was, or maybe there were a few, but ultimately he points out that trying to change umpteen different habits all at once is a recipe for failure. 

This year's resolution?  To have fewer resolutions.  To get over my Too Many Projects Syndrome.  Ha!

Photo by D. Sharon Pruitt