Catching up

'Tis the season for catching up:

With neglected friends and family
With unwatched TV series
With untried recipes
With unread books and blog posts
With saved podcasts
With unfinished blog posts
With socialising
With learning new skills
With exploring hobbies
With housework and household chores
With house renovations and repairs
With life in general.

Now that the holidays are here, I am blessed with some time and space to catch up on so many things. Hopefully I can take a break from chasing my tail for a while. But how did I get so behind in the first place? Who sets this unattainable tempo that is punctuated with escalating goals? I often wonder whether I'm trying to keep up with other people's expectations or my own. I suspect it's a combination of the two and one feeds the other, leaving an ever growing To Do list that doesn't really get anywhere.

No matter how many times I've said it, next year will be different. I want to achieve a better balance and am open to ideas and strategies for how to do this - or just to get started. Walking away from a stressful job should help me catch up on all the things I've put on hold for so long and also make some forward progress, but I need to sustain it once I add work back into the mix.

All I know is that things can't continue as they have been and the best time to make a change is now. Who's with me?