If you're panicked, or are feeling overwhelmed by the thought of what you have to do for the year ahead here's a short story looking at the year from a different perspective (written in 2024 and so explains the reference to 366 days in the video).

The New Year

Three hundred and sixty five days - that’s all the time the Year had to make a difference in. Eight thousand seven hundred and sixty hours. Five hundred and twenty five thousand and six hundred minutes. And far too big a number of seconds to think about!

What to do? What to say? Who to see? Where to go? Decisions going around and around and around.

Of course, there were also things the Year knew they didn’t want to do, didn’t want to say, people they didn’t want to see and places they didn’t want to go to. Decisions! Decisions! Decisions! they did know one thing, however, and that was when it was all going to have to have happened by.

The Year was in danger of letting the feelings take over and, they were in such a muddle and mess, and they didn’t really trust themselves to make much of their three hundred and sixty six days. Excitement one minute, dread the next….. joy….. pain….. apathy….. fear. The more they thought about what they were going to do the more they felt the lack of confidence seeping in. The more they thought about it the more they were convinced that they wouldn’t be able to do anything useful. They just had too much to do, no time to do it in and they weren’t very good at anything anyway.

The Year certainly had a sense of how they’d like to feel at the end of the year. Satisfaction of a job well done. Joy at the differences they’d made in other’s lives. Anticipation and excitement of what the new new year would bring. That was easy. They could even imagine the new new year congratulating them on all that they had achieved. They could hear the appreciation and gratitude of those they’d helped. They could even tell you what differences they had made, who they had helped and what values they’d demonstrated. They could also tell you the differences they could see in themself and in others and all that they had learned. In fact, they realised they really did have a very strong sense of how life would be like at the end of their three hundred and sixty six days. The more they painted the picture and brought it to life the more real it became. Colour, texture, sounds, voices, feelings, movement, thoughts - each bringing the outcome into more clarity.

Of course, as the Year thought about their desired outcome they started to relax and their thoughts became clearer. It was as if time itself expanded – it was as if they had all the time in the world to do everything they could ever dream of doing. Suddenly it all seemed so much simpler and so much easier. And perhaps they could even add a few more things into the desired outcome just to make it even better, even richer, even more satisfying and yes perhaps even more fun.

Thinking about this made the Year realise that the decision was simple. All they needed to do was remind themselves of what they wanted to have achieved at the end of their year, how they wanted to feel and the differences they wanted to have made. Knowing that, as they did this, they’d be moving from where they were towards the future they wanted - one delightful and exciting day at a time – every three hundred and sixty five of them!

I shared another short story recently about the stone circle helping you when you're feeling jittery and out of sorts (see video below) and a beautiful story entitled The wave that's only currently available in written form.

There's a YouTube poems playlist where I share words to help you see situations you're struggling with from a different perspective.

My name is Alison Smith and for 25 years I’ve used nature and metaphor to help you see the wood for the trees, get out of the rut, stop going round in circles, turn a corner and shift from not knowing to knowing what to do.

There’s posts, poems, blogs, Landscaping Your Life YouTube channel, Landscaping Your Life with Alison smith podcast episodes (my own and as a guest), a Landscaping Your Life newsletter, ezine, pdfs (there’s even one on helping you see the wood for the trees), two books (Can't see the wood for the trees - landscaping your life to get back on track and Your Prescription for Wellbeing Journal) all sharing insight to help you when you’re overwhelmed, stuck or lost.