This spring, all three of my kids will be playing soccer. We won’t get the schedules for a while, but knowing there’s a possibility that all three will have to be in different places at the same time on game day causes me anxiety.
On top of that, there’s also dance class for one child weekly and very likely play rehearsals for another twice a week that will overlap with soccer practice.
Let’s layer on some other things at work that will make it very hard for me to help out on some earlier evenings.
And how about this for the first third of the year … this month my wife has two weekends with big plans and then I have two race weekends in March and April.
Life is on fast forward, so it is so wrong of me to already be looking forward to vacation in June. 🤣
Seriously, though, I’ve realized that as 2022 ended and 2023 started, I need a bit of a refresh with my mindset. While I’m not a person to do themes or even set calendar year goals, things right now feel different than they usually do.
While I won’t live out all of my life in blogs or social media posts, I need my head to stay clear, so I need to use these outlets occasionally, as well as having more in-person conversations about life in general.
On my runs and other times of doing various things in the past week, I keep coming back to one word … FOCUS. Not a phrase of “focus on this” or “focus on that.” Just FOCUS.
I know that life is going to be on fast forward almost all year and I can’t let it all just be one big blur. I want to have goals with both my family and my running, as well as some things with my career.
While our family has a “memory jar” that we empty out at the end of the year, I realized this past year that the jar is more about pausing in those moments to understand that something positive is happening.
The act of reading those memories on Dec. 31 every year is a lot of fun, but it really is all about things happening the other 364 days of the year.
So what does FOCUS really mean? For now it’s this:
- Setting 3 monthly goals for our family (one thing fun, one thing organizational, one thing for our health). These can be simple or layered. For example, in January we’re about getting back to family game nights a couple of times a month, putting all the Christmas stuff away by the end of the month, and taking more family walks/hikes/visits to the park.
- Establishing calendar-year goals with running, something I haven’t done in years.
- “Regularly” talking about those goals and acknowledging the highs and lows. That doesn’t mean I’m spilling everything out onto this blog or social media – most of the family stuff will stay within our family. It’s all about the intentional act of staying focused.
This really isn’t a forced change of mindset – it’s about putting what’s been on my mind into action.
Now let’s get this year really started!
Real David H. 
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