Lately I’ve been thinking about what my life might look like a year from now.

Not in a big, dramatic way. Just in the quiet, everyday sense of how I move through my days and how I take care of myself.

The past year carried more weight than I expected. It forced me to slow down and look honestly at parts of my life that I had been avoiding for a long time.

One thing I noticed about myself is how quickly I abandon the things that actually make me feel better when I am overwhelmed.

When I am upset or tired, the first things to disappear are the things that usually make me feel most like myself. I stop reading. I stop taking care of my skin and my hair. I stop moving my body. I stop showing up for my own life.

Instead, I scroll endlessly on my phone. I eat without thinking. Sometimes I buy things I don’t need just to distract myself from whatever I’m feeling.

And the strange thing is that I already know what helps me feel better. I know the habits that bring me back to myself. The difficult part has always been actually doing them consistently.

So when I imagine my life a year from now, I don’t imagine perfection. I imagine consistency.

I imagine a woman who follows through on the small promises she makes to herself.

Someone who reads again.
Someone who exercises regularly.
Someone who takes care of herself even when life feels difficult.

I also hope that a year from now I will be better at protecting my time and energy. Learning to set boundaries is something I am still figuring out, especially in relationships and at work. But I know now that constantly giving without limits slowly drains you.

And maybe this will sound a little strange, but sometimes I think about the character Bree from Desperate Housewives. Not because she is perfect, but because there is something about the way she carries herself with intention. She takes care of her home, her work, and herself with a kind of quiet discipline.

There is something about that energy that I admire.

A year from now, I hope I am a little closer to becoming that kind of woman. Not perfect. Just more present in my own life.

Because the truth is, I already know the life I want. The real challenge is showing up for it every day.

Maybe this year is where that begins.

— A.