The first few months of a new year have passed yet again. This can be an instrumental period of time, where there are still some reflections of the past year seeping in. People are taking stake of what they achieved, setting goals for the upcoming quarter and also planning ahead to ensure that the same mistakes which pulled them back early on do not bear repetition once more. The end of Q1 is a high stakes period. At this juncture, most people are already in the belief that their choices have set the tone for the rest of the year. This way, they have to go even harder. It is a good time to do the work and see the yielding of the harvest through to completion. Goal setting, schedule planning and vision boards from the beginning of the year become amped. Every day is precious time to execute. Unfortunately for people who have had a depressing Q1, the feeling of being left behind is all the more palpable.

A lot of us did not start this year on a high note. Hell, barely even a medium one. At the beginning of this year, I was questioning everything. My current responsibilities, work goals and financial requirements. The feeling of abandoning your life as a result of how overwhelming it seems to have become is not very pleasant. At a juncture, I questioned all my decision-making. I made pros and cons list and had lengthy conversations with my partner about my external stressors. At the crux of my twenty fifth birthday, I was nowhere near to making a concrete plan about the rest of the year. I simply had to jump the gun because everything was closing in on me, and not metaphorically.

While somewhat in limbo now, I have a certain peace about me and look towards the future for better answers. This is a reality that people are often denied because uncertainty is looked at as a human failure rather than a normal, human fact of life. No one person has it all the way together, regardless of what it may look like on the outside. And setbacks are not a reflection of the universe attacking you. Very often, setbacks spiral into more serious situations because people are so unwilling to let them be and look for other avenues of success. There becomes an overall commitment to endlessly trying to fix that one thing while other pockets of happiness pass us right by. This Q2, I am learning to be more in tune to grounding myself, paying attention to my strengths and not letting my mistakes define me. Here’s to a bright, not planned out future!