As I begin planting roots into this new season of life, I find myself excited about all the possibilities that lie ahead. I have been very blessed with flexibility during my office years, but my day was still structured by default and only partially by personal design. I am naturally a schedule-oriented person, so creating a weekly routine and allowing myself to gently fall into a new rhythm has been at the top of my priority list. 

The last time I had full control over my schedule was in my early twenties as I was finishing college. In many ways, starting over as an adult feels like going back in time but with a little more regret about choices that a younger version of yourself has already made. No one ever talks about those feelings- the ones where you wish you had maybe taken a different career path or feeling like you have wasted so many years of your life when you could have been doing something else. It is hard to not wonder where you would be if you had made different choices. If you find yourself in this mindset, please do not allow yourself to sit in it long enough for your brain to spiral. We cannot go back and change what has been, but we can still give ourselves a fresh start and find excitement in the possibility of what is to come. 

I find so much lightness in a new routine. I am going to let you in on a little secret- for months I had been mapping out different versions of what my “future schedule” could look like before I actually put in my notice at work. Physically seeing what your life could look like right in front of your eyes offers a new kind of motivation than simply imagining it. I encourage you to try this exercise and pretend that what you have written is your real day to day life. Friend, if this gives you the same kind of yearning it gave to me, it might be time to make some changes.