How Drinking at 10 am Leads to a Productive New Year

“You’re an alcoholic if you drink before noon.”

That’s what Grandpa always said as he popped the tab on his beer can at 12:01 pm.

I wonder what he would think of me if he knew I popped the cork at 9:30 am.

Yes, I did.

And, I planned to do so.

Allow me to set the stage.

I received some special gifts to set the mood. My daughter put a trial-size bottle of lavender bubble bath, body lotion, and a face mask in my Christmas sock.

Also in my sock, were two small logs of sausage and a cheeseball.

Under the tree was a special bottle of red wine just for me.

My husband added five armfuls of wood to the garage so I could start a fire without stepping outside to get wood.

The girls went back to school this morning and my husband is at work. It’s just me, the dog, and the gifts they gave me to create this occasion. The best spa day in the world, in the peace of my humble abode.

I pop the cork on a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon at 9:30 am and let it breathe while I start a fire and run a bubble bath. I hear the fire crackling as I slice the sausage and ready the cheeseball along with some crackers. I turn out the lights, light a candle, and turn on classical music.

I grab Finish, by Jon Acuff as my thoughts drift to how this year will end. What preparations are necessary to finish this year well?

Dropping the robe, I slip into the bath.

Whether this excites you or causes you to shield your eyes is nothing we need to discuss.

It’s not an episode of I Touch Myself by The Divinyls:

Nor is it about Little Finger excitedly training a new crop of girls on how to work in his brothel on Game of Thrones.

If you decide to touch yourself that’s up to you.

Again, we don’t need to talk about it; or do we?

There’s potential to talk about all that if you or I decide to write a different piece, but not here; agreed?

Are you all hot and bothered yet?

It doesn’t matter what you call it: a self-evaluation, a time of reflection, a retreat, just that you do it on occasion. It’s about getting in touch with yourself and who you are, removing the exterior, and getting down to what matters.

Exfoliate

It’s time to exfoliate.

Let go of what doesn’t matter and focus on what does.

This means getting real and raw with yourself about your priorities.

Questions going through my head are redirected as introspection for you:

• Who are you?
• Who do others think you are?
• Who do I want to be?
• What steps are necessary to get there?

It also means letting go of certain things that suck your time unnecessarily or are misaligned with your focus.

It’s time to put priorities in order and put first things first.

Resolutions

I hate New Year resolutions. They just don’t work for me.

There’s no point in setting a big, hairy, audacious goals that are unattainable.

These goals work for short-term potential, but not long-term gain. When You/I grow tired of hustling, grinding so hard health, marriages, and relationships are at risk there’s no good in that.

I’m not saying there’s not an appropriate time or season to hustle. In a proper context, hustling can be useful, but when you fall asleep at the wheel, kill everything good, embrace burnout, or just fail to show up to your goal one day, you’re suddenly a quitter — or is that just me?

Grinders grind, hustlers hustle the last 100 yards to the finish line.

What I’ve found to work better is smaller goals with actionable steps and course corrections over time.

I make plans to succeed instead of resolutions.

A New Year is a great time to make sure I’m on track with where I’d like to be.

And, if I was worried about not having done this by January 1st I’d already be filled with guilt and ready to quit, but I’m not and I won’t allow myself to go there.

I’m right on time with my life and I bet you are too.

Self-evaluate and restructure

What’s necessary, at least for me, is a bit of self-evaluation and restructuring.

I set a meeting with myself to evaluate where I am, who I am, where I want to be, and how I am going to get there. Sometimes it takes a bottle of red wine so I’m not so uptight about the process and open to awesome possibilities to write a new road map if one is required.

Do you know the answers to those questions?

It might be time to schedule a meeting with yourself to find the answers.

Productivity

Next, it’s time to make a plan to put those priorities into action. You can read as many books as you want to by the experts. It’s good advice, but what worked for them may not work for you.

Productivity is a plan to meet your goals.

We already know who we are and where we’re going, but we need a basic plan to get there. It’s time to plot the coordinates, to complete the picture, to finish the dot-to-dot… insert your own metaphor.

Preference comes into play about what method works for you:

• a bullet journal
• daily log
• planner/calendar
• editorial calendar
• timeline

It’s important, for me, to not try to do everything at once. I’ve decided to work on a few goals so I can pursue them vigorously and complete them well. If they are satisfactorily checked off by the end of the first quarter or by mid-year, then I’ll add others.

How do you plan to make your goals a success this year?

Do you have a strategy in place or is it time to make one?

This story is published in The Startup, Medium’s largest entrepreneurship publication followed by +409,714 people.

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