it's a new year which means it's a chance for new beginnings so when we think of new year's resolutions we often imagine starting something new start a new habit or break a bad habit pursue a big accomplishment run your first marathon save more money write that epic novel you've always wanted to write learn how to play a new instrument work out each day and while these goals are great there's also value in choosing to maintain current systems and habits see maintenance is proactive it helps us prevent problems before they surface and by focusing on maintaining
we also stay more grateful it reminds us that the epic life is often found in the mundane and the ordinary we begin to internalize the idea that we are already okay in our present state without doing more or being more however we tend to view maintenance as well boring we have ribbon cutting ceremonies for new bridges but traffic cones to maintain the existing ones we watch home improvement shows with bold big renovations but no one's going to watch a show about cleaning out your gutters universities name new buildings after patrons but nobody is asking for
the naming rights to the custodial crew and this is why it helps to create a maintenance goal you choose a current habit system or relationship that you might neglect in the next year then create a goal to maintain it set aside time in your calendar to make it happen it could be having coffee with a friend you no longer work with or it could be the habit of reading each day or spending time with loved ones track your progress along the way and it could be a streak that you keep or a running tally create
benchmarks and celebrate when you reach key milestones maintenance isn't as fun as starting something new but it is absolutely vital to living a better life [Music] you
