I’m a huge believer of doing things well enough and not expending too much effort getting things just-so. And yet I also struggle with perfectionism. The two probably shouldn’t go together, and yet, in my experience, they totally do.

That’s how I can consider my making-winter-bearable (enough) plan  a success even though I haven’t actually got through everything on my list. We’re in the last month of winter where I live, and for the most part I either crossed the items off my list, or managed an approximation of what I had planned to do.

Crucially, my feeling is that this winter seems to be overall a nicer experience than the last one, which is what I was aiming for, ultimately.

There’s a saying that ‘man proposes, God disposes’. It describes the attitude I take to my little goal-setting habit. Setting myself these little challenges and goals like my winter list or the 40-before-40 list is important for my self-motivation and just generally for keeping daily life interesting. But I know that things probably won’t go exactly to plan and that’s fine with me. Things may take a different direction, and obstacles and opportunities will pop up that couldn’t be anticipated.

We’ve had some really positive experiences this season. I learnt a lot from my three weeks of tracking my time. And this is my post-burnout Year of Asking for Help, so we have been getting some great help. I have to swallow my pride and process my guilt feelings whenever I ask a friend or family member to pick up one of my kids from school, or come and babysit. I’ve had to accept the fact that this is a season where we have to pay for some additional help too.

One way of looking at the latter is that our family is currently directly helping two babysitters and a fortnightly cleaner to meet their goals, which on one level is painful, but on another is great.

These last few weeks of winter will be so busy I’m sure I’ll hardly notice them slipping by. This month we have three family birthdays, and one son’s Confirmation. Then comes my favourite months and the spring school holidays will need some organising soon.

How are you planning to wrap up the (summer or winter) season?