At the beginning of a new year, there’s often this quiet pressure to do things right for this year. New routines, new hobbies, new rhythms are established, and suddenly it feels like there needs to be a correct way to begin. How often should I show up? How serious should I be? Am I committing too much… or not enough?
I’ve been thinking a lot about that same tension. The relationship between starting something, and wondering if I’m doing it “right” (whatever right is).The fear of becoming too invested too quickly, or of doing something in a way that doesn’t match how everyone else seems to be doing it. There’s this unspoken baseline of “normal” that can sneak in and become the measure of correctness.
But what if that baseline doesn’t actually fit?
When trying something new, I’ve noticed how easy it is to swing to extremes. On one end, there’s the impulse to fully commit immediately. A voice telling me to schedule everything now, go all in, prove to myself that I'm serious. On the other, there’s the mindset of keeping things loose to the point of never really letting myself try, giving myself an easy out before I’ve even begun.
Lately, I’ve been trying to land somewhere in the middle. Not forcing commitment, but not dismissing desire either. Just letting myself try something and allowing intuition to guide what happens next.
A small but meaningful example for me has been starting pickleball. I tried it once and then immediately bought five paddles, and converted my old camera bag into a pickleball bag. I was worried at first that I was coming on too strong, or that maybe I was overdoing it or taking it too seriously.
But sitting with that feeling, I realized it wasn’t about obligation or overcommitment. It was something my heart genuinely wanted and needed. Playing pickleball reminded me of my earlier days of playing tennis, and I really enjoy spending time with my friends this way. Accepting that made it easier to integrate into my life naturally, rather than forcing my life to reorganize around an external idea of how it should look.
Sometimes the fear of starting something new isn’t that we don’t want to do the thing—it’s that we’re scared we’re doing it wrong.
If you’re standing at the edge of something new right now, unsure of how it’s supposed to look or how strongly you’re allowed to want it, maybe the invitation is simple: do it anyway. Even if you’re unsure. Try it, notice how it feels, and let that feeling guide your next step. You don’t have to decide everything upfront. There’s no rush to get it right, just space to notice what feels true and let that guide you forward.
Wishing you all a warm and adventurous start to whatever you’ve decided to explore this year.
Yours truly,
Makara