Making Time

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I saw the Doctor last week about the biceps pain I've been struggling with since before Christmas. It transpires it's a partial tear rather than the sprain I had suspected and although I can tell it is healing, albeit slowly, my left arm continues to feel incredibly weak. All that effort I put in to stay fit and one muscle chooses to repay me with an injury and eight weeks of rest from lifting anything with it 

As ever, I've found the silver lining in the form of my tax return which, freed from some of my regular gym classes, I've been able to complete and submit with breathing space before the 31st January deadline. The weather has been exceptionally cold too, so I've snuggled down with a book for a couple of hours every day and ticked four off my reading list for the year. With those, a birthday lunch, non-weight-bearing classes, tidying up after the festive period's visitors and sorting various issues for my elderly mum, I've not been exactly idle.

Despite my last post, however, I haven't made much progress in planning out 2026. I love the scope for flexibility and impetuosity that a blank calendar can bring but also know that it's very easy to lose any sense of drive and direction without a well formed strategy. While there are so many things I'd like to be doing in the longer term, the immediate reality is different when I feel the pressure to be available to support the needs of others. Experience suggests, however, that to avoid living a life of duress, it's when the demands build that it really is important to have formulated your own personal plans. 

I'm still not inclined to write a bucket list but with the tax return done and spare time with absences from the gym, now must indeed be the time to contemplate future objectives. Retirement is too precious to be squandered. After all, who knows when the next injury or affliction might arise?

Thrown into a similar dilemma two years ago, I reached out on this blog to analyse my progress in retirement against the initial plans I had set out back in 2014. Today I feel little interest in an historic reflection. It is living in the present and the direction into the future that captivate and interest me. As Alan Lakein, the time management guru said, "Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now," whilst "Failing to plan is planning to fail."

It sounds like my tomorrow is now sorted.

Image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay




Comments

Treaders said…
I'm glad to hear you're feeling a little better finally. Sometimes enforced "idleness" (although you hardly seem to have been idle) can be a good thing, can't it!
13 January 2026 at 08:38
Caree Risover said…
I believe a great career in marketing might lie ahead for you, Treaders!
13 January 2026 at 10:21
Anonymous said…
No bucket list for me either. My to do list is long but I have achieved some of them in 2026. Your nutrition course sounded a good idea Caree, especially in winter when comfort food seems appealing. Best wishes for a speedy recovery and a great new year
14 January 2026 at 05:59
Caree Risover said…
Well done on ticking off items on the To Do List, Anon. The nutrition course seems a long time ago now, but I do have a certificate to remind me.
14 January 2026 at 08:11
Jennyff said…
The injury is a setback I hope you soon recover. I get anxious with the slightest twinge that I’ll lose my fitness, such as it is, and not bounce back. Then I remember I am 77, I don’t need to be racing fit just mobile, healthy and happy. If I ever made a list I could put those goals on it.
14 January 2026 at 12:46
Caree Risover said…
I know you are right Jennyff but how easily I can become frustrated by those twinges and forget that sometimes by failing to recognise how old I am and not making the necessary adjustments, I alone caused them.
14 January 2026 at 16:44
Anonymous said…
Enjoy your youth, you might live to 90 like your mum. Mine still goes on lots of family holidays and drives or walks everywhere. Many of her good friends have died but she's in touch with her workmates who are younger than she is.
16 January 2026 at 05:43
Caree Risover said…
Hi Anonymous. Sometimes it’s scary to think how much closer I am to 90 than the age I feel I am! It’s great that your mum is still getting out and about under her own steam. May we both be so blessed.
16 January 2026 at 13:47
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