Maybe You Need Something to Look Forward To

Sometimes life gets incredibly repetitive.

Wake up.

Get ready.

Go to work.

Answer the emails.

Pick up the kids.

Figure out dinner even though you could have sworn you just figured out dinner yesterday.

Clean something.

Remember the thing you forgot.

Go to bed.

Wake up and do the whole thing again.

Nothing is necessarily wrong. There isn't some enormous crisis happening. Life is just feeling a little… beige.

And when that happens, our first instinct is often to assume something needs to change dramatically.

Maybe I need a vacation.

Maybe I need a new job.

Maybe I need to completely reorganize my house at 11:30 p.m.

Maybe I need to move to a cottage in the woods, delete every social media account I've ever created, learn to make sourdough, and become a mysterious person who owns chickens.

Or—

Maybe you just need something to look forward to.

Anticipation Is Part of the Fun

Think about the last time you were genuinely excited about something.

A concert.

A trip.

Dinner with someone you love.

A new season of your favorite show.

A package arriving.

Your birthday.

Friday.

Sometimes the anticipation is almost as fun as the thing itself!

You think about it while you're driving.

You send somebody a text about it.

You start counting down.

You picture what you're going to wear or what you're going to order or exactly how quickly you're going to get into pajamas when you arrive at the hotel.

For a little while, there's something sitting out there in the future saying: Hey. Something good is coming.

And sometimes we need that.

It Does Not Have to Be a Vacation

The problem is that we tend to associate "something to look forward to" with big things.

Vacations. Holidays. Concerts. Major events.

Those are wonderful.

They're also expensive, complicated, and generally not something you can schedule every Thursday.

The little things count too.

Actually, the little things might matter more because we can sprinkle them throughout ordinary life.

Plan tacos with a friend next week.

Decide that Friday night is going to be takeout and a movie.

Buy the ridiculous seasonal cereal.

Pick a Saturday morning and drive somewhere pretty.

Start a show with someone and make a rule that neither of you is allowed to watch ahead. Yes, this is a legally binding agreement and betrayal will be remembered.

Order the book you've been wanting to read.

Plan a game night.

Make reservations somewhere you've never eaten.

Tell your kids you're getting ice cream after school on Wednesday for absolutely no reason.

Buy the Halloween decoration that makes you laugh every time you walk past it.

It doesn't have to be impressive enough to post online.

It just needs to make you think, "Oh yeah. That's going to be fun."

Put Some Good Things on the Calendar

Our calendars have an unfortunate tendency to become storage facilities for obligations.

Dentist.

Meeting.

Practice.

Appointment.

Deadline.

Parent-teacher conference.

Oil change.

Another meeting that probably could have been an email.

We schedule everything we're responsible for and then hope the enjoyable parts of life somehow squeeze themselves into whatever space is left.

Maybe we should schedule those too.

Not because fun needs to become another productivity hack.

Not because you need a color-coded spreadsheet titled JOY: Q3 GOALS.

Please don't do that to yourself.

Just because sometimes life gets busy enough that if we don't intentionally make room for things we enjoy, months can pass before we realize we've mostly been completing tasks.

Put dinner with your friend on the calendar.

Schedule the hike.

Pick the movie night.

Plan the date.

Decide which Saturday you're going to wander around the bookstore with a coffee for two hours.

Give yourself little landmarks throughout the month that aren't obligations.

Give Yourself a Tuesday

There's another sneaky habit a lot of us have: We save all the good stuff for later.

We'll wear the nice outfit when there's somewhere important to go.

We'll burn the expensive candle when company comes over.

We'll use the gift card for a special occasion.

We'll go to that restaurant when we're celebrating something.

We'll take the day off when we really need it.

We'll do something fun once life calms down.

But regular life is most of your life.

Tuesday deserves something good too.

You don't need a birthday to eat cake.

You don't need an anniversary to go somewhere nice.

You don't need to accomplish something first.

Sometimes the occasion can simply be: It has been a long week and mozzarella sticks sound incredible.

Good enough.

And Give Someone Else Something to Look Forward To

This works both ways.

You can become somebody else's little bright spot on the calendar too.

Send the text:

"Lunch next Thursday?"

"Come over Friday. I'll get pizza."

"I found something we're doing next month. You're coming."

"Want to go get coffee Saturday?"

Connection doesn't always have to happen spontaneously.

Sometimes friendship looks like comparing calendars for seventeen minutes until you discover that both of you are available three Tuesdays from now between 6:15 and 7:40.

Take the Tuesday.

Put it on the calendar.

Look forward to it.

Life Can't Be Exciting All the Time

Most of life is ordinary.

That's not a bad thing.

There will always be errands and workdays and laundry and bills and dishes and responsibilities.

We don't need to escape ordinary life.

But we can decorate it a little.

We can tuck good things into it.

We can give ourselves reasons to get excited about next Wednesday instead of always waiting for the next vacation, holiday, milestone, or enormous life change.

So if everything has felt a little repetitive lately, maybe you don't need to reinvent your entire life.

Maybe you need dinner with your favorite person.

Maybe you need a movie night.

Maybe you need a drive through the changing leaves.

Maybe you need to order the thing.

Maybe you need something completely silly.

Maybe you just need to open your calendar and put one little thing on it that makes you smile when you see it.

Give yourself something to look forward to.

It doesn't have to be big to be good.