I don’t love New Year’s Eve, but I have always gone out to celebrate anyway. By that time I’m sick of holiday small talk, dress up, foodfoodfood and drinkdrinkdrink, but still, I force myself out on the biggest amateur night of the year even though I’m not really into it. The resulting evening is sometimes fun, occasionally horrid, but usually just meh.

So, I got to thinking about how many things I do that aren’t my thing. Very recently I listened with faux interest to a long-winded family member go on about computer programs though I wanted to turn on my heel and skip away singing, “Not listening!” Fidgety and bored, I sat politely with die-hard fans through a televised football game. (Even with a great local team and even though Seattle folks look at me like I am a terrorist, I simply don’t care about football. Sorry, not sorry.)

It’s not like I had to sit through anything horrible like a root canal or a Phil Collins concert, but it was a big bunch of meh.

Then I started to think about what I had done in the last week that was my thing. I found and downloaded new music, I giggled with my husband, I connected with a potential new client, I had a fun phone conversation with my mom, and I traded goofy texts with an old friend about Sopranos trivia. I got a massage, I recorded a voiceover audition, I read, I wrote a press release, I sang, and I made a chocolate cake with my daughter.

Focusing on things I do that are my pleasure and that don’t feel like chores got me thinking about how I want to help my clients feel the same way about the have-tos in their work.

By the way, for the very first time, I am planning to stay home on New Year’s Eve this year. No meh whatsoever.