Make it happen

 I made it happen! But I will tell you about that later….

Christmas is over; the decorations are coming down and the remains of the turkey have gone at last. We're fed up with excess, we've had far too much food and drink. School is back, we're back to work and the weather is set to turn even bleaker.

No wonder we think about the year ahead and dream about what we would like our lives to be. We probably make some New Year resolutions, but can't imagine how things will really be any different.

We want to change our type of work, do something we love rather than just grafting away at a job we hate because we have to earn money to pay the bills. Perhaps we sense time is slipping away, and the life which seemed to stretch ahead of us when we were younger now seems much more finite.

 Perhaps we feel overwhelmed by the amount of stuff we have, much of which we hardly use, and we yearn for simplicity. The more things we have, the more we have to look after. Stuff can clog up our minds just as much as it clogs up our homes, preventing us from living the life we dream of.

 

(No, this is not a room in my house)

 [You sure? – Saggy]

Now is an excellent time to decide we are going to achieve our goals. But, as the saying goes, if we want to change our lives we must change our mindset.

First, we must discover what it is we really want. When we find the answer, it may surprise us.

When I was doing a counselling course years ago, we had to have a counselling session ourselves with the tutor. She asked me what I really would like to do next, and before I had time to think I said

 ‘I want to get a degree in Psychology’. I hadn't known it consciously and if I'd had time to think I would have reasoned myself out of such an ambition. You know the sort of thing… I'm not clever enough, I wouldn't be able to get to a university, I can't afford it, I'm too old, and so on.

But once I'd said it, I realised that was what I wanted. I just had to believe in myself 

and make it happen.

I only wish I’d had the confidence sooner. So now I’m boldly deciding what I want for this year. I’m learning not to be afraid of failure. If something doesn’t work out then I’ll try it another way. They say every failure is a stepping stone to success, but if you never do anything in case you fail or are not good enough then you will never achieve anything.

I'm not going to say something cheesy, like follow your dreams.  I'm just going to say, if we want to achieve anything we have to sort our heads out first. Listen to the conversations we have with ourselves and learn to spot where we sabotage our own good intentions.

Moo