debbiebradleyAs it’s heading quickly towards the end of 2017, everyone seems to be reflecting and seeing what they can do to make the last few months of the year the best they can.
It’s usually around now that we realise our New Year Resolutions fell by the wayside 8-9 months ago, and that we haven’t made all the changes we wanted to.
I’m no different in that.
I had a list of things I wanted to do; decorate the house, grow my business, visit a few different places, improve my health, etc… it was quite a long list.
I haven’t achieved all that I wanted to
When I look back over the year and compare it to the list of things I wanted to do, I realised I haven’t accomplished half of what I wanted to.
I’m not going to beat myself up over it
It’s so easy to get down on yourself when you don’t reach your goals.
I could look at the list I wrote back in January, full of hope and high spirits. Declarations of how ‘this was going to be my year!’ and a feeling that my life could completely change in 12 small months, but here’s the reality…
It’s not as easy as ticking things off a list!
When we write our lists and make our ‘resolutions’ we like to think of an idealistic place. That list is often a dream situation, where if you woke up and could change absolutely everything in the click of a finger, then this is what would happen.
We often forget the WORK that needs to go into making those changes.
Losing weight is easy… just eat better, and exercise more. But knowing it doesn’t make it any easier to do it. You need willpower, and a plan you’re going to stick to. You can make the decision to break years of bad habits in an instant, but that won’t stop the temptation. It won’t stop your body going through a physical adjustment and needing to learn how to cope with the new food and increased exercise without falling back into the cravings, or injuring yourself.
Sometimes we find obstacles along the way
One of the rooms I wanted to decorate, I was converting from a home office into a bedroom. It hasn’t been decorated since I moved in (and many years before that at a guess!) so after clearing the room, I stripped the wallpaper. The wall started to fall down. All the plaster came off, and the room needed to be re-plastered. I wasn’t expecting that. It added a lot more time, and a lot more money to the project of turning a small home office into an extra bedroom.
A quick weekend project turned into a month long project.
Stripping the wallpaper; clearing the broken plaster; having a plasterer come in; waiting for the plaster to dry; new woodwork; decorating… not being able to put things up on the walls straight away was a pain! Waiting was a pain. The whole project went from a ‘fun quick idea’ to a complete nightmare.
The other room still hasn’t been done. I’m dreading taking the wallpaper off because I’m dreading needing a plasterer in again! That had better wait until warmer, drier weather.
There are mental changes that we need to go through!
Clearing my home of years worth of stuff is taking longer than I imagined.
In one blindly optimistic approach back in February, I hired a skip for a couple of days and decided that was it. Hiring a skip would let me clear out the stuff I didn’t want anymore, and I’d be free from the clutter! I filled the skip. I still have a house full of stuff. No, my house doesn’t look like I should be on an episode of ‘Hoarders’ but I wasn’t expecting to struggle to let go of so many things. Things I know I don’t use or need, or particularly even want. But they’re still my things. And it can be hard to let go. Mentally, I can still justify, or guilt-trip myself into keeping things.
My biggest changes were never written on the list
Looking back at the list of things I didn’t achieve in 2017 is quite disappointing. However, I’m more impressed by what I have achieved.
Where I see a ‘dip’ in my business profits; there’s professional development because I invested more into training and tools so I can better serve my clients.
Where there’s a box of ‘stuff’ I’m still holding onto, there’s a memory or emotion that I’m working through.
For every project/idea that I haven’t taken forward, there’s a mindset issue that I’ve discovered that I can work on.
There are some great things I didn’t count on
Unlike the plaster falling off the wall, not all of the unexpected things have been ‘bad’ this year.
I’ve met lots of great new people, joined some incredible online communities, even started my own, which I hadn’t anticipated doing back in January.
I have a greater sense of who I am, and what I want in life. I’ve spoken to some amazing coaches who have helped uncover some things that were holding me back. Now I’m aware of them, I can work on them. The people around me have noticed changes too.
I’ve cut ties with some people. I’ve chosen to take a stand for myself and do what’s right by me. The people who were always negative, and felt like a drain on my energy; they’re no longer part of my life. I don’t see that as a bad thing. It’s made way for so much more!
So has nothing really changed in your life?
Looking from the outside, my life doesn’t appear to have changed very much. But looking from the inside, there have been some huge shifts throughout 2017. I can’t wait to continue making these shifts and to see where it can take me in 2018.
Now I have more mental clarity, and less emotional baggage, I’ll be able to put my efforts into the things I want. And that’s always an important step.
Tell me… Do you feel like nothing changed in your life? Just take a moment to reflect on what has really happened. What changes have you REALLY made?
More importantly, what are you going to do about it?
