So, that was Christmas.
It's New Year's Day!! A new year of optimism, hope, joy and fun lie ahead of us.... At least, I hope so. I'm not a natural lover of New Year. I tend to enjoy the family madness of Christmas and then try to ignore the wild celebrations of the future. Perhaps I see the Future too much as like one of Dicken's phantoms; a black hooded faceless fear-filling creature of the unknown. Certainly I am too inclined to fear the future rather than grab it and kiss it at this particular time of year. It's as if the love and comfort of a Christmas is followed so closely by a sudden change. You really liked 2014? Well, tough, because that's gone and will never be back. All you have are the photos you grabbed between stuffing the turkey and spilling the red wine. And being employed as a rolling contract is probably not helping me feel more secure this year. I'm sure I'm employed until Easter. 3 months of security. It will do for the moment. It has to.
But I am a natural optimist. By February I will be ready to surface with happy optimism, with plans for the year and smiles all round. Perhaps I have Seasonal Affective Disorder. Perhaps I should re allocate my New Year celebrations to the end of February and start the planning then, when sunlight shines on the start and end of my days and I can see the new cycle of life flowing.
And I have to accept that this is natural for me. This is how I function. But I don't need to just roll over and say die. This year I am trying to bring the happier, future loving self into my life earlier. I have bought Leonie Dawson's Amazing Life + Biz planner.
It's a guided planning process, helping people to set goals, to think about what they want to achieve personally and professionally. And, yes, I know a piece of paper and decent pens could achieve the same, but for this year, which for me will be a crucial turning point in my life, I felt the need for a more structured approach. I've been filling it in slowly over the break, when I get a few spare minutes and can think what I want. I have pages to fill in, and lots of possibilities to consider, including moving over full time into Peter Kneale Solicitor as secretary, PA, IT and paralegal. This could be the last year I spend working in school. After 40 years thinking of myself as a teacher in a school, that's a scary thought. But a good one. This is going to be a year of re-creation (the hyphen is important there). It won't be easy, breaking away from a long past isn't easy, but it will be exciting. And exciting is good, isn't it?
Exciting is definitely good, you're right. As is change. I absolutely love that book, it's so pretty - I'm off to Google it now! Happy new year to you and yours, may 2015 be a good one for you. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you! The book is available in an ebook or ready printed. I chose the ready printed as a Christmas present to myself, so that I could start positively planning straight away.
DeleteMay 2015 be everything you need it to be and more besides!
Happy new year to you and your lovely family. I'd have thought that being a teacher, you'd think of your new year and new starts in September. Perhaps that's why January doesn't necessarily sit well for new beginnings with you.
ReplyDeleteIn a lot of ways, September is my natural new beginning. But the year changing marks a reset button and a second chance to start again, doesn't it?
DeleteHappy New Year. How totally freakily scarily coincidental life is sometimes....I stumbled upon Leonie Dawson's site two days ago, spent yesterday looking over her free PDF and am seriously contemplating getting her planner and I hop over to your blog and look! You have a photo of said planner. Too freaky. [I'm beginning to realise that when I 'stumble upon' things it's actually rather like me being Gretel and God leaving the breadcrumbs, His way of leading me out of the dark, dark woods...!]....would love to know your thoughts on it (as I'm really sting-ey (can't get the autocorrector to not correct that word!) and am wondering if I can, actually, make myself something similar?)....feel free to email me if you feel like it.....here's hoping you hibernate productively until coming out in all your glory in February....(and I know, just know, that good things will be heading your way so don't worry about 'only' having 3 months security....)....
ReplyDeleteOh! Is the book for you...? What a hard question! That depends;
DeleteIf money is no object, then go for the printed edition and work through it. It's beautifully bound and very ready to use (A4 size, though, so it's not totally portable)
If you're a mid range budget then for $10 or a little more you can have the pdf. It would work well as long as you print it onto reasonable paper and either bind it yourself or have a good ringbinder to keep it in.
If you are on a barebones budget then the pages within could be made/decided on with a lot of web trawling; there are a lot of questions about what do you want, where do you want to be, how much do you want to earn, what steps do you need to do. There are loads of sensible questions to make you think through life, and Leonie's planner has them all in a pretty, organised and enjoyable form, but in so many ways it's the substance that matters. Hope that helps?
And sometimes I find coincidence is a great guide; Rhonda Byrne would say this is the Universe dropping big hints to you!
That looks like my kind of book- love making plans and setting goals even if I don't always achieve them. Happy New Year to you and your family. I've enjoyed following you here.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the wishes and the compliment! Plans and goals don't have to be achieved, do they? Sometimes the act of making them is the process necessary. What are your plans for this year?
DeleteP.S. I also totally love baby anteaters and how they cling to their Mamas.....I'd have an anteater as a pet if I could (actually, perhaps I will...one day.....LOL!!!....but, my, where would one shop for ants to feed them??? Conundrums, conundrums....)
ReplyDeleteI believe the ants will be available in my garden around about June.... send your anteater my way then!
DeleteHappy New Year! I hope that you have a wonderful 2015 and that it brings only good things to you and yours - whatever they may be! xx
ReplyDeleteThank you! I'm planning for the best things to happen; what does the book the Secret say? Ask, believe and receive!
DeleteWhat a great attitude to bring into the New Year! Here's wishing you all the best of things for 2015 x Jane
ReplyDeleteThank you! I'm hoping for good stuff for all my blogmates as well!
DeleteHappy new year toy all of you, may it bring you lots of exciting and happy times. Good luck with all you do. Thinking about goals and plans and challenges is a good way of trying to exercise some control over the future, although some things are out of our hands!
ReplyDeleteWe went to see Paddington on NY day and we all loved it! Thanks for such a good review. All four of us went, a rare thing these days, which made it even more special for starting the year.
Lisa x
Finding a multi generational film can be so difficult, can't it? We have weeks when we put a film on and turn around to find that somebody has left because the film is too silly/girly/boyish/loud/sci fi for some one or other. In fact, I've come to the conclusion that I am a really unselective viewer, and just as well!
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