Cant believe I let my blogging slip.
Its been a year which gives itself to that age old question, where has that year gone. 12 months, 365 days, 8760 hours. It doesn't seem five minutes since we were celebrating gold medals, looking forward to a new school year and bemoaning the British weather. 2013 we are celebrating winning the Ashes, still looking forward to another school year but looking at our tan lines from one of the warmest summers in a long time.
No doubt in 12 months time we will look forward to another school year, talking about the summer weather and possibly celebrating England winning the World Cup and Derby County preparing for life in the Premier League (ok slipping into the realms of pure fantasy there)
Summer is a great time for me personally to reflect but also to plan forward, hopefully 18 months at least, but here is the big issue, the problem if you will. What if we are in the same place, planning the same things, with the same issues and problems. Maybe some of the external details are different but the underlying trends are the same. What tends to happen in life is we have an automatic default setting which if we 'carry on as usual' will be the place we always end up in.
Here is my two penny worth of wisdom. Intentionality is the key. To purposefully change some things to ensure different results and a different position in twelve months time. I would encourage anyone reading this to set three goals, harder the better. Then ask the question, what do we need to do, to plan, to change to allow this to happen. Really simple stuff I know, remind me to email my Gran about the sucking of eggs, but its something really important if we are to avoid that feeling of being in the same place, doing the same things 12 months later. The only difference being the year seemed to go faster than the previous one.
Accountability is also helpful, share it with someone you trust, someone who can encourage or be helpful. Its amazing when we put goals into spoken or written words it gives more focus to walk the talk. Also, determination is helpful. Keep going back and remember why you are doing this, the real alternative to the actions are things will stay exactly the same. Thomas Edison is credited as saying 'Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
Finally, celebrate your successes. break your goal down into bite size chunks. If, for example its a weight goal, celebrate every half stone lost (not with a pizza, kebab or curry!!) I set myself a five stone weight loss target over five years. Now I have lost, and kept off two stone but need to kick on for the rest. Even if I fail in this goal, I am two stone lighter which I would not have been if I had done nothing.
So, I am determined to blog more frequently, but this time next year I am planning to be living at another level. Watch out for the 2014 summer blog!!!!
Hope this helps and encourages someone
Tim
