I can't get no ...
Hello you …
Well, 2017 is definitely upon us, and my first post of the year is very much overdue. If you’re reading this I hope you feel like you’re smashing your year already and that you’re gonna continue to do great things over the next 11 or so months. If you don’t feel like things are going so great, the good news is we’ve only just begun! Frankly though it’s never too late to start over again, whether it’s January or February or August or WHATEVER.
There’s a lot of hype around the New Year, especially on social media, which often includes a whole lot of talk and not a lot of action. With that said, I’ve got to admit that I do get off on the energy that January brings. Even though the first day of the year is really just like any other, I love that it gives us an excuse to re-evaluate what we’re doing, where we’re going and where we might like to see ourselves this time next year. You might have guessed already that I’m ALL about goal setting, which includes physically writing them down. You don’t have to write them in January, do them anytime! Make them attainable though, these are your goals not your dreams, which means you have to have the power to make them happen. Writing “win the lottery” is NOT a goal. Make them for the next 6 months, the next year and even the next five years. Come back to them as often as you can, and remind yourself what it is you really want. So .. if you haven’t done some in a while, sit down and write your goals out. Now. Do it, do it, do it.
Anyway ... believe it or not I actually didn’t sit down to write a blog about telling you to write goals. That just kinda spilled out of the New Year greetings. What I really wanted to write about is SATISFACTION. For the longest time this is a feeling that I’ve battled with. I don’t really do “satisfaction” … the idea that you can ever just be cool with where you’re at and not really desire anything more is a concept I have no interest in getting my head around. I think I’ll always want more from life and to create and do new things. “Well, you’ll never be happy then” is the response those kind of comments are usually met with. And I’ve never really known how to respond. Of course I’ll be happy, but I’ll want more … is that wrong? Finally this week I felt like I cracked it: NO. IT’S NOT WRONG!
A desire to always do more, to be better, to create more doesn’t mean I’ll never be happy. Actually, it means I’ll always be happy. How?? Because that process, of trying new things, the struggle to get there and the journey that takes you on – that’s the good bit! That’s the bit that makes you feel alive and passionate and driven. And if you ask me there’s always more room for that.
I listened to a talk the other day where I heard the quote “Discontent is the first necessity of progress.” What an amazing and powerful thought. Maybe we should all love and celebrate discontent, because it means we’re on our way to progress! Maybe it’s not in every area of our lives that we each want to see progress, but I know everyone must have something that they want to see improve. So get on board with the idea of discontent and then use that to make change.
You might read this and think what a load of rubbish. But I KNOW I can’t be the only one that gets that intense feeling all the time. So if you feel that burn of dissatisfaction too, learn to LOVE it. We’re gonna create great things with it.
So this year I’m going to embrace being unsatisfied. It’s what makes me tick. What I am though is grateful. And now that I’ve realised I can be both, next time that conversation comes up I can say: “Actually, I will be happy. In fact, I AM.”
I won’t share all of my goals with you, or the areas of my life where I’m dissatisfied for that matter. But I will share that so far in 2017 I’ve done a heck of a lot of learning for such a short space of time, met amazing new people, opened some doors, closed some others, cried many more times that I’d like to admit and done very little sleeping. I’m not sure if I’m nailing 2017 but I know I’m giving it my best shot. I hope you are too!
Write your goals. Then make them happen. Then make some more. Because who wants to be satisfied? Not me.
Love,
CD
CD
