All to Play For

I’m muting another Christmas advert on the TV to write this, because somehow tomorrow we’ll find ourselves in December already! It’s time of year when we turn our thoughts to Christmas plans, winding down and looking back over the year that yet again seems to have flown by. I love love LOVE this time of year – I love that festive warm feeling when you hear Christmas music, I love the idea of sitting by the fire at my parent’s house and I love the excuse for many a social gathering simply because it’s Christmas. BUT there is one thing I don’t like about this time of year, and that’s the idea that just because you can see New Year’s Eve on the horizon it’s time to drop tools and start claiming the next year as “your year.” I swear as early as October I’d seen and heard people claiming that they were “coming for 2018.” Long term vision is great, but how can you write yourself off when there’s still days, weeks, even months of the year left?

Over the past few weeks, a lot of both my own experiences and conversations with others have brought me back to this one unquestionable notion – at any moment EVERYTHING can change. I’m sure many of you (Lol at the claim that “many” people ready this, but ANYWAY …) can recount a singular moment when everything in your life suddenly shifted gear. These moments can sweep into any area of your life from you career to love life, but they truly can happen completely out of the blue and often when you feel there is nothing at all on the horizon for you. Change is the one thing in life we can be certain of. Sometimes the change is heart breaking and floors us completely – the unexpected death of a loved one for example, but change can be beautiful in it’s unexpectedness too. Maybe tomorrow, on December 1st, you’ll meet someone new and fall in love, maybe you’ll get that career breakthrough you’ve wanted for so long … maybe you’ll win the lottery!

So yes, change is imminent, always, and you probably knew that already. But what can we do with that knowledge? How does that help us? As I said, there are two very important sides of the coin. The unpredictability of life is probably the most beautiful and also most tragic thing about it. So side one of our coin: If we know that anything and anybody we love and care for could one day simply not be here, how can we go a single day without remembering to be grateful for ALL that we have right now? How can we moan and complain about what we do and don’t have, when truly if we all started counting the things we should be grateful for we’d be counting until the New Year? We can’t and we shouldn’t. We each, even in the depths of grief or sadness, still have so much to be thankful for. And what does gratitude bring us? Ah yes, that sought after magic word – happiness! So whilst good things may not ever truly be able to last forever, we could do a lot more to appreciate them whilst they’re here.

Side two, and the more fun side of the coin – at any time, your life could explode into a next level of excitement, and bless you beyond your wildest dreams! How good is that ?? And it can still happen in the last month of the year, maybe even the last day! If even for a second recently you’ve written yourself off for the year and thought “Great, there goes another 12 months without my breakthrough, maybe next year will be the one … “ then switch your mind set right now. I can’t promise exactly when or even if at all that specific thing you want is coming, but I guarantee that reminding yourself of that undeniable life fact will change your perspective. I mean, it doesn't really get more exciting than that – the idea that something bigger and better than even you can imagine right now could come in to your life on any given day.

A couple of important things to add here – the change you’re waiting for could absolutely come at any moment, but generally only if you’ve put in the work for it. You don’t get a career breakthrough by being rubbish at your job. You don’t get closer to your dreams by sitting around and wishing for them. And love won’t walk in to your life until you’ve done the work on loving yourself that you need to. So don’t think just because change is imminent that you can chill on the sofa until then, it doesn’t work like that. I said to someone recently, whilst talking about my goals and career, that I was beginning to accept that my journey is just one that’s going to take a bit longer. They laughed and said “Maybe, but maybe it could all change tomorrow.” They’re absolutely right, I’m putting in the work and so maybe it could all change tomorrow, or this year still, or next … that’s pretty exciting.

I hope my musings make some kind of sense to anyone reading. The bottom line is: be grateful, stay on your grind, and keep your head up – it’s still all to play for. Even in December.

CD x