Where does time go?  It seems only yesterday that I was staring at the clock making its countdown to midnight, while chatting with a close group of friends about our hopes and dreams for 2017 and of course imbibing in a touch of what is known in our household as the good grape!  Last year, we even wrote our hopes down on brown labels and then hung them on the Christmas tree.  Mine has since been tied to my desk lamp and I guess it will need to come down on New Years Eve to make way for my aspirations for 2018.  I am pleased to report that my hopes have largely come to pass; specifically, I aimed (i) to set up a new enterprise (big tick with Blue Giraffe Vision) and (ii) to get some better balance in my life (medium sized tick – certainly better than the previous few years).

While I have definitely travelled in the right direction this year, I am also only too aware of the many things that I would still love to achieve both personally and professionally.  I am also aware how hard it is to stay on track with the new intentions that we set ourselves each January 1st.  I believe that the marking of New Year in some form or another gives us a wonderful opportunity to lay things down and equally to start things afresh.  However, it is easy to feel tired or cynical of this practice, remembering one’s past failings to keep those good intentions while simultaneously being bombarded by millions of messages screaming out at us about just how we can live that perfect future, if only we follow this or that 6 step programme!

Having gone freelance this year for the first time, I have had a little more opportunity to read and as a result have intentionally spent some time looking at the issue of personal resilience and wellbeing.  This seemed enormously topical having spent over 30 years in full time employment with limited time out.  In addition to this personal experience, working as a coach has reinforced just how big an issue this is for most people.  Not simply lasting the course of one’s career, but continuing to learn and love what you do as well as maintaining creativity and optimism is vital for companies and employees alike.  I have read and watched much interesting, insightful and often useful material but it has sometimes also been hugely impractical.  One such proponent of successful careers and wellbeing advises that we should all undergo a daily 2-hour regime of exercise, meditation, cold showers, writing and more before anyone else in our household even awakes!

With these many different lessons in mind I have decided to try some of the more useful stuff out this year, with an emphasis on establishing some practices that are genuinely accessible and highly pragmatic.  I intend to share my findings along with those of others who have kindly volunteered to be guinea pigs, willing to try out some ideas and share their experiences too.

What I already know is that it is not just what you do, but also how you maintain it.  Moving from starting something new because you know it will help you, to it being transformed into a new way of life or habit, is one of the secrets to success.  It will make for an interesting and hopefully life changing 2018.

I will leave you with a quote that I read this week that I intend to use to set me on my way:

“Start small, start now!”
Seth Godin

Many thanks Seth and here’s to 2018 – may it be full of new adventures, excitement and great health.  Happy New Year to everyone.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Lucy Hurst-Brown