8760 hours – some thoughts as we approach 2018. What will your New Year Resolutions be, will you stick to them, and why do we make them at all?
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Which way to look?
Well 2017 is almost over as I write this, and 2018 is just 36 hours away. The media are full of nostalgia, looking back at the past year, the good and bad, the funny and the tragic, but why do this?
It would be good to think that this annual trip down memory lane helped us to learn from past mistakes. Unfortunately this is so often not the case as we allow the past to entrap us and play an unhelpful role in our future.
It’s not about the past!
OK I fully accept that we are, at least to some extent, the products of our past experiences. We did not spring from the womb knowing what we now know, being able to do what we can now. No, we had to learn, formally and informally, and it is the current fashion for many people to refer to their education in ‘the university of life’.
The problem is that we develop beliefs that are not only unhelpful, they are simply wrong. Our future need not be dictated by our past – we have the capacity to change, learn, improve, throughout our lives.
Life is a process of trial and error; experimentation. The ‘failed’ experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that ultimately ‘works’. Looking back it is easy to focus on experiments that didn’t turn out as wished and forget the lesson learned.
The problem is the impossibility of changing the past.
We are where we are.
This morning I woke up, washed and shaved, ate breakfast, and I’m now sat at my computer. Everything I have done so far today is in the past. I cannot change it or go back and do it better. I can learn from it – next time I’ll try not to burn the toast. But there’s no point beating myself up about today’s charcoal!
We are where we are and learning to be comfortable with that fact is a huge step along the way to self acceptance. It is part of the human condition to always want what we haven’t got, wish to be ‘there’ rather than ‘here’, but does this help us?
When your ‘there’ has become a ‘here’, you will simply discover a new ‘there’ that will again look better than ‘here’. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, no matter how green your grass actually is.
New Years Resolutions.
I have nothing against resolutions, I have over 60 years of making them, and breaking almost all of them. So how do I process all those ‘failures’. Well I have to admit that I used to beat myself up for them, convinced that I could not change no matter how hard I tried. Every time I ‘failed’ this simply reinforced my belief – just as every smoker who tries, but fails, to stop reinforces his/her belief that they can’t.
There is always a huge fuss made at midnight as the Year changes and tomorrow night will be no different. Millions of people will make New Years Resolutions and genuinely intend to keep, at least, some of them. But as the fireworks subside, the parties come to an end, how many people are already thinking “I can’t do it”; “I’ll fail again” ? I would be bold enough to suggest it will be the majority. But this need not be the case.
Thriving in 2018
There are 8760 hours in 2018. They are there for us to use as we wish. What we do with them is up to us. A few years ago I resolved that my New Year would be better than those that had gone before. I needed to put my life back on a more positive track, but I couldn’t do that by myself.
The Thrive Programme taught me how to use my 8760 hours to improve my life and to thrive. I overcame the anxiety and depression I had spent years creating. I boosted my self-esteem and banished my social anxiety. Now I still have the odd ‘blip’ when my old, long held beliefs and thoughts bubble up, but I know what to do. I have shaved everyday since I was 13, so I have the (dubious) pleasure of seeing myself in the mirror every morning. I still recognise my features but I often find myself being acutely aware of how my life has improved.
Learning to Thrive takes only a few weeks and I loved the new me so much that I trained to become a Licensed Thrive Consultant. I love taking people through the Programme and I have the joy of watching their lives improve.
You can join the ever increasing band of people who have learnt, or are learning, to thrive by contacting me for a free, no obligation, chat. The Thrive Programme is taught around the globe and is changing the lives of people of all backgrounds and ages.
So what are you going to do with your 8760 hours?
My only resolutions are simple ones – I will continue to Thrive and I’ll not waste a single one of those hours!
Make 2018 the year you turn your life around. Look forward, not back, the future is there for you to enjoy!
Contact me to learn more.
Ian Crosswell
I’m Ian and I’m a qualified Thrive Programme Consultant. Using the professionally developed Thrive Programme – a proven, evidence based, positive psychology training programme – I work with people from all walks of life, providing the insights and skills they need to change their lives for the better.