2016 was a year of challenges for many people and Nicola and myself were no different; in many ways 2016 was probably the most difficult year we have had to contend with. I read somewhere that there is no such thing as a bad year and that our reactions to events determines whether it becomes one or not but I can’t agree with this view. I won’t burden you with the details of what made 2016 such a bad year for us but suffice to say a seemingly never-ending sequence of negativity gave us a fairly robust pasting – I hasten to add this isn’t a diatribe of self-pity and I thought you’d be interested in how we came to terms with it.
We started to keep a book that listed our ‘to dos’; after purchasing an old property in June the book began to rapidly fill with things that needed to be done urgently - none of it was fun and most of it was costly.
This became known throughout the year as The Book Of Doom. Each page listed the chronology of the year, detailing the never ending list of work that needed to be done on the cottage along with sad personal events that needed to be dealt with and culminated in us being burgled – the crime reference number in the book was frequently required.
We added to the book events, individuals and organisations that had saddened and/or disappointed us personally and professionally.
Anyone who has attended any of my programmes will know how much focus I put on mindset and attitude being the bedrock to success in whatever you wish to achieve and I found myself, as a person who teaches (and normally embodies) positivity sadly lacking in this respect by the time 2016 had finished with me. So we decided on New Year’s Eve to burn it; literally throw it in the fire to be forgotten and never occupy any more space in our heads.
I approach 2017 with a conscious mental reboot.