This weekend was a wake up call for me.
I sit in my corner and say how much I want to help shape the world. When I open my mouth these days, I self promote my blog because if I don’t, who will? So as I sat there proud of my achievements so far and feeling great about life, I hear my Goddaughter (and niece) say how much she loves studying ancient history. That’s great. But then she says how she doesn’t know about current affairs and things that are happening now. She said she doesn’t care, because – and this is what got me – nothing’s going to change anyway. “We’ll never have world peace” she says.
I was blown away by this for 2 reasons:
- I have hardly spoken to my Goddaughter which means I don’t know what she’s thinking. As opposed to her sister who I speak to a bit more who thinks I’m annoying. (I’ll explain that one in a separate post later).
- why is she so pessimistic and when did this all start?
She’s a straight A’s student, who I admire for her dedication to her studies and is a model child. My polar opposite. So for her to think this way was odd to me.
This made me question her thoughts and I immediately directed her to my blog (which is the complete opposite of what she was feeling).
Here I am trying to shape the world now so that one day my son will live in a place that is filled with love, happiness, peace (ok not necessarily world peace – but peace of some sort nonetheless), togetherness, unity, greatness and all of that kind of stuff. And this is not just for my son but for all of our children. For the children of today, are the future of tomorrow. The future presidents, politicians, doctors, carers, lawyers, bankers, specialists, officers etc. My hope is so that the world I leave behind is better than what we have today. I’m not saying the world is terrible now, but it can be better.
I like to see myself as an optimistic person. So to hear a family member say this, saddens me. Her dad said “she’s like that” but I hope she reads this and can see that the world can change.
Recently, I was referred to Jonathan Doyle by my colleague (and General Manager) because I initially shared my blog with him. #SelfPromotingAgain. He advised me to listen to Jonathan as he has some interesting thoughts and that I may find it interesting.
So this weekend I found myself listening to podcasts from Jonathan while I went about doing my housework. And one of them was about breaking negative associations.
In a nutshell, he explains how people think about things because of negative associations and I can’t help but think that something happened to her to make her think this way. She must have tried to change something but it didn’t work out and therefore she thinks nothing will change.
So he explained the 3 steps to help break this mentality.
- Identify: choose a current situation that you have a negative association with. For example: What’s the point in exercising if I’m just going to be in pain afterwards?
- Brainstorm: create a new association. Using the same example above, how about exercising with a friend then going for a coffee afterwards.
- Allow time: it won’t happen the first time you try but eventually the new associations will override the negative ones.
I have taken Jonathan’s advice on a different podcast ‘the bee episode‘ and finally picked up my cold iron kettlebells again. I moved them from the balcony into the office so that they are a constant reminder to pick them up regularly (hopefully daily) and change myself again and be a better version of myself again. Further to this, I set some goals on my goals tree and look forward to measuring them in a week/month/year to see how I am progressing. #Excited
We only get one life. Let’s make the most out of it. Who knows what’s around the corner. And if I don’t make it tomorrow, I know I’m doing everything I can today to live my life – my way! And I will die happy. #LoveLife
I achieved and learned so much this weekend, that I was able to get my thinking straight again. It started by listening to Jonathan’s podcasts, then speaking to my family and lastly shopping for the tags for my goals tree. It took a wake up call this weekend to realise that I was not as ‘on track’ as I thought I was.
Change is possible. And one of my favourite statements (which also happened to be one of my essay topics in high school) change is inevitable.
A final word: This post is a dedication to my beautiful goddaughter (I do hope you’re reading this). I hope you can see that I am trying to change the world for you and every child out there. I know you’re 15 and no longer a child, but you know what I mean. Don’t be disheartened. Life is changing and life can change. You can live life however you want. Do what makes you happy! I love you. Xoxo
– Godly –
22 June 2015
Godly's Corner 