Everyone knows the feeling we all have at the end of the year - we need rest!! Whether we are planning a 5* holiday in Mauritius or just planning to stay at home to do some washing or cleaning which we never get time for, we all just desperately need that holiday. A thing which most of us also do at the end of the year, and after the holiday, is to reflect – we think of everything we did or did not achieve during the past year and set new goals for the following year. We do this since, for once in a year (or somewhat more for some people), we have the opportunity at the end of the year to completely focus on ourselves and to be quiet, and to think. I believe that this is a great thing, on condition that you were realistic in the goals which you have set for yourself during the previous year, and also when it comes to setting new goals for the year to come. But it is about much more than only the goals which you have achieved - a topic I will return to later.
Firstly, I would like to state a very obvious and sometimes hard to accept fact – things will never turn out exactly as we want them to. And the main reason for this?? Because we are surely not completely in charge of our lives, although some of us believe that we are and in a sense I feel so as well, but life gets in the way and if it’s not people that change your plans, it’s perhaps fate or a higher power that decides to change the plans you made for yourself - just a little bit! Is there a reason for everything? I don’t believe there is a reason for everything; no, things just sometimes happen, without yourself appearing to be in control of the situation at all! But still we are the ones who try to give meaning to such happenings and try to explain what we were supposed to have learnt from them, with a view to avoiding such happenings in the future, or at least to give such happenings some meaning in the future, if not now. Hence my advice for 2012 - try to be flexible and try to take time to still see the good in every changed or failed plan, and set realistic goals. Realize that anything and anyone can change those plans in a second. What will make you different from the world, is you dealing with the unavoidable and unacceptable happening in a respectable manner and turn bad situations into good ones, and accept that you are not in complete control of all your circumstances. I believe that what we all should do is to look back at every moment in our lives and try to at least see one good thing in everything which happened to us - even the bad.
This skill I have re-learned during my end of the year trip to the Namibian desert. Although I really enjoy living in a big city which has got a lot of things to do and which definitely ensures that there is never a dull moment – sometimes one realizes that all the excitement of lots of people, lots of activity, movement, music and people talking, don’t always have the most calming effect on you. Although you feel that it may give you a thrill, it is very important to sometimes just be quiet, without any sounds except the natural sounds of nature (birds, the ocean, the wind. This gives you time to just reflect and really see every beautiful moment in every second. This is a skill, which I feel everyone should learn – I believe we sometimes forget the power there is in the most quiet moments. It is during those moments that we learn to accept our failures and see new opportunities and get hope and joy from the small things in life which no person and no circumstances/ bad happenings will ever be able to take away from us. I would like to end my blog and start 2012 with this challenge – try to find the time/make the time to see the beauty in everything – for that is the only thing in this world which is forever.