‘Reflection time’ and ‘Seeing the beauty in everything’... these were the challenges of the last two weeks. Combining them into the one write up seemed to make a lot of sense, not just because I’m a bit behind and trying to play catch up, but in all honestly, I found it pretty hard to separate the two when it came down to it.

The common thread running through most of my ‘eureka’ moments has been to do with appreciating the importance of now, in being positive and taking that proactive step. ‘Seeing the beauty in everything‘, for me, just emphasises that. It's understanding and enjoying the positives of what is in front of you, and if it is hard to see as it so often is, then taking the situation and turning it around until you can. For a die-hard pessimist like me, this is a big and constant challenge. It’s forcing myself to find the strength to just… stop… to not be instinctively reactive but to look and see if there is a better way. Unfortunately, I still fail more often than I succeed at this but even just recognising that need to pause is a good place to start.

So all a bit clichéd but the below are my current ‘big thoughts’ that I am trying to put into practice that have come about other the last few months.

1. Perfection, as they say, is an illusion, squint a bit and you will see that most of what you need or want is already there in front of you.
2. Sometimes it feels like you have to ‘give’ more than you think is fair but life’s not a simple equation and it all hopefully balances out it in the end.
3. A stumble or even a longer fall by the way-side is not a failure or a sign to give up, it’s a chance (if you take it) to reassess your goals and the road you are on before you carry on.
4. Smile.

Vicki