A legacy that matters
In the past couple of weeks, I have attended events including a friend’s 50th birthday celebration, silver wedding anniversary and a 70th birthday party. I am also saddened by recent deaths of beloved friends’ parents. Some deaths were a total shock
A purposeful habit
I started my day by revisiting a habit that I had neglected – journaling. I have written in my journal on and off for some time. Recently I picked up my journal and realised it had been a few months since my last entry.
What happened? I had been busy and so, I stopped doing something that I found very useful. I need to change this.
Recently, I heard that it takes over sixty days to form a new habit which contradicts previous claims of twenty-one days.
This has got me thinking about habits that I need to re-introduce if I’m to achieve my goal of being a more purposeful me.
The first habit I want to take up again is focussing my journal on gratitude. Life often comes with challenges. If we are not careful, we end up only seeing the challenges and soon lose sight of the blessings.
Having a daily habit that focuses on the right things and the blessings of life will give us some perspective and help us to be more appreciative.
My plan this morning was to write ten things I was grateful for but the more I wrote, the more I had to write. Three pages on, I went over my notes and counted thirty-two things I was grateful for. As I finished my journal entry, I added a couple more things I was grateful for.
These were thirty-four things I had not thought about as I was preoccupied with a recent break in at my house. I thought of the invasion of my privacy, the destruction of the door and the unexpected money that we needed to spend doing the repairs.
As I meditated on gratitude today, I was grateful that nothing was taken, no one was hurt or traumatised and we are able to make the necessary changes. By focusing on what I was grateful for, I soon realised the blessings far outweigh the recent upsets.
On my journey to becoming a more purposeful me, I am bound to encounter some challenges and setbacks and there’s a risk of me losing sight of the bigger picture.
To keep me focused, I have decided to form a new habit of gratitude 'journal-ling'. My plan is to start each day with twenty minutes of journalling focused purely on what I’m grateful for. I’m committing to this for the next seventy days and by the end of this, I’m expecting this to become second nature.
I don’t know where you are in life, the current challenges you’re facing or the goals that you have. What I do know is that having an attitude of gratitude will help you to positively and better navigate life.
Instead of complaining about your job, children, boss or neighbour be grateful. Be grateful that you’re not alone, for food on your table and that you can get to work without any help. Be grateful for getting to work late because of an accident; remember someone was in that accident and lives might have been lost.
Vision – making your dream a reality
I was at a friend’s 50th birthday party last night and ran into other friends. For many years, we were part of a faith-based organisation, met once a month and spent one weekend together every year. Our children were all different ages.
One of my friends shared her vision about getting the children to become friends with the older ones mentoring the younger ones. We created a buddy system, encouraging them to build and leverage these relationships.
This vision turned ‘social experiment’ was about 10 to 15 years ago. Fast forward 15 years, these 'children' are now in or have finished from top universities with excellent career prospects.
As we all know children sometimes listen to their peers more than they do parents. To the delight of the parents these children have helped each other aspire for better results and make some right education and career choices.
The relationship these young people have built over many years has evolved to one of spurring, challenging, coaching, mentoring and encouraging each other.
Our social experiment has produced excellent results and got me thinking of the lessons I’ve learnt from watching them fulfil our vision.
Here are my thoughts:
Have a vision and share it with those who need to be involved
A few of the parents shared their vision on how our children could help each other through a mentoring and support programme. They told a compelling story and other parents bought into it.
What is your vision and who do you need to engage?
Create an enabling environment
As parents who all lived miles apart, we knew the only way our children could develop the relationship was for us to make room for them. Every month, we released them to be with each other and many times, we waited for them even when we were in a hurry. We needed to turn our verbal support into action to help make it happen.
How are you creating an enabling environment for your vision to become a reality?