Writing the Wrongs of the Year- Lessons for 2018

Maybe it’s the university English language major in me but I couldn’t help but review the lessons of the year in the best way I know how, just as I would a good book.

In my first year of university my lecturer explained that the first step is to draw out the key points, the devices leading to the main themes. The stand outs, the signs, the enlightenments and the sparks. Using devices like characterisation, metaphors, similes, repetition and alliteration (when the same letter or sound is used to begin closely connected words).

Leading into 2018, how have the characters in your life developed? Who brought drama and pessimism. Who gravitated into your life and equally who gravitated out of it. The people who remain in your story, are meant to be there. Which characters remained consistent? Just as every year will continue to do, a series of events demonstrated the consistent people in my life.  The people who message on a Wednesday night asking how my week’s been and the ones who message me to get home safe. You are a reflection of the people you surround yourself with so determine whether those around you helped you grow or who contributed to your fall. Note the importance this places on your character’s development on your journey.

We always want to recap on our times of pleasure and yet sometimes the most value is learnt from times of pain. Take note of which memories flood your mind with waves of emotion. Let yourself feel it but only long enough for the memory to crash and the tide of thoughts to disperse. As the time ticks into 2018 it’s an invitation to lift the fog, remove the cloud of emotion holding you back, that sits over a period of time in your life and exhale as it shifts away when you enter the new year.

I feel as though 2017 for me has been like a necessary fork in the road. Pulling me to a screaming, and slightly painful, holt from going through the motions of life. It has been my reminder that a life of typical routine only leads to getting complacent and placed on my ass on a path that’s not right for me. Some people thrive on routine, on organisation, they love mundane tasks and consistency. Some people are happiest doing what’s comfortable and not necessarily something that makes them spark. 2017 reminded me that I am not one of those people and to stop pretending that I am or ever will be.

It was a long time coming but the lessons of the year were definitely learnt. Life does this thing where it makes you super uncomfortable, throwing countless challenges your way until you acknowledge you’re not on the path you need to be. Sometimes this is through repetition of an experience. Sometimes this is through repetition of a feeling. Ever thought to yourself why does this person keep doing this to me? Why does the universe keep throwing this at me? Well I’m glad you asked, because it’s about to get good.

See the people you meet and the experiences your personality has on your pursuit to happiness is determined predominantly by your perceptions and perspective of the path you choose.

You with me?

See just like my university lecturer explained, when it comes down to it what happens in the book is irrelevant when you change the lens in which you perceive it. We can read the same book and interpret it in completely different ways, just as we can do the same things in life and have completely different levels of happiness. You are both the creator and interpreter of your own story and you have the ability to influence and attract the outcome before you complete the first sentence. With this you have the ability to write all of the spark and beauty in 2018 just as you choose, all you have to do is pick up that pen. Change your lens, change your life. Then simply start writing…