Quick Progress Update

Wee quickie: Progress, how do you know you've made it?

I meet a lot of people who tell me how stuck they are yet, when they tell me the things they have done, you find out they are amazing. One of the problems, in my opinion, is how stuck people gauge their personal progress.

So here's a wee thing; think about yourself a year ago.  Think about who you were, where your life was, what you knew and what you were doing.  Now ask yourself, how has the 'now' you progressed from the 'then' you?

Now, think about yourself three years ago and ask the same questions.

Keep going if you want to really become amazed at yourself. You ten years ago and you now are very different people I bet!

You've never stopped progressing.  Every day you become more special. You should just accept how special you are :)

The dusty corners of your head

I was digging through some old files on the computer tonight getting ready to transfer onto my shiny new one and I found some amazing things that I'd forgotten.  Things I'd put some serious work into, filed away and then never looked back on as life and HeadStrong moved on.  If I must say so myself, some of it is really good!  And some of it has reminded me of many of the things that were important to me back then and perhaps should be important to me now (i'm going to post one of those things straight after this post).

This is what happens isn't it?  We work hard to make things like relationships, careers, lives, hobbies, businesses, families, health and then before we know it we forget the hard work we put in and take it for granted.  Just another file in the big disc drive of life.

If you look back tonight, what have you done that you are proud of?  The answer 'nothing' is banned due to the fact it's total bollocks, there will be at least one thing if you are really honest with yourself.

We put work into these things because they matter and because they are important to us. So keep them, cherish them, repurpose them and realise that much of what was important to you then, if your honest, is still important now.

Be proud of your old files.  They made you who you are today and many of them can help you become the person you want to be tomorrow.

The 'old you' is gone. Long live the 'new you'!

So today my kids embarked on new adventures. Jodie, my oldest at 13, went on her first substantial school trip on a 24hr round trip to a theme park in England and at this very moment Amy, 11, has attended her school dance to celebrate the move to high school and is now being driven around Glasgow in a pink limousine! It's been quite a day for both of them I'm sure. I'm now sitting here waiting to hear all the amazing details.

Everything evolves and moves. Nothing stands still. It can sometimes seem like time is static but it's not. We get older (in fact, it is a fact that you are older now than you were when you started reading this!) and time moves forward without ever looking back.

So why don't we? Why do we try and hold onto the past, wanting all things to just stay the same? We waste time wanting to be the 'old me' again and never fully embracing the chance to be someone new. We mourn the loss of our children's innocence when we should be celebrating their independence. We look in the mirror and curse the signs of our ageing rather than wallowing in our experience and learning.

My kids are growing and evolving every day, as am I. Our culture has developed a fear of a fundamental law of nature, time. It's the equivalent of starting a campaign to complain about the colour of the sky. Its pointless. There is nothing you can do.

Time moves forward. Never back. Do you?