Disclosure: Some of the links in the letter below are affiliate links, meaning at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. All links posted are my own personal recommendation of reading material.
2020 – what a strange year that was.
I’m willing to bet it didn’t pan out the way you thought it would. Reading this back now as lockdown 3.0 looms on the horizon it seems even more relevant than before.
I wrote this letter as motivation for myself, long before Covid 19 existed. Having experienced lockdown I feel this still rings true in the current climate. We have all lost things in this last year and lessons have been learned on varying levels.
For those who are struggling mentally with the thought of the world being on hold again for an extended period or for those whose lives are completely up in the air until we come out the other side… this letter is for you.
Dear 2021 You,
When things seem hopeless and seemingly become too much to handle, take a moment to reflect and think about the things you achieved when the challenges seemed insurmountable.
Use Challenges to help you Grow
Sometimes life throws challenges at you, your job is to find a way through them. You were not put on this earth to wither and die. Life is not given to you on a whim. Your creation was not a coincidence (even if it may have been a happy accident!). Do you know what a complex procedure it is for a human to be created? Creating an embryo is only half the battle.
As we grow and mature in utero we are perfect human beings and we are also born as such. Something I read a while ago by the wonderfully wise Louise Hay always resonates with me when I think about the joy of babyhood – and it’s that babies feel no shame.
The Joy of Babyhood
Babies have an unapologetic sense of being. When they are sad, they make it known to everyone, but when they are happy – well how can it not fail to make you feel joyful as well? Babies do not hold grudges, they forgive and forget.
Babies don’t feel ashamed of their bodies or their personalities. They don’t spend hours worrying about the future, they are perfectly present in the moment.
Yes, it’s true that babies have no responsibilities and are not required to earn money or pay bills, but perhaps that doesn’t need to be a worry for adults either.
The Fear Factor
Perhaps if we lived our lives with the same sense of mental and physical freedom that babies do we wouldn’t worry and things would simply fall into place. If we could completely eradicate fear from our lives we could potentially live our best lives.
Try this: when you feel lost and out of control and like you have been handed too many setbacks, just take minute to reflect on your achievements. You may at this point think you don’t have any, but I assure you, there is not one person on this earth that has not achieved greatness.
Appreciate what you have now
The fact that you have made it onto this earth is your biggest achievement and your greatest gift. Your life should not be taken in vain. There are so many of us who never get to experience earthside and the world as we know it.
There are people in our lives that we will always miss, as we never got the chance to meet them. And then there are those that we miss because we didn’t get to spend enough of our lives with them. If that isn’t a reason to respect our own lives and cherish them, I don’t know what is.
You may be feeling dejected and demotivated because you feel isolated and on your own, perhaps because you don’t have anyone to share your life with.
Perhaps your dream job seems unattainable or perhaps you lost your job and are struggling financially.
Maybe you lost your home because you were unable to keep up on the mortgage payments.
Perhaps you are stuck in a career rut and the thought of going to work on Monday morning makes you sick to your stomach.
Or perhaps you are just tired. Tired of life, tired of seeking out moments of happiness, tired of chasing the seemingly impossible dream.
Simplification can equal Happiness
I am starting to think that maybe it is just a case of simplifying your life. Sometimes I wonder if we just want too much too soon.
Oftentimes it appears that the more we have, the more we want and the less happy we become when something doesn’t go our way.
My tip for you is: simplify your life. Let go of the outcomes of your decisions and just go with it.
Money will only get you so far in life. Yes, money can help to manifest your desires, but it will ultimately not make you happy. There is a reason why the rich and famous are often the most emotionally unhappy among us.
Listen to your Gut – it might save you
Here are my motivational tips for a happier life:
- Remove yourself from complications as best you can. If something is making you feel uneasy, then remove yourself from the situation. Listen to your gut feeling.
- Know that YOU are worth more. Don’t let external influences beat you down. Work hard doing something you love. And if it isn’t something you love, work hard anyway and try and use it as a means to get to your passion.
- If something feels right and makes your heart race in a good way, then follow it through. This will often reap rewards financially too.
‘If it feels good, it is probably doing you a world of good’
- Be a kind person and treat people the way you wish to be treated. Goodness and happiness begets more goodness and happiness. It is as simple as that.
Have you ever noticed that if you get out of bed in a bad mood, everything that happens after that appears to escalate into negativity?
Yet when you get good news or feel happy in yourself, the good things just keep rolling in? If you approach the bad with a more positive mental attitude then it makes the difficult so much easier to cope with.
I am the first to admit that it isn’t always easy to practise what I am preaching, but it does get easier with habit. It is also easier to do when you are well rested, which isn’t always possible when life is so busy.
I myself have infant twins and a three year old and I also work part-time, so rest and time to myself can be few and far between.
Don’t Let Grief & Loss Define Your Life
Allow yourself some time to wallow and grieve when something bad happens in your life, but let it be a finite period of time, don’t let it take over your life, however easy it would be.
Loss is sadly going to be a part of your life, but it does not need to consume your every thought forever.
Think of all the public figures you admire who used adversity and trauma to achieve great things.
Learn from Loss
If you have lost someone close to you, remember that they will have wanted you to live a great life, not spend your time forever lamenting the fact that they are gone.
As you get older, loss becomes part of your life and you will learn your own coping mechanisms to deal with it.
It is up to you whether you rise or fall following a loss or indeed any type of trauma.
Take comfort from the thought that life is not trying to trip you up. Consider that perhaps everything in Life serves a higher purpose and that the challenges sent to you are to make you stronger and more resilient to ultimately achieve your dreams.
And lastly, if you take just one thing from these words and this letter, then I know I would also have achieved something today – and you would have hopefully too.
Love
Lxx
P.S. If you are interested in reading inspirational or motivational books, I can recommend the following (please note these are affiliate links):
- The Power of Now by Eckhardt Toll
- You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay
- The Source by Dr Tara Swart
- Total Meditation by Deepak Chopra
More from me: Positive Parenting
For mental health support, please contact www.mind.org.uk.