Little Things = Big Things

It’s only when we look back we can see how far we’ve progressed. But we can’t see that, if not only there’s nothing to see, but there’s no line in the sand to identify the Beginning.

Real Life has ups and downs. When “life” happens to interrupt our plans and our progress. It’s what we do during and after those events that matters.

All or Nothing

I’ve tended to be an All or Nothing person. I’m either all in or not at all. Full On or Full Stop.

Fortunately, I have a very well developed and full bucket of Resilience to help counter this extreme approach.

For example, it was having a supply of Resilience to call on, that enabled me to get back in the saddle four times after I fell off my bike thrice. Yup! – I fell off my bike three times while on holiday this April just gone.

My pride was injured. My body was bruised. All but the first time I had an audience. I felt stupid and wanted to give up! But I didn’t.

Progress doesn’t follow a straight line

I’m sooo pleased I was able to pull the brakes on in 2021. Hard.

Pretty much everyone I know suffered in some way either during, or from, the fallout of world events in 2020.

Alan’s and my life was no different. Some people stop eating when they’re stressed. Some eat even more. That’s me: I eat. Mostly healthy, not always, but in excess.

Looking back, I can see I was protecting myself from the professional harassment (intimidation & beat-ups) being thrown at me at the time, with food.

Not healthy. Neither physically or emotionally.

But I’m sooo pleased I stopped when I did so things didn’t get even more out of control than they were already.

In this case, it’s only because I braved up and stood on those scales – yes! even when I didn’t want to – each morning, that I have something to look back on and measure.

It’s only because of taking those individual steps, that I now can be so very proud of what I’ve achieved. #smilingontheinside.

Logging the Adventure

When we were on holiday in our rented motorhome in April I tracked our journey. Our adventure.

When we eventually get our own motorhome, I’ll continue to track our adventures. Yes – even those small, why bother…? single overnight trips.

Why? Because they’re all individual stitches that contribute to the tapestry of my ordinary married life that, in their own way, make my life extra-ordinary.

I’m looking forward to being able to track our future adventures in the same way.

Hope and Anticipation

What lots of people don’t realise is that Resilience is a bit like a jigsaw – there are lots of individual components that all fit together to make up the whole (or maybe that should be fill the hole?).

Hope and Anticipation are two of those pieces. I’m looking forward with hope and anticipation to future “adventures” – that’s what I call my time away with Alan – our adventures.

Gratitude

Gratitude is another Resilience jigsaw piece.

That’s why I journal out loud each day here. And that’s why I always finish each post with “here’s to……….” – because I’m grateful and anticipatory.

It’s my way or reminding myself. Of staying focussed. Of looking for the good in my life and my world. Even when there may not be good in all the world or all of my life every day; I still look for something. So I can look back, reflect and see just how far I’ve come.

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Here’s being able to see progress…

Here’s to having Hope and Anticipation…

Here’s to being Grateful.

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Here’s to SmilingOnTheInside!