Paul Jacobson

Create a 2015 you will want to remember

2014 has turned out to be a pretty challenging year and not necessarily in a happy way. I was about to say “not in a good way” but you have a choice how to view your challenges in your life. You can see them as curses sent to make you miserable or mountains to climb so you can learn something new; experience something better or just get to the other side.

I’ve had a pretty challenging 2014 and it wasn’t always easy to adopt a positive approach to my challenges but, ultimately, you have to make a choice. Either you tackle those challenges in some way or you let them determine how you will experience your life at that time. I read an inspiring post the other night titled “How to Ruin Your Life (Without Even Noticing That You Are)” which includes this cautionary note:

You ruin your life by letting your past govern it. It is common for certain things in life to happen to you. There will be heartbreak, confusion, days where you feel like you aren’t special or purposeful. There are moments that will stay with you, words that will stick. You cannot let these define you – they were simply moments, they were simply words. If you allow for every negative event in your life to outline how you view yourself, you will view the world around you negatively.

I have no idea what awaits me in 2015. I am certain I will face more challenges and my decisions about those challenges will probably vary. I do know that I will begin 2015 in a very different place (literally and figuratively) and I am very grateful about that. I have my wife and children with me and I am living in an amazing country with so much to offer us. The only choice I really have is to keep moving forward (or, like Dory says, “just keep swimming”) and to make better decisions about my future challenges.

Have a happy new year. Create a 2015 you will want to remember and not a year you will be glad to see the end of.

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Comments

5 responses to “Create a 2015 you will want to remember”

  1. Dave avatar
    Dave

    Paul, this is a phenomenal way to close off a challenging year – and the stoic but positive attitude will stand you in good stead. You’ve taken charge and shifted up, moved on – YOU are in control, and you continue to prove it.
    In my daily readings of Melody Beattie’s ‘The Language of Letting Go’ there was a particularly profound message yesterday, that I think will resonate with you, especially in terms of your quote above about letting your past govern you: “the groundwork has been laid – all you have gone through was to prepare you for the way forward” – it went on in detail about appreciating the past, but letting it go. Exactly as you talk about here.
    Here’s to 2015 – it’s going to be a brilliant year for you and Gina and your family!

    Reply
    1. Paul avatar
      Paul

      Thanks for your feedback, Dave. I think that process of laying the groundwork is ongoing. There are always more foundations to dig, reinforce, dig up and re-lay and new structures to build over them. If you remove the sheer terror that often accompanies life as a human, it is a pretty dynamic and exciting process.

      Reply
      1. Dave avatar
        Dave

        This has been my experience in November when we were retrenched – I was crippled with fear leading up to the process. Things turned out fine in the end and I’m in a new job – the fear has sublimated and if I look back and think that whole process could have been so much less fraught if there was less fear, and more faith in myself. I’m all for dynamic and exciting, minus the fear.

        Reply
        1. Paul avatar
          Paul

          That reminds me of one of the definitions of “courage”. I can’t find a quote I’m sure I saved somewhere but its something along the lines of: “Courage isn’t the absence of fear. It’s the determination that some things are more important than fear.” A similar one defines courage as taking action in spite of fear.

          Reply
          1. Dave avatar
            Dave

            Oh I like that thought! I’m adding it to my vision board for 2015!

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