Sometimes, the way things are these days (at least to me) makes it hard to let any opportunity pass us by.
Someone comes to us and sells us a chance to go somewhere, to do something, or to be someone, and you say, "Well, I have to take that in case it doesn't come again."
And so, in a world of excessive appreciation of other people's circumstances, fear of missing out, and general anxiety that we might be missing a trick, we fill our lives with things and, therefore, have no joy in anything.
Sometimes, when we seek joy in everything, it is perhaps because we have no joy in anything.
And so, the trick is to say, "My glass is half full, and look how lucky I am. I'm looking forward to the things that are coming. Wouldn't it be great if I gave it my full attention to appreciate those the best I possibly could?"
So I have a system in place with my amazing PA, Marie, who looks after all my stuff. These days, in June, we look at the second half of the year and see what's coming up and what we're doing.
My second half of this year is pretty good.
It doesn't look particularly overwhelming.
It doesn't look particularly excessive.
I'm travelling three times, once for fun and twice for work.
One of those work trips is to Edinburgh. That will be great, and one of them is Oman in the Middle East.
But as I looked at this and as I set the dates for the time I'm going to have off over Christmas and New Year again, another six-week sabbatical (I can't remember how many I have done, and nobody cares), I realised that the real trick now would be to declare myself fully booked.
Other opportunities will probably come my way because they usually do, but I'm full; I'm booked to do lectures in different places towards the end of the year that don't involve me travelling overnight (I don't really like travelling overnight anymore).
I'm booked to go to Edinburgh.
I'm booked to go to Oman.
I'm booked to go to Mallorca.
If I start to add anything else around these things, I will be tired, and I will not have the time to process the wonderful things I do or the people that I meet. In terms of work, I won't be able to give the work my best shot.
As I said before in a blog that I wrote about becoming invisible, I'm not trying to be famous, So it doesn't matter how many times I speak to people. All I'm trying to do is spread the word and spread the message that we talk about at work all the time, just to positively influence as many people as we can through the work that we do and the example that we set.
So, if you want me to do anything this year, I'm afraid I can't, and very quickly, I'm going to be fully booked for summer 2025 because the space I'm going to create is going to make me better and better again, and it's going to make me appreciate what I have even more.
Blog Post Number - 3860
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