Have you ever had dreams?

Do you remember when you had dreams? And somewhere you stopped dreaming and put all those wonderful shiny dreams into a box which is probably now gathering dust. Do you dare open that box again & take a look? My guess is you’re saying no because you think your dreams can never happen. I’m here to tell you they can. In my dream box was a French home, it did move out of the box onto my vision board and when the opportunity arose we grabbed it with both hands and took action. That was nearly seven years ago and we are shortly going out there for seven whole weeks. Yes, it was a risk but life is full of those, even crossing the road is a risk!

A few weeks back a colleague commented that she felt there was a lot of apathy about since Covid. Something struck a chord with me and I started to reflect. I have long had this feeling that people find it too easy to settle for the job they’re in, the state of health they’re in, the age they’ve reached rather than wondering  if there was any action they could take that would make a difference.

And yes, put that dream box away again because now we have a cost of living crisis and you just need to get by, not dream. Do you ever ask the question “What do I want my life to look like in 1, 5 or even 10 years? If time or money wasn’t a factor what would I love to be doing? Would I still be doing what I’m doing right now? And if I carry on doing what I’m doing right now will that vision become a reality?

And as I start to write this I find myself getting quite angry because there are all sorts of actions we can take to make the most of our “one wild ad precious life” as Mary Oliver describes it. Because, it’s true, we are given just one life, it is precious and apathy just doesn’t serve it. We need to wake up to it, reflect on what we have and see what more we can do to create a life that we love and that is purposeful

Apathy is defined as:- “Behaviour that shows no interest or energy and shows that someone is unwilling to take action especially over something important”. And what can be more important than your health and your life? It can be scary to take action, I know that and I know that our brains are doing their level best to keep us safe so we end up staying in that safe place. I saw it in the NHS when my colleagues were settling to put up with the job in service of their pension. And they thought I was crazy to sacrifice that. But leaving that job was one of th best things I ever did because I knew there was something more for me

I took action for the sake of my health. Some of us are lucky enough to have something happen in our lives to shake us out of our apathy and I am so so grateful that I was one of those lucky ones. My life has been unbelievably enriched by making that major change 20 years ago. I am healthier, fitter and so much happier because I took the actions that I did.

And then came the pandemic and control of our lives was taken away from us and all we cared about was keeping ourselves and the people we love safe.  I think that has made us even more reluctant to make changes that could so vastly improve our lives. In my world I see it in even the tiny things like not answering messages, e mails and the like. It happens all the time and I know people are busy but that is just plain rude. I see it when people don’t show up for a webinar when they say they will and risk not hearing something that might change their life for ever .. scary huh?

I could stay the same as I am now and that wouldn’t be bad at all but I know it can get better so I am willing to take more action to make that happen. I am willing to be scared and feel the fear and do it anyway. I’m willing to pick myself up when I’m down and carry on, I’ve made lifestyle changes for the sake of my health. Doing nothing and settling is not an option .. there is still a life, to be lived and lived to the full .. because when I die I don’t want to die with regrets

So look at yourself today and say “Is there something I could do to improve my life or my health & am I prepared to do it?” and my advice to you is go for it

So I’m ending with two calls to action and one is in the words of Richard Branson; “If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity but you are not sure you can do it, say yes, then learn how to do it later”. At the very least take a look and be prepared to say “no”, because it’s perfectly Ok to do that .. nothing dreadful will happen.

I wrote Journey to Chocolate to shake people out of living life on automatic pilot. If you want to read it you can buy it here. Your life is passing by at the rate of knots, so shake off the apathy and start living it!