New Year Challenge

I belong to several "organizing" and "Life Coaching" sites and get emails from them on a daily basis. One of the things that I get are daily quotes and ideas from articles. This particular one was sent from another scrap site "Scrap Girls" and it really hit home. I wanted to share it with you and then let you know what my challenge for myself in 2008 will be.

"In five years I will be five years older...

Last year - on this exact date - I shared one of my favorite thoughts with you. I can't recall where I got it. It may be something I dreamed up as I dealt with so many of our challenges because the Paxman family has had plenty of them over the years. But regardless of where it came from, it is a thought that has kept me going many times. It helps me remember that no matter what it feels like at the moment, my current challenge will end and I will be happy once again.

In five years, I will be alive and this will be over.When life gets hard and I start feeling squished, I chant it in my brain. it says to me, "Ro, calm yourself down. You don't have to panic. You can get through this, just as you have managed to get through everything else."When I realize that, I instantly relax. I remember that I have lived through family problems, healthy difficulties, financial disasters, job losses, and horrible haircuts or dye jobs. I just had to throw that last one in because I recently put too many blond streaks in my hair.

But you know what? Evenaully, I'll get my hair back to a less shocking blond and in the meantime, I can enjoy pretending that I'm Marilyn Monroe. I don't have to sit on my front porch and scream. I can stand up straight and calm myself. I'm giving you this thought today - one year from the first time I shared it with you - because I believe it might be helpful to you as you move into the new year. Every one of us will have days or periods of time next year when we will wish life would ease off. When that happens, let's stop and think, "In five years, I will be alive and this will be over."

The chances are, that will be true. If we aren't alive, well... then... we have moved to a place where we don't have to worry about it anyway, right?So in five years, it will be over - one way or another.What a powerful little sentence. It snaps your mind forward and you realize that it is true.

In five years, this will only be a memory. You might even look back at it with semi-fondness because you will realize that it helped you grow.So write it down. Memorize it. Stick it on a card and pin it to your wall. Make it part of your life - as I have. And feel the freshness that replaces the dark when you believe that all will be well.