7 Of The Life Mantras I'll Be Living By In 2017
Whenever a new year begins a lot of people like to pick one word to focus on for the majority of the year and live by the meaning of that word. But I'm far too picky to just choose just one word and I like to think of the mantras that I like to try and live my life by and align my values and goals with them. Posts like this are always something that I love reading from others as I feel like it provides a really good insight into who they are on a deeper level.
DON'T LET OTHERS ACHIEVEMENTS CLOUD YOURS
Something I work really hard to do in general is being happy for people in life and celebrate their achievements and not let jealousy get the best of me even though it's all too easy to do that. But something I am terrible at doing is let other people's achievements completely swamp anything I'm doing and play a constant game of comparison which isn't healthy or a nice to do to yourself. It's something I think we all do whether we like to admit it or not even though we know it's not something that ever works out in the long run as how can we possibly all achieve the same things in life? Being happy for yourself as well as others isn't easy but it's something I really want to strive towards this year.
CREATE > CONSUMING
I'm fortunate enough that my job allows me to create something new every day and I absolutely love that. But something I'm really guilty of doing is consuming way too much and even though for the most part I absolutely love what I'm looking at I find myself getting way too caught up in it. I'm so guilty of letting what everyone else is creating sway my judgement in some way and change my mind of what I should be doing. So I want to make a really conscious effort to make sure I'm creating more than I'm consuming so stepping back from social media will be a large part of this as well as generally spending less time on a screen.
LET YOUR MIND BE IN THE NOW
If you read this post I wrote all about worrying then you'll already know that 2016 was one of the worst for me when it came down to it. And it wasn't just about my own life but about the huge world events that happened too and by the looks of the news there will probably be much worse to come in 2017. But I really want to try and live in the now and not let my mind wander off to what could happen. There are so many things that can happen but worrying about them will not change the outcome and there are so many things that we could do with the energy that we spend worrying and hopefully try and help matters. It's not easy to suddenly try and change how your mind is working by any means but even just making a conscious effort to be in the now and not years in the past or in the future is not the best. As much as our brain might like to convince us otherwise.
FIND THE GOOD
Whilst I wouldn't consider myself to be a really miserable person I certainly can be very pessimistic about a lot of things and sometimes I find it's easier to make myself miserable on purpose than try and embrace the good in life. And I think having a firm grip on reality is pretty important as living in the clouds might be good it can easily lure you into a false sense of happiness which is dangerous. I want to make a really conscious effort to embrace the good in life and not go out of my way to find the bad and make myself unhappy on purpose.
BE KIND TO YOURSELF, YOU DIDN'T GET ANYWHERE BY BEING HORRIBLE
Being horrible to yourself and constantly putting yourself down is something that's sadly seen as very normal in our society. And the moment we see someone being kind to themselves we instantly presume their arrogant and narcissistic, which is rarely the case. For so long all I've done is be cruel to myself and really been quite awful and I never found it to do much good. And when I really think about it I can't think of a really good reason for myself to be acting in this way other than letting what society thinks I should or shouldn't be doing get in my head too often. The term self-love sounds a little silly but appreciating and enjoying myself as a person isn't something that can ever be a bad thing, surely? Appreciating the things I'm doing and being happy with my achievements instead of downplaying them is something that I really want to do. If I don't do it then no-one else is going to do it for me and I never want to live a life where I constantly need to approval and praise of others. As nice as it is I think it's really important to be able to do it by yourself and on your own terms.
YOU DON'T NEED TO FOLLOW THE PATH OF OTHERS
The beginning of my career hasn't been like many others and for so long I've absolutely detested myself for not being able to meet those expectations set by society but it's not something I can change. I became really unwell only a few months after graduating and it led me to be self-employed which isn't the standard path for most graduates and it's certainly not something I ever even dreamed about. I can't help that my health took a turn and in so many ways is still very much out of control so then I have to adjust my work around it. This year I want to stop feeling so guilty about it because ultimately me being unwell only affects a small number of people and no-one else in the world so I need to stop apologising for it. Just because we have those set by society standards it doesn't mean we have to follow them and if we don't we're not wrong for doing so.
NO JUDGEMENT ALLOWED
I've come a long way from when I was relentlessly judgmental about other people and getting myself far too concerned with what others were doing but sometimes I can slip a little. I think it's pretty much impossible to stop having any judgement at all but I really want to try and stop myself even starting to form those thoughts about others. I have absolutely no right to judge what other people are doing unless it directly affects my life and I don't think being constantly filled with judgement is a nice way to live even for yourself. There is just so need to do it.
What life mantras will you be living by this year?
Check out: Sophie Anne Taylor
