....and towards 2016.

Happy New Year!

This post is going to be more airy-fairy and values and ideas and such. I'll be doing another post that's talking about what I'm actually doing this year. Otherwise this would take too long.

So!

Near the beginning of 2015, one of the things that I did was write down my goals for the year. Some of them were fairly concrete, some quite abstract. When I had a look back at them, it was pretty 50/50 as to how I'd done. But that was okay, there were a fair few. I got to the last one, though, and found it quite interesting. That's not the right word, but that's the best I've got.

It was this: "be proactive and patient."

Being proactive is something that I am classically terrible at - I'm very much a reactive person, and horrible at self-motivation. Also very not great at stepping outside of my comfort zone. Particularly when it comes to emotions, and connecting with people in ways I'm unfamiliar with. But this was something I'd been drilling myself about for a while. No, the thing that got me was the second one.

Patient. Because that was something that, for the last couple of months, has been a bit of a theme that God's been having with me. It's not something I'm always good at. I like to think I am - because I can wait; but I don't wait well. I'm an impatient waiter. I'm a horse chomping at the bit. I may be a horse quite used to chomping at the bit, so it can do it for rather a while, but I'm chomping at the bit the whole time. Rather than relaxing. Or refocussing. Instead of stressing out about things.

Into this, I want to introduce a movie that I watched the other day: Chef. An absolutely fantastic movie for many reasons, and generally speaking a foodie's dream. It will have you salivating. And it's also just a really authentic movie, which I love. You'll get it if you watch it.
But apart from that, there were two big things about it that I loved. It was about following your passions; and about family and people. And this fits rather well into the other bit. So I want this to be what I take into this year to come, and also a bit of an encouragement to others.

Be proactive about your passions; they are yours. No-one else is going to be proactive about them. If you have a dream - go for it! Make it happen! Dreaming is great - but being able to do some of it is even better. Yes, it's hard; yes, it's not always what you think it's going to be; yes, you don't always know how to do it or where to start. But just give it a go! You're not going to get anywhere doing nothing. Be proactive in your passions.

And be patient with people. Other people are not like you, funnily enough, no matter who you happen to be. And when you're interacting with them, it can be easy to be impatient, because they're not understanding it like you do. They don't get it like you do. Because they're not you! But that's okay. Because they're them. And that's a whole special and unique and incredible and beautiful person in themselves. Not less. Not more. Just different. And still awesome. So be patient with people.

I'll probably come up with some more specific goals as I go into the year. But those are my two big ones; being proactive in my passions, and patient with people. I think that's a good place to start. As to specifically what that looks like - well, that's another post.