OMG. How did that happen! It’s the end of the decade, and all of a sudden it’s 2020. Who would have thought. We are in the FUTURE, as if we’re time traveling with Doc and Marty. Is that possible? is this a dream? or is time flying and we’ve all become an older version of our own self. OK, let’s swap “old” with “mature”, sounds much better.

Every year end we try to reflect on it and decide whether it was a good year or a bad one. For me, 2019 had taught me a few things. First, I hate what I do for a living, or at least most of it, and I’m dying to get away. I feel like I’m trapped, coz I see what it’s doing to me and how it affects my mental health, but I desperately need the income and I cannot just walk away.

Second, I love writing, I wanna become a writer, it’s the one thing that’s burning inside of me, to follow my dream and be creative. I wish I could create something big, meaningful, that the world would appreciate one day. So this year was probably the first time I started to well and truly chase up this dream, sit on my bum and write. And I’m not afraid of failure, coz it doesn’t have to be perfect as long as I give it a shot. We owe it to ourselves, so in years to come, and as we all know time flies and 2040 is just around the corner, we won’t look back in regret and say “oh, I should have done that but never really had the time… or the guts… to actually do something about my dream”.

And third, I realised the importance of balance and appreciation of what I got. If we don’t keep the balance between the different forces (OMG, now I’m talking like the Last Jedi!) we’re going to crash. Balance between work and personal life, balance between positive and negative thoughts, appreciation of what you have achieved in life, the beautiful family you have, the smiles of your own kids, this is more powerful than anything. Who cares if other people have more, stop comparing yourself to others. Enjoy what you got, live in the present moment, coz it’s going to naturally develop and change.

So, I don’t tend to come up with whole new resolutions for the new year (or decade in this case). For me, it’s a natural evolvement of the goals I’ve previously set, those I should be working towards every day, and those I have to remind myself are much more important than anything else in this world. This year, because it’s the beginning of a new decade, I came up with 10 things to guide the way into the new era. Here they are:

1. FAMILY First, always, every day.
2. WORK-LIFE BALANCE – work 9 to 5, that’s it, stop caring too much and switch off when you leave your desk.
3. TRAVEL overseas, in your own country, anywhere. Just hit the road and create new memories for yourself and your family.
4. WRITE, keep writing, book, blog, script. Put all those ideas in your head on paper. Be creative.
5. FINANCE sort out your cash flow. It should support all the things you want to do so make sure you’re on top of your income vs ongoing costs. It’s all about planning.
6. MIND reduce stress, try meditation, mindfulness. Keep calm, be positive, remove distractions, especially from your phone. Aim to live in the present moment.
7. BODY sort out any pain, take care of yourself. Pilates, nutrition, sleep, exercise.
8. KINDNESS Be kind to everyone around you. Do volunteering work, help others, donate.
9. LOVE is all you need. Love all that you have and take the time to enjoy every moment.
10. HONEST do what YOU want to do, be who YOU want to be, not what other people expect you to.