I was in Manchester recently and came across some pavement poetry that made me stop and reflect.
Someone had written, simply:
Don’t let your struggles define you
You’re about to walk into your best chapter yet!
What I love about this is that it’s so positive.
We all have struggles, and it’s so easy to allow them to define us – to stop us in our tracks.
When something difficult is happening in our lives, it can cause us to feel stuck, as if we are defined by it.
There’s a thing called the “end of history illusion” where we can acknowledge all the positive change we’ve made so far in life
But we believe nothing can change now.
As if it’s the end of history, and no further progress can be made.
This is especially true when things look difficult or negative, for whatever reason.
It’s hard to sit in the midst of chaos and say, Well, things will improve!
But they do improve!
Nothing is permanent in this life, good or bad.
I love the idea that we all may be just about to walk into our best chapter yet.
You might think that’s unlikely, and really, if you believe it’s unlikely, then it is.
But there’s always the possibility that the best thing to happen in your entire life – hasn’t happened yet.
The best part of your life could be in front of you, all you have to do is take it step by step and walk towards it.
It can take an effort to maintain this mindset that the best is yet to come – it’s hard to be hopeful sometimes.
But without hope, what else do we have?
I think it’s worth reminding ourselves from time to time that we may very well be just about to walk into our best chapter yet.
Worst-case scenario – it improves our mood in the moment!
And that’s what these emails are all about – improving our mood.
Why not give it a go – try out the assumption that great things are just around the corner!