Those immortal words "Happy New Year" ring out globally at midnight (wherever you are) and they always sound so hopeful and inspiring. Every year, come the stroke of midnight, I hear my inner voice urging me to really go for it, to really make the coming year bigger and better than ever before.

And yet, at the end of each year, right now in fact as I reflect, I take a hard, honest look at what I achieved over the last 12 months and it never seems as if I really gave it my all. I always feel I could have done more, for myself and for others. You see, I am way too forgiving of my own shortfalls.

It always seems to take me far longer than it should to get started. You see, I suffer from the same disease that many do, I suffer from the disease of procrastination. I am more determined than many but never determined enough.

In truth I guess I suffer a milder form of that procrastination disease than many others do but I can still look to other people that I know and realise that I suffer with that particular disease in a much more harmful way than they do. 

It is perfectly OK to look at others that inspire you and work towards moving a little closer to their achievements. It is perfectly OK to want more of what they have and less of those things you have that hold you back. 

It isn't jealousy to want to be better than you are and more like others you know who are enjoying more in their lives than you are. So long as the jealousy turns to motivation and not envy. Equally, it isn't arrogant to think that you can do better than anyone else you know. To want more in your life is not only perfectly fine, it is also as natural as it gets and moves you to a place where you can do more for others.

We are born as blank pages, open books, clean hard drives waiting to be filled with data and we spend most of our lives filling those things up with the kind of data that does nothing but hold us back. We aren't responsible for that in those early years, the negativity we learn to digest always comes from others first. But, being aware of the negativity in your life is the first step to replacing it with more positive thoughts and feelings.

If you are looking ahead and thinking, here comes more of the same and the same is not what you want then pay close attention to what you are thinking about each day and open yourself to what I am now going to say.

The first day of 2023, is no more than a blank page, the first blank page of a new 365-page book that you and you alone get to fill. And what gets written on those pages when you wake up on the 1st of January is, for a short while, entirely in your hands. 

I say for a short while because you have all that you need to write a good book of 2023 so long as you don't gaze too frequently into the past, feeling bitter about those old books you wrote. To write something new and fresh, you need to feel new and fresh and motivated to keep changing your old (bad) habits one step and one day at a time.

If we do that consistently and we do not shy away from the task of keeping it going (and it can take some serious effort and concentration to keep it going), time will quickly pass and we may turn around to find, for a nice change, that the future has not completely run out on us. Make it feel different the first chance you get and then make the action you take from then on in, entirely different to what you have done in the past. 

Everyone gets a chance, every day, to start to change things and turn things around for the better. So here is my parting message to you in 2022. 

If I can help you along the way, I will, by being here for you if you want some advice that you think I may be able to give, or some encouraging words. If I can help you to better understand something that you do not understand and would like to understand, then call out and I will respond. Why? Because nothing in life gives me more joy and encouragement personally than hearing about something I helped with that made a positive difference to someone's life.

John