How gloomy has January been? This month’s upside-down-time’s blog post is going to be completely right-side-up. We’re going to talk all things positive and keep it cheery. I probably won’t even talk about cheerleading if I’m completely honest. For once I’m not going to mention the “C” word, Miss Rona, I’m not going to give her the satisfaction. I’m over it.

We can find inspiration in the strangest of ways. My inspiration for this blog post was on my drive to work. I saw a man walking his dog. To paint a picture, this was a massive, hugely fluffy, black dog. The dog had clearly had enough and was just lying in the grass. The owner? Well he was just stood there smiling, holding the dog’s lead, just waiting patiently for the dog to get up and carry on with the walk. I’ve been that owner before, but instead I’ve been frustrated, looking at my watch, trying to goad my dog into continuing the walk. But now, more than ever, I feel like the dog. I just want to tap out for ten minutes. Black Fluffy Dog, I feel you. And to be honest, I think we should all be more Black Fluffy Dog. If something’s stressing you out, have a break. Feeling overwhelmed? Just sit it out. There is a true moral to the story here. In all seriousness, we need to encompass both the Black Fluffy Dog, but also the patient dog owner.

2020 just sounds snazzy. Twenty-twenty, flashy. It SHOULD have been filled with celebrations, parties, growth, achievement. If you really think about it, it has. We’ve had to learn to celebrate the small wins, we’ve partied over zoom, we’ve had to look within and strive towards self-growth, and let’s be real, getting dressed and making an effort is an achievement in itself! We’ve had to look inwards; we’ve had to utilise our metaphorical self-soothing toolkit which is something that often takes years of therapy to figure out – and we’ve done that from our own homes.

2020 is the walk the Black Fluffy Dog had just had enough of. Sometimes we need to remember that it’s ok to have a break, it’s ok to take your foot of the pedal… So long as you use that break to rest, recuperate, re-strategize, and get right back into that walk. People are always saying, “life’s too short” and I’m here to tell you that it is not. Life is long – if you were present in any of my university lectures you would know that too. We’re thrown this idea that you have to live life in the fast lane, that if you don’t take up that opportunity straight away the opportunity will pass. Fake news. Living like that only has us searching for corners to cut. So you have a goal, you work yourself to the bone and achieve it in a month. Then what? Onto the next goal which you achieve within a week, and the cycle repeats. How many new goals will you achieve before you burnout? Like I said at the beginning of this article, I’m not going to talk about negativity, and therefore I won’t go into the ins and outs of burnout. Friends, we don’t want to burn out. We want to keep that flame lit for as long as we can.

Forward is forward, whether you’re running, walking or crawling. A mantra I live by everyday is to strive for progress, not perfection. Perfection doesn’t exist, but you know that. I’ve spent so many years striving for perfection, to be the best in whatever that may be. All it did was make me miserable. “But when I’ve done X I’ll be happy”, “but once I’ve completed Y I’ll be satisfied”, “when I get onto Z I’ll feel complete”. SPOILER ALERT: I achieved X, Y and Z. Was I happy, satisfied, or complete? I’ll let you answer that. Fast forward past all the burnout, the heartache, the feeling of being a failure, now I feel happy, now I feel satisfied, now I feel complete. That’s all down to the work I did within myself. You can have the best relationships with your friends, family and colleagues, but the most important relationship you will ever build will be with yourself. Afterall, you spend so much time in your head, talking to yourself – don’t try to deny it. Let me ask you, if you spoke to your best friend the way you talk to yourself, would they still be your best friend? If the answer is no, well done for recognising that. It’s time to get to work. If you answered yes, I’m proud of you.

Lastly, I want to talk about motivation. Recently I’ve had a lot of people ask me how to stay motivated, or how they can become motivated. I wish there was like a spell you could put on yourself, or a flavour of drink that would give you endless amounts of motivation. The truth is, sometimes you’re not going to be motivated. Black Fluffy Dog was probably extremely motivated when the owner got out the lead at home. Halfway through the walk, Black Fluffy Dog lost that motivation. Sometimes a little rest will bring that motivation back to life. Sometimes having structure will help. If you’ve tried both of those and haven’t got anywhere, I’m inviting you to try and create a vision board. Vision boards are like a bucket list for the year ahead, and they’re great to create at the beginning of the year.

There are a number of ways you can create a vision board. The easiest way is probably on a laptop or PC. You can start by doing a 2021 vision board. So open up Word, and title it 2021. Gather some images of things you want to complete in 2021. Will you be finishing a certain course, getting a new skill, making a certain team, are you hoping to pass your driving test, dare I say go on a particular holiday, get a new car, adopt a pet, learn an instrument, again dare I say get married? Whatever you want to achieve, grab an image online and paste it onto your vision board. I tend to do a vision board for the year, then a vision board for within 5 years as well. If you’re feeling crafty you can also do this on a big piece of paper and glue on printed images or cut-outs from magazines. You can add text, glitter, whatever inspires you. You need to feel excited when you look at it. I’ll add in a couple of examples (that aren’t mine by the way). You can also find some great vision board tutorials on YouTube.

No one needs to see this vision board but you. When you’ve lost all motivation to do an assignment and you’re thinking, would it really be all that bad if I failed this course, look to your vision board. If you’re due to finish your course in the summer, is it worth flunking that one assignment? If you’re bored of your Zoom classes and don’t fancy going this week, have a look on your vision board to your section about cheer. Are you hoping to get on a specific team, reach a flexibility goal or go to Worlds even? Does your decision of missing your Zoom class align with your long-term goal? Vision boards help you see the bigger picture. Whilst the thing you’re dealing with may not fill you with a ton of motivation in the moment, there’s a reason you’re doing it, what is that reason? What does your vision board say?

The moral of the story is that we want to have the patience of the dog owner, and the forgiveness of the Black Fluffy Dog. Specifically, patience and forgiveness within yourself. Valentine’s Day is coming up, and I want you to work on the relationship you have with yourself!

I hope you’ve found something useful in this month’s blog post. As always, if there is anything in particular you’d like us to cover, drop us a message on any of our socials. If you would like to feature online, tag us in your photos and use the hashtags #CFHTT and #UpsideDownTime

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