The Year of the LEAP

For reasons far too dull to disclose, I recently resigned my career post and stuck a new entrepreneurial flag in the sand.   Granted, this was no easy feat as I live on an island that is known as the Rock.

Small leaps;  BIG  Leaps.   Prepare thyself, it is that peculiar odd day out, we call Leap Year.  Thematically,  I began blogging a year ago with a leap into my website presence, as well as, literally, off a cliff. (see blog post December 2014 aptly titled, 'Leaping' if adventure is your game).  Risk rarely involves stagnation, unless you factor in a quiet rest in quick sand.

We speak of calculated risk, risk adverse, and risk taker in easy breezy conversational terms, yet, what does it all mean to you? And when must you simply trust your gut, your instincts, your intuition and, yes, dare I say it again, leap.   If we never bare that risk we take the chance of reliving the same predictable pattern over and over and over, AND OVER, again.   Fear will tell you to stay put.   Fear will seduce you skillfully with the idea that safety, defined by the familiar, is always the sensible choice.

Yet, it's hard to grow, while bored out of your mind.   It's  hard  to  thrive, jive or even try.....

when stagnation sets in.  And,  it can be a 

f u r i o u s l y

       fast

             downward

                                spiral

       to confidence lost and depression secured.   A visit to a land you just don't want stamping your entry passport. Immigration will cruelly welcome you, but this is a clever ploy to distract you, make you feel you belong, only to hold you down fiercely.   And, it is an absolutely hellish and tricky place to exit from.  To escape you will have to work harder than you thought possible and yet rarely see results;  the complete and utter OPpOsitE of 'how to be successful' books like, “Work smarter, not harder”, and “Get wealthier while working less”.   The absolute and complete opposite of this indeed.   However, it may be the start of your new book, “The 7 Ineffective Habits of Highly Dissatisfied People”.   The choice, as always, is  yours.

So, what will you be doing with your leap year?   We are already firmly entrenched into January and the race has begun. I have been luxuriating in a slow, thoughtful start, gaining clarity on goals, with my methods of madness afoot; discernment at the wheel, my navigator's cap askew, “Is it left here? Or right? Have I seen that tree before? Oh look, 3 pm and dark already...”   

Inspiration doesn't always strike mid-January.

All we can do is navigate the storms;  plan for the rainy day, show up, taKe  AcTiON, love ourselves, play with our pets, and be kind to plants, neighbours, children and baristas, along the journey.   It helps to be prepared; chance favours this, it has been said before by smart people.   It helps to look good too, (just grocery shop in a hoody to test this theory).   Looking good, and this means healthy and groomed, doesn't have to be glamourous.   There is a deep truth and kindness  in self esteem, self value as action, projecting, in fact, confidence, not arrogance or vanity, as we are so often erroneously taught.   But you know all this.

So the trick then, is to keep momentum.   Even a bike will keep going without a rider for a time, if there is enough momentum.   YES then, go ahead, build up a head of steam,  so that when you are getting tired from being your fabulous self out there, sheer momentum will simply keep things going for you, until you wake from your snooze; rested, eager, and renewed from all that creative breathing space our one extra day will give us!

Oh yes, it is definitely the year to jump up and down as much as possible and hopefully, not just in the same spot, whilst you simultaneously improve your strength and balance as a result.   This by the way is also excellent preparation for the storms ahead.  Now, if you are STILL dead set against leaps,  then for goodness sake, fly fish, tai chi, or tap dance circles around us instead. 

This  new  shiny  l e A p  year,   Just.     Keep.    Moving!