“My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I’m Happy. I can’t figure it out. What am I doing right?” – Snoopy, Peanuts
While it may seem counterintuitive, I think Snoopy is on the money for the holiday season. At this time of year, I feel fortunate to luxuriate in aimless endless summer days of beach, books, laughter and fun. What is restorative for me is that there is NO agenda, purpose, expectation - just a pile of library books, which may or may not be opened, with beach towel at the ready.
I spent some time yesterday reflecting on the year past, and in particular the marketplaces that I have run, several at professional conferences. At each of these I asked a similar theme question based on the Solutions Focussed Approach, to stimulate participant thinking about their ideal future (which could relate to work or play) and then identifying practical steps to move towards this. Interestingly, as I review the 1000’s of lines of data, seven words were consistently identified irrespective of context (Click here to download the conference marketplace reports). They are:
Time, Open (ning) (ness), Create, Fun, Listen, Accept, Trust
What wonderful ingredients these words make for a Christmas/New Year recipe. Here is mine: In those seemingly endless summer days, I will TRUST and ACCEPT whatever is, enjoying the TIME to CREATE and be OPEN and deeply LISTEN and most of all have FUN with those I love.
I have been having fun with a type of Word Art lately. The image to the right is my Christmas wish for you, using Wordle, to create from as you wish.
Thank you, readers for being part of the Evolve and NoMad community and have a wonderful New Year.