Here we go again – new term, same treadmill

Here we go again.

[Although it would make me very happy, I am not going to write this post about the latest Mamma Mia film – it is tremendous fun and whilst one of it’s main themes is mother/daughter relationships, drawing analogies from it for today’s musings is a tad contrived. Do go and see it though. Just saying.]

No – in our house, and in many throughout our land, this week sees the commencement of the new school term. And that means climbing back onto the same treadmill.

Harrumpf.

Routine, lunches, homework, conforming, order, negotiating, juggling, constraints, managing lots of emotions.

A conveyor belt of imposed structure that will hurtle us towards Christmas at a frightening speed. [Sorry to mention Christmas in August – bet I’m not the first].

For some, this is a Really Big Day. Seeing a child off to primary school for the first time, or walking that tricky balance beam of independence towards secondary school tug at the emotions and highlight how fast they grow up.

For others, this is an odd day – I met a friend this morning who’s child has now left school. My friend finds herself released out the other end of the school education system into the great wide world where you can resume living according to the seasons and not the school term.

In our house, elder Nearest-and-Dearest has potentially-life-impacting exams this year. In some ways, all her previous school years have been building towards this year. The import and impact of that was not lost on her at breakfast time this morning. Younger Nearest-and-Dearest starts the process this year of subject choices and a narrowing towards what she might want the rest of her life to be about.

I muse on entering our 12th year doing this school malarkey. Does it have to be the same old treadmill?

This is where I find myself.

Because it would be tempting to slide into a disgruntled ‘here we go again’ mentality. Get your head down, get on with it, get through it. Manage, organise, control, survive.

And where is the joy in that?

Whatever our situation in life – you may well not have school age children – we have a choice about how we perceive the life we live.

Do we see systems, structures, multiple commitments to juggle as a cage that constrains us and walls us in with never ending to-do lists?

Do we choose to only see what we HAVE TO do?

Or do we choose to see what we GET TO do?

And it really is that simple: it is our choice.

I know, I can hear you yelling at the computer. Life is not simple, and probably never will be. But how we approach it is a choice that only we can make.

We can choose –

…to see each day as a gift

…to find each day things that we are thankful for

…to live today with a ‘I get to do …. ‘ attitude that shifts the emphasis off ourselves and opens us up to something much bigger

…to focus on what we can do today, rather than what we fear about tomorrow.

This is a mindset, and changing mindsets takes time, effort and commitment. I have spoken here before about choosing to be brave, and that often meaning sticking with something that is hard and challenging rather than giving up.

But as this next season begins – as we go into this new term – what opportunities are presented to you? What would it mean for you today to choose to say:

This is the life I get to live. I approach my life knowing who I am and what I can do, not who I am not and what I can’t. And in this there is freedom.

If that sounds wonderful, aspirational – and just too far beyond your reach, fear not. Get in touch, and we can get there together.