Because I'm Happy?

Well first off... Happy New Year to you all!

A very appropriate greeting at this time of year I think you'll all agree... yes?

Or is it? As quite often the moment that the Christmas festivities are over and the New Years Eve celebrations have been tidied away, everyones attention quickly turns to negative thoughts:

"I can't believe I have to go back to work on Monday", "It is ages until I next have time off", "It is so long until Christmas comes round again" and most importantly "It is ages until pay day"!

All of the phrases above have been uttered or paraphrased in one way or another by me over the years and continue to be uttered by numerous people up and down the country and all of which firmly fall under the heading "January Blues"!

So normally, the greeting "Happy New Year" could be something of an oxymoron, simply used by well meant folk as a colloquial sentence at this time of year but often with the meaning being lost somewhere in amongst the true feelings of January Blues.

However, 2015 appears to have not started the same way!

Now don't get me wrong, this post may appear instantly negative, but the words above are written simply to compare my usual feelings with those that I am currently experiencing.

For as I type this I am filled with a new found sense of hope for the year ahead.
Don't get me wrong, in response to the usual sentences uttered above:

1) After 18 whole days off work for the first time since I was unemployed I truly can't believe that I have to go back to work tomorrow.

2) It is ages until I next have time off. In fact it may even be April...a whole 3 months away!

3) It is soooo long until Christmas comes around again...funnily enough, the same as it is every year!

4) Like everyone else I definitely feel the hit this time of year...but sure as night follows day, pay day will arrive.

But with the new found sense of hope, quite possibly achieved in conjunction with having 18 days off work and enjoying all that the Christmas festivities had to offer, I am able to think past these normal sentiments and try to focus on all the positives that the year ahead has to offer...a number of which I will spend January planning for and getting excited about!

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure there will be challenges that arise by going back to work and I will no doubt be craving time off the further we get in to the next 3 months and I'm sure I will long for the festive feeling that the Christmas build up brings...all whilst always wishing pay day came round more than once a month!
However, something has changed, a new mantra can be felt echoing around my head, one that I hope stays for a long time to come and one that will surely see me through any dark days to come as well as help caption the happy times I hope are afoot:

"I Can!"

It may not be spectacular or mind altering and it may only be four letters long but simply by adding a letter "T" on the end (with an apostrophe of course) it can quickly turn negative and have just as big an impact...in the wrong direction!

But by leaving the "T" (and apostrophe of course) off, I am instantly able to think positively. To feel like 'I can' do anything or achieve what I want and that is a pretty powerful tool to have tucked away!

So from now on, I am going to let myself run wild with this mantra and see where it takes me...and no doubt you'll read all about it on here in the weeks and months to come!

Please don't take this as preaching...I merely want to share this new positive feeling with you all!

So don't be like every other year and let January pass you by in a blue doom filled cloud of negativity...

Instead, why not create a new tradition of activities for January, why not start planning the things you want to do with your spare time or start searching for your next holiday or find inexpensive things to do until pay day arrives.

And on another positive note, once again by publishing this blog post I am continuing to achieve my #RandomTask goal of weekly blogging and to make things even more positive...you'll never guess what?...

I READ A CHAPTER OF DANNY WALLACE'S "CHARLOTTE STREET"!!!

So it seems that the #RandomTask worked as not only that but I as I type this I am in the heady heights of also being one third of the way through Gillian Flynn's "Gone Girl"... making the first 4 days of 2015 pretty successful I think you'll agree!

So here's to a great January and believe when I say this...

HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all!

p.s. I realise that the title of this blog post is a reference to the Pharrell Williams track "Happy", which was number one for the first 4 weeks of 2014 so I'm "Sooooo last year" but I feel it is just as appropriate now as it would have been then and was a little more appropriate than "Uptown funk you up, I said Uptown funk you up" just to be current... even if that is as equally great a song!