The summer holidays have flown. My summer has been full of family, friends and fun with the kids but what really made my summer was the fact that I planned a few trips and treats so each week I had something to look forward to.
My Mum always said I walked around with my head in the clouds. And she was right. I am a professional daydreamer. When I sit down to write I enviably spend some time – elbow planted on desk, chin propped in palm – staring in between the branches outside my window. Gazing upwards, my mind is stolen by some sweet fantasy and for a short while I daydream about living out the winter months in a warmer climate, a trip to the Seychelles, attending an Italian Opera, trekking the Inca trail, travelling through Southeast Asia on the Oriental Express…my daydreams are endless. Having a fantasy world inside my head is magical but I like to have something magical happen in reality too.
I’ve discovered that one of the best gifts I can give to myself is something to always look forward to. This is a great way to keep motivated and positive when summer ends or when life is boring and difficult or just busy and stressful. It’s the same concept as looking on the bright side. Always having something to look forward to—it doesn’t matter how big or small—will ensure you keep a little ray of sun shining in a corner of your world. Attending only one event a month, meeting with friends or participating in an activity you are passionate about is enough to have you looking forward to something and eagerly anticipating your life which makes the future bright and the present better.
So if you are not a daydreamer like me, jot down in a notebook all the things that makes you feel good and make it happen. Make sure it is not a list of things you should be doing but a list of things you want to do that makes you smile during the humdrum of life, things that excites you at the beginning and ending of another day.
My current “something to look forward to” is a Leonard Cohen concert gifted to me by my aunt. It is not everyone’s cup of tea but it is my third time to see him in concert and I am really looking forward. A night at the theatre is also on the cards and here’s hoping, tickets for the Donegal final IS going to fall into my lap too but as the nights close in I am also looking forward to a whole load of simple things that costs very little and is easy to indulge in: sipping hot chocolate and playing Chess with Miss Chatterbox in front of a rip roaring fire or curling up with my favourite tipple and a brand new book to read, lazy Saturday mornings watching black and white movies in my PJs, catching up with friends, a hike in the hills, a trip to the Christmas Market in Vienna…Oops! I’m daydreaming again! Ah…daydreams and reality is full of endless possibilities—we only have to make them happen!
So go on, pull out a calendar and schedule a few fun things for the future weeks. Just do something that makes you wake up in the morning and say, “Another day for dreaming? Another day for planning something fantastic! Another day for doing something that makes me happy!” and one day, who knows, your big day dreams may come true. I’m hoping mine will too!
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