I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve recounted an event in my own childhood that had a tremendous impact on me and indeed I would say shaped my life.
It was when I was about 9 years old and I was having a bit of a tantrum saying I wasn’t going to school the next day as there was something I was expected to do and I was saying I couldn’t do it and according to my Maw, (I’m from Scotland, brought up reading ‘The Broons’ where mum and dad were Maw and Paw) I stomped off to my bedroom.
After about 5 minutes my Paw came in. He didn’t say a word- just stood at the end of my bed, piece of paper in his hand, and read the poem ‘Somebody said that it couldn’t be done.’ He finished the line – ‘and She did it’ – looking straight at me with a victory punch in the air and a smile on his face. He walked out leaving the poem on my bedside table without a word being spoken.
I went to school the next day, came home, looked at my Paw as he raised a quizzical eyebrow and I said ‘ and She did it ‘ followed by that victory punch in the air and a smile on my face.
For years I thought my Paw had written that poem especially for me and I think that was one of the reasons it had such a big impact on me. That event and that mindset shaped my life. I’ve never thought that if there was something I wanted to do, that I couldn’t do it. To this day I still look up heavenwards when I’ve successfully completed something – and often something people have told me I couldn’t do or it would never work – and I do that victory punch in the air and say with a huge smile to my Paw – ‘and She did it!
Just a couple of weeks ago I went on an online training with a well-known, well respected international motivational speaker. I have been on many of his trainings but the impact it had on me this time is the reason I’m writing this post. It was all about setting us up for achieving our goals in 2024 and some of the exercises he gave us had a huge impact on me.
- Looking back on 2023 list all that went well, what didn’t go well, what could I have done differently.
Without going into detail, for various reasons, 2023 was not the best for me so you can imagine the list of what went well was rather short.
- Write down achievements I’ve had in the past that went well and that I’m proud of
Again without going into detail, I wrote down quite a long list.
- Write down and identify what was different in 2023 as to why I hadn’t achieved the success I’d enjoyed before.
I identified it was my mindset – and then the killer blow.
- Attach emotion to it.
Somehow this brought the memory of that childhood event that had shaped my mindset for the whole of my life and tears started to stream down my cheeks as I realised I had not once in 2023 looked up heavenwards to my Paw, done the victory punch and said the words with a huge smile – ‘and She did it’.
I am not someone who is normally open about my emotions so I have found this rather difficult to write and post publicly, but I am doing it because it is going to make me accountable. Starting February, I am setting myself a goal for each month, all taking me towards my overall goal for 2024. At the end of each month, I want to be able to write a post where it finishes with me having achieved that goal and being able to say to my Paw.
—-‘and She did it!’