Welcome to the Fun Zone

This lunchtime I finally finished The Secret of Being Happy by Richard Bandler. This I started reading as soon as I bought my Kindle, I've been taking it slow. Reading in my lunch hours and stolen moments at home. As reading to finish off my experience of the NLP Practitioner training, it couldn't have been better.

In the book, Bandler gives compelling evidence as to why being happy is necessary for good relationships, sucess in economic activities, and health and wellbeing. It's not only a read book, it's also a work book. There are exercises at the end of every chapter to enable the reader to become happier. Truthfully, these exercises I've already done through my training, but it's always good to see things in print.

I have been the person who had the Self-Pity Gnome, who obsessed, the woman who wallowed. Ladies and Gentlemen, I could have run workshops to teach hippos how to wallow in a muddy puddle, I could have made a fortune. I've spent years wallowing. Wasted time. Especially when you consider what I was wallowing in: drama, depression, dispair. Dull, dull, dull. I made bad, big pictures, lived out fantasies, starred in my own movie all in my head. Not the kind of fantasies where it's me, Robert Downey Jr, a punnet of strawberries, a pint of double cream and a bottle of bolly. Oh no. These were definitely not FUN.

All those years I spent wallowing in a muddy puddle (in my head), I could have been doing obscene things with strawberries with the man of my dreams (in my dreams). I mean, none of it is any truer. It's all about my internal decorating, so to speak. Reality is translated and experienced in my head and my head alone. Occasionally, I share my reality with people...sometimes, not so much.

Anyway, there is a point to all this rambling (there's always a point, be patient I will get to it eventually - like my tax return) I had a lightbulb moment tonight.

I was sitting there, trying to get my head around the exercise whereby I'm supposed to plan my life in 5 years time. Now, I'm not a person for whom long-term planning worked in the past. If you look back at my Life in the last 15 years or so, there's no way I could have planned to be where I am now. I suppose it could be argued that had I had a Plan, I'd have ended up somewhere completely different. I've been flitting from degree to career, to occupation to degree, to job to job to job. In all honesty, looking back, I have no regrets. In the main, I've learnt a lot and I've had fun, not as much fun as I could have had, but fun nonetheless. But now, I'm beginning to think, had I really had a Plan and stuck to it, how much could I have achieved? This is not an exercise to berate myself, yeah, there were mistakes I'd have rather stayed un-made, but that's in the past. I've learnt from it and what is most vitally important now, is how I go forward from this point.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am 41 years old. I might feel like my 18 year old self internally, but the clock is ticking. I have some decisions to make. I've decided to turn the 5 year Plan round a bit. The work I'm doing now is all centred around the following question: HOW MUCH FUN CAN I HAVE IN THE NEXT 5 YEARS?

I'm being dead serious. How much fun can I have in the next 5 years? How many awesome people can I hang out with in this time? How many great memories can I make? How many times can I make Boy laugh? How many times will The Cat purr for me? How many times can I hold my friends close? How many times can I flirt with guys? How many times can enjoy my garden?

I can't think about this too much, my head starts to hurt. I'm breaking it down into bite-sized portions. That's what my work is all about this weekend. This weekend, I am going to be answering these questions.

And to kick it off: tomorrow I pick up my Funmobile and in the evening it's the Supper Club. I'm really looking forward to it, the menu looks totally awesome and I can't wait to see everyone there.