What's New for You this January? (originally posted Jan 2023)

Recently, I laced up my skates and glided around the ice at a local arena. It was fun watching a young girl, around 5 years old, learning to skate. She was not scared to get out on the ice and try learning a new skill, even though it meant she fell down repeatedly. She got up quickly and carried on with her attempts, unhindered by the setback of falling. This continued for some time and she was making good progress, but eventually she became exhausted and then discouragement and frustration set in.

This made me think of a few lessons we can remember when trying new things in life:

• Don't give up right away! It has been said that anything worth doing in life is worth doing POORLY at first!
• If at first you don't succeed, try, try again!
• Go easy on yourself when learning new skills. Take it a few steps at a time and then take a break if needed before coming back to it again.
• Don't fall into the trap of comparing yourself to others. Rather, compare yourself to yourself from the past. Have you learned new skills, or improved in some area in life since last year?
• Celebrate the successes!
• Strive to continue learning and improving so you don't get stuck in a rut in life!

Last week, I went downhill skiing for the first time in about 9 years. It felt good to get back at it after so long, reviewing the skills I'd learned in the past, and to continue learning again in the present!

We have learned a lot of new things since we moved to the farm in 2014, but there are still many more things we can learn. Soon, we hope to review the year just completed on the farm, and plan for the upcoming growing season in 2023. We'll analyze what went well last year and what plans need to be tweaked. Planning for the future involves looking back at the past and then making appropriate changes for goals in the future. There is always more we can learn in our journey!

What about you? What new things are you planning for 2023? Are you continuing to learn and develop as you progress through life? I'd love to hear what new adventures you're planning this year...

I challenge you to face new opportunities like a child who is not easily deterred by a few falls on the way to success!

Roxane Penner