Spring Forward

The clocks go forward this weekend.  I mentioned this to a member of staff in my local supermarket called Anne.  She had said to me.

"Oh it's getting dark already!"
"Yes but next week the evenings will be much lighter, isn't that great?"
"Oh the clocks going forward?  So we lose an hour.  I hate that"


And at that moment, I realised, I could have said anything to her, she was going to see the negative.  We all have times like this when all we can see is the dark in life, like we're walking around with sunglasses on in winter.

The vernal equinox was yesterday meaning we had as much sunlight as dark.  From here on, the days are getting longer and (slowly) warmer and what isn't to love about that?  The minor inconvenience of a lost hour in bed is surely not too much hassle is it?  Yet 3 days out, Anne was already not happy about it.  Why should she change her bedtime routine?  Why should she have to change for anyone?

But it got me thinking about change and the nature of it.  We often resist change as humans and the older we get, the more resistant we get to change.  Change is scary, it means doing something differently, it might be worse than what you have now.  Change can be an opportunity though as well as a threat and if change doesn't work?  Then change again.

Someone said to me once when I was in my early 20s:

"The problem is you've never failed.  When you've failed or something has gone wrong, it forces you to re-evaluate your life and your choices."

Trust me I've failed many times since then but it was a good point.  The minor inconveniences of a clock change to the major heartbreaks in life can feel like a pain, even a disaster but in the blink of an eye, adversity becomes opportunity, it's about seeing things differently and taking of the dark glasses of negativity.  What if we all took the clocks springing forward as a sign of growth opportunity and change and felt excited about it?  An opportunity to see the sun streaming through the windows as you say to yourself "I'm going to create the life I always wanted, one step at a time."

I wonder what Anne in the supermarket is thinking now.  I wonder if she will jump out of bed at the weekend and think:

"This is the first day of the future... I'm coming for you world!"

Or will she roll back over, moan about it being 8am already then grudgingly get out of bed for another day of the same monotony just one hour ahead.

I have realised as I got older that the absolute worst thing to do in my life would be more of something that doesn't make me happy.  We should all think about what we want our futures to be and not be scared to go out and grab them.