From the CEO: There’ll be worse advice given this year than Sia’s

By Peter McDonald, MEA CEO

As Carrie Bradshaw would put it ‘And just like that, we’re back’.

Well MEA fully is anyway. Others around the industry may be a week or two away from that, whilst yet others still – including yours truly – never went anywhere in the first place and continued to work through the festive season to get a jump on the ‘to do’ list.

Personally, whilst I don’t mind a good time I’m not a big one for the sensationalism of a new year. My view is that when I woke up on 1 January, I still had the same blessings and problems that I went to bed with on 31 December (well technically it wasn’t anymore by the time I did). The fact that it was no longer 2022 didn’t change that. In reality, life will have gone on unimpacted without the updated label. At the end of the day, the marking of time is a human invention.

But there is something to be said about the allowance time measures afford us to ‘box’ things. It gives us a coping mechanism.

We’re now able to refer to the challenges we experienced in 2022 as ‘last year’. We can group all of those collectively as past. Our mental state can be more optimistic because we’re now existing under a new name: 2023.

The reset button has been hit. There’s a clean sheet. What we choose to now write on that is on each of us.

Some like the idea of new challenges, some may even consider new years resolutions. For those into these sorts of things, or even those who keep an open mind to lateral thought, I’ll put it out there that testing ourselves to be consistently glass half-full where we might typically not think this way could be something to consider.

Our attitudes can have a big influence on our life experiences, and how others experience us. Where that’s all positive, rewards stand to be reaped.

My point: in life there are good times and bad times, and typically we seek to achieve balance in what we do. I’ve previously written about riding the roller coaster or the merry-go-round. The roller-coaster gives us thrills and scares through its highs and lows, but the carousel reliably but dully goes around. So if we’re to live by these good/bad or high/low concepts, we’re due a better or even good year but it will be how we approach it from the outset that impacts the result we achieve.

There won’t be many better ways to get your year off on the right foot than attending the MEA kick-off events that are being organised by the various branch committees around the country. To check out the details and book your ticket, click here to be taken to the upcoming events page on the MEA website.

My suggestion is that as you leave your front door each day and check your appearance in the mirror, make sure you’ve put on a smile. Like orphan Annie put it, you’re never fully dressed without it. That conscious daily check and deliberate placement of your brain in a happy and positive space may be what makes the difference between the box of time called 2023 being good, and it being great.

Wishing all readers a happy, healthy and successful lap around the sun.

Source:
Song – “You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile”
Artist – Sia
Album – “Annie (2014 film soundtrack)”