Dream on...

Dream, believe, achieve is emblazoned on my teenager's sweatshirt when she surfaces late morning. Not that there is any rule about squeezing achievements into the early part of the day - the placement of dirty cereal bowls in the dishwasher is generally good enough for me. "That's a nice thought for the new year," I tell her in my cheery voice (she can be a little temperamental before her first slice of toast so I have to tread gently). If only it was that easy, I think quietly to myself.

Maxims for the new year

Life is about striving in one way or another, no more so than at the start of a new year. The slate has been wiped clean, the days are growing longer and we are buoyed up by the belief that a few new numbers on the calendar will make all the difference. If Theresa May can feel chipper about making progress with her Brexit deal (assuming she believes her own rhetoric), then my own small-scale goals should be relatively achievable.

On the whole, I am actually quite proficient at the dreaming and believing part. It's the achieving element that causes me strife. Achievement is the tricky part of the equation, the petulant third child, the bit that sometimes falls outside our control.

Which is where new-year optimism comes in. Like a religious leap of faith, optimism is there to paper over the cracks. Or, perhaps it's the oxygen that fuels our dreaming/believing, with a little left in the tank to make the achieving part seem tantalisingly possible. 

So with 2017 in the rear-view mirror, I feel able to press my re-set button and let the wings of optimism carry me through the days and months ahead. I could swear that the whirring numbers on the time-counter are speeding up, but who knows? 2018 could be the year when all my/our hopes and dreams become a reality. So think big, fall over, get back up and keep on striving. 

As the sweatshirt says, dream, believe, achieve.

Happy New Year!