I’ve pictured it in my head a thousand times since I booked next week’s holiday to Switzerland: I’m skipping over a field of lush grass dotted with beautiful Alpine flowers, swirling around in the sunshine, filled with wholesome, unicorn-hugging, clean-living joy like Julie Andrews in the opening sequence of The Sound of Music.
However, when I checked the 10 day weather forecast for Lake Lucerne yesterday, I was faced with a screen of back-to-back thunderstorms.
Balls!
That wasn’t the vibe I was after.
What's worse is we’ll be leaving the UK whilst it’s bathed in sunshine!
(PLUS I have a field full of meadow flowers at home I could be skipping through…)
It’s a classic case of “What You Focus on You Feel” - something I talk to clients regularly about.
If I focused on all the reasons why I could be annoyed next week, I’ll be tripping over my bottom lip for my whole holiday.
I’ll be fighting against something I have no control over - the weather does whatever it wants to, and no amount of pouting and complaining will change it.
In fact, pouting and complaining will only hurt me.
What’s more helpful in situations like this?
Focusing on what’s good. For example:
We’ll probably get to spend more time in the beautiful hotel rooms we’ve spent good money on
I’ll have loads of time for reading and podcasts if the weather is really bad.
On days without lightning, we’ll still go hiking in the mountains and we know this can be fun even on rainy days because we’ve done it in the Lake District.
Our goal of kayaking can probably still happen, and there will be fewer people around to get in our way.
I get to spend the whole week without cooking, cleaning, or doing work of any kind!
(And, what’s really nice is that I actually think I’ll miss talking to my clients because they’re all great people, and I’ll look forward to catching up on their worlds when I get back)
When you focus on what you can do instead of what you can’t, and find reasons why situations are good rather than bad, you will feel a whole lot happier in life.
Yeah, I know I risk sounding like one of those bloody annoying chirpy people who always looks on the bright side (and, yes, I do love mornings as well!), but I’ve lived a good chunk of my life looking at the other side when I suffered from depression and anxiety, and I much prefer to look for the sunny side - even when it’s raining.