Another year has flown past as all and we are taking this opportunity to reflect back over the last 366 days. Like many of you all living in Aberdeen (and even worldwide) 2016 has maybe featured a few more downs than it has ups and from social media alone you can see the delight in people’s faces as they say goodbye to “the worst year ever”.

However, it hasn’t been all bad. This year brought Global Health Promotions it’s very first award win, when we were delighted to have only just been nominated. It brought us brand new qualifications and services, it made us proud to be Scottish with advancements in Alzheimer’s research and it welcomed many wonderful new clients. Most importantly though, it brought us experience.

So if you too have found 2016 tough, don’t look back on it with sadness and disappointment – for every moment in life is important and worthwhile. If you didn’t achieve everything you had hoped for back in January, look back and you may realise that you actually received much more than you could have asked for – education, strength, resilience.

By something as simple as reflection you will see that you made it through. You made it through “the worst year ever”. Now comes the important part of putting what you have learned this year into practical application.

What went well? What didn’t go well? What could you have changed? What did you have no control over whatsoever, and what did you do? Could you have responded better? If it were to happen again, would you respond differently? 

At the end of the day, life is merely situation after situation after situation all strung together in a line. In many cases, you cannot change the situation, but you can change how you respond to it. You cannot change other people, but you can change how you respond to them. So instead of dwelling upon the downs of this year, instead of remembering 2016 as  “the worst year ever”, choose to respond differently. Choose to use this year as one of your most memorable learning opportunities. Choose to use this year to get rid of the dead weight in your own life; whether that is unhealthy relationships, wasting your talents or underachieving.

Make this year the one that made you become the best possible version of yourself. 

Don’t just say it. Don’t just write it down and give it your all in January but forget about the next 10 months afterwards. If you do, you may just find that 2017 is the “worst year ever”, as is the one after that and the one after that. So start choosing to be better. And then go and be better. If you have goals, writing them down and hoping for the best isn’t going to make them come true. Actively working towards them may not even make them come true. We cannot control others and we cannot control the situation. But you can be the best you can be. So if it’s taking you a little longer than you thought, if a speed bump comes across your path, fix what you can fix, let be what you can’t and just be the best version of you.

As they say, the time is going to pass anyway. So how are you going to spend it?

Wishing you all a Happy, Healthy, Successful 2017.

All of our well wishes,

– The Global Health Promotions Team –