Getting started....
Well this feels strange. I’ve never actually kept a diary before so don’t really know how to start it. I guess I should back track a few days so I’ve got a starting point and a reminder to myself why I decided to keep this diary in the first place. OK, it wasn’t strictly my idea but I’ll come to that in a moment.
Last weekend we caught up with some dear family friends who have 3 adorable, children a little younger than my two. Katy and Shaun seem such a team, so together in knowing what they want for their family and careers yet supportive of each others independence as well. They have a beautiful, warm and stylish family home, successful and interesting jobs, Katy bakes the most delicious scones which she serves with her homemade jam from her garden produce, oh and she’s stunning, Shaun is engaging and fun, their children are polite and sociable and....I could go on and on but basically they just seem to have it made. They’re happy and seem to have found the perfect balance between having fulfilling careers and having plenty of quality family fun time.
After our time with Katy and Shaun I got thinking about their lovely perfect life and my not so perfect life.
Yesterday I met with Jo who has been a fabulous friend of mine for years. Over a glass of wine I told Jo all about Katy and Shaun’s perfect life and how I wanted to be more like Katy and really love my job like she does and how I used to. Jo just let me talk (she’s good like that) and even though my story was wandering all over the place, she listened. When I stopped for breath Jo said,
“Hannah, don’t try and live someone else's life. If you want to make some changes to your life then picking up ideas from others can be helpful but you can’t re-create their life for yourself.”
Jo suggested that if I was serious about wanting to make some changes then now was a good time to start. It was her idea to keep a diary so that I could get some clarity of how I'm feeling and have a timeline of events for when we talk again, otherwise I may just end up repeating myself. She suggests I put down the positives as well and don’t try to write everyday unless I want to, because I don’t need to beat myself up if I miss a few days.
I have decided that I’m going to use this diary to look at four areas of my life;
1. Work
2. Family and home
3. Social
4. Wellbeing
Well this feels strange. I’ve never actually kept a diary before so don’t really know how to start it. I guess I should back track a few days so I’ve got a starting point and a reminder to myself why I decided to keep this diary in the first place. OK, it wasn’t strictly my idea but I’ll come to that in a moment.
Last weekend we caught up with some dear family friends who have 3 adorable, children a little younger than my two. Katy and Shaun seem such a team, so together in knowing what they want for their family and careers yet supportive of each others independence as well. They have a beautiful, warm and stylish family home, successful and interesting jobs, Katy bakes the most delicious scones which she serves with her homemade jam from her garden produce, oh and she’s stunning, Shaun is engaging and fun, their children are polite and sociable and....I could go on and on but basically they just seem to have it made. They’re happy and seem to have found the perfect balance between having fulfilling careers and having plenty of quality family fun time.
After our time with Katy and Shaun I got thinking about their lovely perfect life and my not so perfect life.
Yesterday I met with Jo who has been a fabulous friend of mine for years. Over a glass of wine I told Jo all about Katy and Shaun’s perfect life and how I wanted to be more like Katy and really love my job like she does and how I used to. Jo just let me talk (she’s good like that) and even though my story was wandering all over the place, she listened. When I stopped for breath Jo said,
“Hannah, don’t try and live someone else's life. If you want to make some changes to your life then picking up ideas from others can be helpful but you can’t re-create their life for yourself.”
Jo suggested that if I was serious about wanting to make some changes then now was a good time to start. It was her idea to keep a diary so that I could get some clarity of how I'm feeling and have a timeline of events for when we talk again, otherwise I may just end up repeating myself. She suggests I put down the positives as well and don’t try to write everyday unless I want to, because I don’t need to beat myself up if I miss a few days.
I have decided that I’m going to use this diary to look at four areas of my life;
1. Work
2. Family and home
3. Social
4. Wellbeing
Hannah Fox is a character. She is based on our years of experience working for a national mental health charity supporting people facing stress in the workplace.
The names and characters are not based on any one person and all similarities are purely incidental.
However, hopefully we can all see a little bit of ourselves in Hannah.
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