Negativity is a self-defeating spiral – Rachel Parkin emphasises the importance of getting enthused.


Forward motion


news is scant, there’s job cuts, price rises on just about everything, and the weather is miserable and damp - nothing exciting to really put a spring in your step. If your New Year’s resolutions have


S


already taken a bit of a beating, how about looking forward into 2011 and putting some forward motion into it? What’s forward motion? It’s basically


movement towards something - the something is up to you. Towards a goal, or an opportunity or a decision, the movement is the important part. T is year looks like the big toughie for retail, so faced with a choice of staying where we are and doing what we’ve always done, we just have to keep moving forward. Choose forward motion!


Of course, forward motion might not


always be the best choice; obviously you’re going to make a few duff decisions along the way, but at least you’ll be making them. In our frantically paced world with so much information readily available, it’s still hard to get all the information we need to make a secure decision, so we agonise over the details. In reality our gut decisions are usually the right ones, but they’re hard to justify. T e more choices we have the harder it is to make a decision. So I’m advocating that it’s better to make the best possible decision you can with the information you have available, comfortable in the knowledge that if you’ve stuff ed it up this time, you can choose something else next time. And, when in doubt, choose forward motion. With so much information available, it ultimately becomes a personal choice


o we’re sliding into February, but most of us are still gingerly feeling our way into the New Year, apprehensive about what it’s going to bring. T e good


Choosing to focus on the negatives gives everyone else an excuse not to pursue big dreams and goals either


of what to focus on. Why focus on the negatives, which are often exaggerated, instead of the positives? T ere are two main reasons. Firstly, we tend to focus on the sensational and the dangerous. One sensational anecdote about a store robbery or completely outrageous customer, outweighs a year’s worth of “I went to work and it was pretty much the same as usual.” Secondly, choosing to focus on the negatives gives everyone else an excuse not to pursue big dreams and goals either. T ere are plenty of people who’ll feed


your fears and worries, but really, often they’re talking more about themselves and their lives than what’s good for you. Psychologists call this a process of projecting, meaning that they project their fears onto you, but the double whammy is that this keeps you in your place and ultimately reaffi rms their view again because you didn’t move on either! If you’re looking for an excuse not to do something, you really don’t have to look far. Playing it safe is not usually a mockable choice - Everyone understands it. But all things considered, good things


can come from bad experiences too, in fact that’s often where we learn the most. So, if you’re still prevaricating and


pontifi cating on why you can’t change anything in 2011, just consider the following success stories: • Leo Tolstoy wrote War and Peace while living in a small house with his wife and 13 children. Yes, that’s 13 children! • Walt Disney was a failed, bankrupt, small- time advertisement man before he came up with Mickey and friends. • JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter whilst on the dole. Her fi rst book was rejected by 12 publishers. • ee cumming’s fi rst book of poetry was rejected by 15 publishers. He self-published


it, and well, you know the rest... • Abraham Lincoln lost multiple jobs, went bankrupt, and failed in numerous bids for public offi ce before being sworn in as the 16th President of the United States. • Mary Anne Evans living in truly sexist times, had to change her pen name to George Eliot, whereupon she became one of the most beloved English novelists of all time.


Dissatisfaction with something, such as


your shop or your accountant for example isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Dissatisfaction can be a force for change. Dissatisfaction results “from contemplating what falls short of our wishes or expectations”. T e funny thing here is that we’ve all got these wishes or expectations but we don’t usually acknowledge them - maybe we’re not even aware of them. So, my next question, to keep the


forward motion… in motion is: what are you working on? Hopefully, you’re working on something


that’s big, that’s going to take you to the next level, that gets you excited, so excited that you can’t wait to tell everyone about it. No matter what your work is, no matter what you do, there’s a way to create a project that has you buzzing with excitement about it, where something big, fun and new that might make a diff erence is just around the corner.


Rachel Parkin is managing director of jewellery wholesaler Balagan. She also runs independent gift shop Reba in Peterborough and contemporary jeweller Pandora’s Box in Cambridge. rachel@balagan.co.uk


Rachel Parkin


jewellery Page 118


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