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Over the past week or two, I’ve noticed my mindset slowly beginning to shift.

Do you ever get that?

When you just start to see things a little bit differently than you did before.

Where your attitude towards life begins to get pulled in a new direction.

For me, it’s been a shift towards the carefree lifestyle again. And having the mentality of, ‘F**k it, let’s just go with the flow.’

It’s a mindset that I’m more than familiar with, as it’s how I spent most of my school years — much to the despair of my teachers.

But, as I’ve gotten older and quite possibly matured — though, I don’t feel mature most of the time — it’s a demeanour that I’ve been able to put to the back of my mind at times in order to pursue various goals.

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when these notions of the carefree lifestyle began again or why for that matter.

But if I had to take a guess, I’d say it’s a combination of two things;

The recent changes to Medium — I know old news and we’ve all got over it by now, but, before the changes I was making great progress, each month my earnings and stats we’re slowly rising, then the new system was introduced and I was knocked down a peg or two, though not to worry.

— I know old news and we’ve all got over it by now, but, before the changes I was making great progress, each month my earnings and stats we’re slowly rising, then the new system was introduced and I was knocked down a peg or two, though not to worry. The time of the year — as I’ve mentioned before in previous articles, when it gets to this time of year people’s motivation, drive and sense of urgency tend to drop substantially, and I’m no different. Opting for taking it easy, having nights of rest and putting things off until tomorrow instead of pushing through and putting in that little bit of extra effort that I know I’m more than capable of doing.

Whatever the reason, it doesn’t really matter.

What does matter, however, is how I use this rediscovered mindset to my advantage, to help keep me moving forward towards my goals and perhaps even stimulate a few new ideas and possibly even some new goals to pursue.

Change is a good thing.

I’ve seen people in the past experience the exact same mindset shift and react in an almost petrified kind of way.

They see a dip in their motivation and drive towards achieving their goals and panic sets in. It’s as if the end of the world is upon us and there is nothing, they can do about it.

“When you try to control everything, you enjoy nothing. Sometimes you just need to relax, breathe, let go and just live in the moment.” — Anonymous

So what if your drive to achieve your current goals has diminished and you’ve lost sight of direction? Things could always be worse.

Look for the positives.

Perhaps this is just a sign telling you that your road to success has to take a new direction, an alternative route, one that you hadn’t expected, in order for you to reach your destination.

It doesn’t mean that your goals have to change, just that you’re going to discover a few new things along the way, that’s all.

I see this new mindset that I’ve been experiencing as a breath of fresh air.

Recently, as I’ve been striving to achieve my goals, things were beginning to feel stale, boring, a little too predictable;

I’d wake up each morning, go to work, write parts of my newest article on my free time (tea breaks, lunch breaks, toilet breaks etc.), go home at the end of the day, spend time with my family until they all went to bed and then I’d finish off my piece of writing —usually based around the same old message of keeping yourself on track and never giving up — then I’d hit publish and maybe do some promotion of the piece before going to bed.

Now, I’m not saying there is anything wrong with this approach but, as I just mentioned, I was just starting to get a little bored with it all.

And as a result of this mundanity a new, fresh and stimulating mindset was born — or rediscovered — within me, and just in time for the beginning of the new year.

Stop worrying and start enjoying your life.

As we roll up on the beginning of a new year, a time where people famously re-evaluate their lives and make plans for positive change, I’ve decided that it’s time to start enjoying life even more than I was before.

That doesn’t mean I’m going to stop pursuing my goals, no, but what it does mean is that I’ll be removing any of the unnecessary pressure that I’d sometimes place upon myself whilst trying to hit various targets along the way and instead use this carefree way of thinking to enjoy my life to the full.

For example;

If spending a nice weekend away with my girlfriend and the kids means that I’ll miss out on a few days of publishing any new articles to my online profiles, then so be it. If I have to attend the later training class of Krav Maga and it means I won’t get home until late and will no doubt be exhausted and ready for bed, I’ll just wait until the next day to finish whichever article I’m working on at the time. If attending a friend’s birthday or social gathering means that my health and fitness goals have to be put on hold for a day, then that’s exactly what is going to happen.

Basically, I’m opting for the fun side of life over anything else at least for the time being.

Now, I know this is most definitely not the quickest way to reach my goals, but I don’t care.

With this new shift in mindset, all I want to do is to have fun with my friends, family and with my kids, as they grow up — they don’t stay little for long, so may as well enjoy this time.

(And on a side note, I do my best work when I’m relaxed so it may even turn out to be a benefit to me as I work towards achieving my success, but only time will tell.)

There are people in this world going through some real-life struggles each and every day — you may even know some of these people, I certainly do — and it’s because of this that I’ve decided to stop worrying about the things that don’t really matter and instead, start enjoying life.

Appreciate all that you have for it could always be a lot worse and your life could change in an instant.