Influenced

 

Hello. Welcome one, welcome all. It's a Bank Holiday! "It's the last one before Christmas" everyone keeps saying and then everyone else says "Ooh don't mention Christmas. I'm not ready." Trust me - you don't have to be. It's only August. 

As part of my recent time trawling the Internet, trying to take my mind off this country's imminent return to the 1930s and wondering if I will have to buy a Peaky Blinders cap to go on one of the hunger marches, I have come across a thing called Mummy Influencers. I don't think I get the hang of it initially because I am a Mummy but have no influence on my kids at all. I was thinking about getting in touch with them and asking what the secret was but I  obviously misunderstood the concept. 

Apparently, Mummy Influencers are meant to influence me! And you, if you're not quick enough. these are the things they are supposed to be influencing me to do...

1. Buy a Stella McCartney Cleanser for £50 a jar. (The pot is lidless so it's more sustainable. Well, it will certainly be sustaining you, Stella, if you sell a few of those at that price). Now I bow to no one in my admiration for her father. Anyone who put up with John Lennon in his "interesting" phase and managed to write "Blackbird" as well had obviously done a lot of good in the world but... £50. Er no.

2. Join a diet club for a small monthly fortune which will enable me to develop a body like the woman in the advert who may be telling a teensy weensy lie about (a) her age and (b) the amount of time she spends in the gym. As an added bonus, I get to join a Facebook group where we all get to tell each other how we are sorry for letting ourselves go. Er no.

3. Buy a trench coat. I love a trench coat and mine is on my last legs so I need one. So the stars may be aligning here! You probably can't quite see from the photo above, but a lady is trying to influence me to pay £3,950 of your English pounds for one. Now, to be fair, she's a very nice lady and she always looks fantastic and she did give "High Street Alternatives" but wow. I went to M&S. £55. Sorted. So er no...

However, one thing I have been impressed by is the idea of September as the beginning of the year - rather than January. Obviously, this is driven by Mums who join the annual queue at Clarks Shoes to sort out footwear for the new school year etc. (Just an aside - my daughter always insisted on Primark because she has long feet and the only shoes that Clarks could offer her made her look like Corrie Ten Boon circa 1950. Corrie is fabulous of course but perhaps not the look an eleven-year-old girl is after. Primark shoes btw - lasted at least as well and saved me thirty quid. Just saying. )

To go back to September though. The weather is changing. The nights are drawing in. It feels like a re-think follows naturally. Now, lots of these influencers make mood boards of what they would like to happen which they then show to the Universe which will then hopefully deliver. Do NOT get me started on The Universe. I would rather commit plans and hopes to a proactive God. We used to call it prayer. Call me old-fashioned. So these are some questions I thought of.

So, where do you want to be in twelve months' time? What are your targets? What would you like to do? Where would you like to go? A financial budget is a good idea at this time no? What are your targets for giving? Are you saving for Christmas? (sorry). Do you have a book list you would like to read? Do you want to lose some weight? (A calorie deficit is apparently the best way unless you really want to go to a diet club. I personally subscribe to the Peter kay opinion on Diet Clubs - Google it - this is not the time nor the place). Is there something you should be volunteering to do? Do you have travel plans for next year? (If people are still letting Brits into their country). Do you want to do some good in the world? Do you want to see more films? Do you need to seek God for more peace? Should you be writing more and gaming less? (That's just me). Actually, these are all just me. You could have a completely different list - full of cogent suggestions. You might even be one of those people who cuts mood pictures out of magazines because you are a visual type of person. Anyone who sees how I look when I leave the house knows that I am not a visual person. 

When I was young and impressionable, I would be told not to make plans because we had all been warned that we could make plans but the final outcome was with God. Well, yes obviously, but our input is necessary. I heard this week that a friend in Bolton had passed her Maths O level - quite sometime after leaving school. It is an amazing achievement - partly because I personally believe that Maths is sent specifically to try us. However, I imagine that passing this exam took lots of planning and hard work. Just try wandering into an exam proclaiming that God was going to give you this despite you having had hardly any thoughts about it at all. It's not ending well.

So, I'm going to think about some planning. Setting some targets. Long and short term. I found a notebook. (Primark. #This is not an ad) and I might write things down. But I won't be bothering The Universe. Or Black Hole or whatever.

We plan the way we want to live,
    but only God makes us able to live it

Proverbs 16

Have a good week.