If you fall of your bike, get back on it

Not long after New Year, comments abound in the newspapers and on the radio from readers, listeners, columnists and presenters lamenting their inability to follow through with resolutions.

However, as most life coaches tell us, there's no such thing as failure – just feedback; a lesson for the future.

It’s up to us to use our experience in a positive way. If we’re learning to ride a bicycle and fall off, we get back on. No one said we would be free wheeling from the word “go.”

It's appropriate at this point in our goal setting to remember Thomas Edison and his quest to invent the electric incandescent light system. At each unsuccessful attempt, he simply stated: "I've not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that don't work."

We take the experience, refine our processes and start again. If we fail to do so, it has served no purpose other than discouragement.

And we don’t have to wait until 1 January next year to set our goals or resolutions. While it provides an apt calendar watershed for reflecting and visualising, we can make a new start any day – if that’s what we truly want.

Sometimes it helps to have an inspirational song, piece of music, image or words in the forefront of our mind. For me, it’s a view of the Yorkshire Dales to the soundtrack of Mama Cass of Mamas and Papas fame, regaling us with It’s Getting Better. Such a powerful combination.