Kid Literature blog : A letter to my younger self

So if I could send my younger self a note of advice or a letter, what would I write down apart from some winning lottery numbers? How about writing some life lessons in the hope that your younger self learns something... Yes, I think I can manage that, but I do prefer my chicken story I wrote in the letter too..
Available to read further down.

How would this letter go?
Well maybe something like this.

Dear pen-pal self, I know you very well, but now wish you to know yourself.

It is so good to be your own person. Keep focused on making time for you and keeping yourself happy with hobbies or pastimes or treats you enjoy.
Try not to worry or get anxious.
Find a hobby or life passion and pursue this, just do whatever makes you happy. Life is too short to waste with fear, hate, greed or hanging around negative folk. Try not to be overpowered or influenced which can lead to being overwhelmed. Do not change who you are to fit in. Never feel guilty for anything or allow others to make you feel bad. If they do, it is their problem to deal with not yours.
Do what you feel is ok. Even if you make a mistake, this is a way of learning, and the first thing to learn is not to feel bad for making them! Then you can move forward in life. It is also ok to share emotions and thoughts, as that is just as much a release as laughter and crying. Right then, that's the sensible part out the way, but there is more...

If I'd want you to change anything it would be to say avoid boys in the years while studying and close your ears to negative people and don't get married! If you get to read it before your Thirteenth Birthday I reckon you are still in with a good chance.
Concentrate on your studies. Not only that, but keep with your first career of choice.
You may find there are days you want to give it all up, but persevere. So the key word to repeat like a mantra here is PERSEVERE.
Now write that word down 100 times, and never forget it. I can't tell you how important this is!
Then print it out several times (you will have a cool printer in a few years time, so you can do this task). You are already looking forward to this I can tell :D No rushing to get to this stage, all in good time my dear.

Ooh one more thing, Save! Treat yourself like an employee and pay yourself first, so what money you get in, put a small amount of it away and continue to do this. Always save. Even when you get a little, give yourself a wage, even if it is a £1 every week or month. It soon adds up. Also do not compare yourself to others, as they are on a different journey. If you want to be a writer, all you have to do is write, nothing more than that.

I just checked your life back over (I can do this) and although you have some red *see me* teacher ticks on parts of your life chapters, I find that changing major life events wouldn't be ideal. I know it may stop those negative things happening, but you will not have your children and will also not have learned valuable if hard life lessons.
Also, I know if you get a chance to do it all again, you would do it all exactly the same.. so to save me beating my head against that same brick wall, lets stop with the headaches and understand that if you could choose you'd do the same thing again!

If I could give you something important what would it be?
Hmm...
As I'm not allowed to give out big lottery numbers as it will change the course of your life, I can only dish out advice about the next issue - stress.
But if in the meantime if you happen to win the lottery or get left a windfall then good for you and keep doing what you love.
You could always also buy the library or bookstore instead of just the book, just a thought..

Worry warts
The next thing to know is life is too short to worry. Worrying is a needless life sapping sport that has no room in life, and that whatever worries you at any given moment to just NOT.

Points to consider if you find yourself worrying over nothing most of the time.

Listen up! By the time next week comes around or next month you will have forgotten about the little niggle and moved onto another worry. There is nothing quite like a new worry to stop you thinking about the other worry. Then after years of worrying you will have tallied up so many worries, that you will not remember them all! so you see, what is the point of collecting worries you would never remember!
Pointless.
Yeah what's the point?
It will only sap energy you need.
Take each day as it comes, and as you wake up to embrace each new day, see it as a day you feel free of everything. You only take into each day a positive outlook and a smile, so then the possibilities are endless.
The world is yours to be discovered.
Somewhere along the way this can be forgotten, so make that notice, hang it up loud and proud and write on it - Catch one chicken at a time. Persevere.
You will often find you take on too much and you are doing too many things, so then you need to take stock, take a back seat and re-evaluate. Yes, plenty of breaks. If you look after yourself, you are in a better place to look after your family or friends.
So to help you understand I have written the meaning into a little story.

One Chicken at a time.

By Karen Emma Hall

Before breakfast every day from now on you have to (without fail) catch six chickens before you can start the day.
The chickens reside in a communal coup that measures approx 14 x 14 square feet.
The quicker you catch them and place them in a smaller pen that holds within a chicken laying house, the longer you have to take a moment to yourself and luxuriate in a long leisurely breakfast before starting the day.
If you fail in the required time, you must go without breakfast and go without any moments to yourself for the rest of the day.
The first morning comes quick and shining bright, and you find yourself all eager out in the coup contemplating chickens.
As you have only a small window of time to catch these feathered beasts, you need to be motivated and willing to get on with it.
At first you try to outfox them and maneuver them into one corner to catch them quickly.
You soon notice this isn't working.
Well, let's see it in action so you understand better.

So you are out in the chicken coop, you have stretched out and limbered up briefly ready for some catchy chicken action while trying to act all calm. No point in getting those chuck chucks agitated.
It'll be a walk in the park.
You unsuccessfully tried to huddle them into one corner and do a group grab, but the chickens have other ideas. They jump up feathers splayed, squawking as if their heads are on a block. You think you have a chicken in your grasp but when you look down you see you only have 2 feathers in your grasp. How hard is this going to be?
The rest of that little cootie went flying off on one, eyes popping, running around the coop while bellowing out bawks and hollering at the other varmints,"run for your life, the mad cat lady is onto us!"
So you have wasted some time. But with no time to ponder on lost breakfast time, you head back for another try.
You turn slowly away from the chickens and try and act invisible until the clucking dies down. At the same time, breathe slowly and try to recover that calm cool exterior that had all but up and left you a moment ago. Then your belly gives out a grumbling noise.

"Here here chicky chicky,"
you find yourself saying out loud.
Did they understand you? Well, they look at you with trepidation and more than a touch of something resembling horror.
You go towards them, but they have learned! Darn it, they scoot off in different directions. Time is up! You missed out that day and the thoughts of dippy eggs and soldiers fading fast.. so you need to take stock and act smart if you are to catch them tomorrow morning.

So another new day and you are back in that chicken coop, and you have an idea. The chickens are scattered but don't seem to be looking too pensive. You dismiss the group, and head for the one by the corner. And because she is by herself, you are focusing on one chicken only, and as this little clucker heads into the corner of the coup, you swoop down and grab her with ease!
Yeh! woop woop chicken soop! She is then placed in the hen house. Good work.
You then do this with every chicken in turn until they they are all assembled together again, this time in the hen house.
Which gives you half an hour for breakfast and an extra moment to gather your thoughts.

You succeeded and you are more likely to succeed if you go after one at a time rather than the whole lot in one go. It may seem a longer task, but you will get there quicker in the end. That's how you succeed at life too - you focus on one thing at a time, until that job is complete. You finish the job properly, THEN you go onto the next one. If you try to do too many at once, they are all in the air, and they will fall down around you dispersing confusion and negativity with it.
So remember, one chicken at a time.

To help you remember this life lesson I made a colouring in page and hung it up. I have also posted it in the colouring group I started in September for all to print and colour, so you can also hang it up somewhere if you wish.
You can find all about how colouring in books and pictures results in many health benefits and evokes relaxation and tension release Colouring in with color

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