EVERY NEW YEAR ALLOWS US TO HIT A RESET BUTTON…

​​Douglas Silas,
Specialist SEN Solicitor
13th September 2021

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As we have just started the new academic year, with many people going back to school/college and work (whether that be in the home, or back to a physical building) I have decided to keep this week's SEN Update very short and not bring you any news, to give you a chance to focus on what you need to do. I will return to normal service next week!

Just to say first that over the summer I updated my 7-day email course entitled: 'How To Win A SEN Tribunal Appeal', so it now also advises on the best way to handle video hearings. So  please subscribe again to it if you need it (don't worry if you did subscribe previously, it is a fresh course).
 
But as normal, here's my thought this week:

Every new year allows us to hit a reset button in our lives…
 
Whether it be the start of a new year, chronologically or academically, we all have the chance to start again and do something differently from the way that we were doing it before. It’s like restarting your computer or phone again afresh.   Some people like to call these: ‘New Year Resolutions’, whilst others say that they may be: ‘Turning over a new leaf’).  Either way, you are basically changing yourself in some way at a given time.
 
Personally, I try not to wait for particular times to start doing something differently if I think of something that can change my life, if I can, because I believe that if you think of something that can improve your life in some way, you should start to try and do from there and then, if you can.  However, I realise that this is not always realistic for some people and that, sometimes, we need to build up to doing something differently over time, or wait for a particular time when the odds are on our side, or when the ‘planets seem to be in alignment’, as people also like to say.


Wise people have always said that you should try to develop an insight into yourself and regularly reflect on what you do every day, every week, every month, or every year if you can, so that you can then make changes frequently if you need to.  However, again this may seem unrealistic for some people, for the reasons I have given above. In any event, you need to factor in that other people also then need to accept that you are changing your outlook, or the way that you do things.  Too often I am afraid that I see people trying to change themselves for the better, but then being dragged back to the way they were before, purely by the fact that other people do not want to or allow them to change, probably because they are afraid of how this may affect them unconciously. 
 
Funnily enough, the fact that we are not prepared to let people change sometimes says more about us than it does about the people who are trying to change. We have to question why we just cannot accept that somebody wants to do things differently sometimes.
 
Finally, as a last thought here, please try and find time within the next week to reflect on things in your life and perhaps use the opportunity of a new academic year (and following a year and a half of many difficulties for everybody) to see if you can change things in your life for the better by hitting the ‘reset button’ in your life!
  
With good wishes
 
Douglas

​​​​​​P.S. I understand that there are many educational items, news articles, or other useful resources on the web, so I would be very grateful if you could let me know of any that you find that you think that others may find useful, so that I can direct people to them.

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