In my quest to find quotes that teach me something I don’t already know, I came across one that gave me a eureka moment! It states the obvious but the obvious can sometimes be hidden behind distractions and unexpected obstacles that only you can bypass. ‘You have the same amount of hours in a day as Beyonce,’ is the quote and it has prompted me to write my first article of 2014.

There will be those who point out, and rightly so, that she can sing and is blessed with the looks of a goddess; they would be right of course! Her gene pool is the reason for these attributes but how she makes the best of what she has is down to her. The fact that she can dance, act, form a career that evolves and earn a decent crust are things she had to work at and work hard she did.

I reckon that somewhere buried deep beneath those gorgeous looks and sumptuous voice there are two things which push her to use every hour available to achieve her dreams; love and belief. It’s true that liking what you do means that you can get out of bed in the morning without putting the snooze button on but loving it means you jump up before giving the alarm a chance to scream at you.

The belief comes from a deep sense of knowing that there is a life you are worthy of living and you won’t rest until you find the keys to unlock the daunting amount of padlocks on this heavy door shut for so long. If one key doesn’t free you find one that fits, time is on your side when spent wisely and won’t run out on you unless you allow it to.

Motives for achieving can be damaging, in particular becoming something or someone just to prove a point to your peers or parents. No step that you take forward will ever be enough for you and those that you are trying to show how far you have come may never give you any signs of how impressed or accepting they are of the goals you have reached. ‘Those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind’, another quote.

The truth is the only person you need concentrate on is you. Any human being with heart and common sense will think of others but living your life by them won’t bring happiness, peace of mind and the long overdue release of guilt. Time is precious and how you decided to spend it could be the difference between the life you envisage in your dreams and the life that is waiting for you.