Along with millions of other people in the UK. I was preparing my tax returns for the 31st of January deadline. Other countries have a different deadline. It is a sobering experience preparing the accounts. Putting them together. Looking and dragging out old invoices, statements and receipts. Dredging through old emails and files. Adding them up, clicking and cutting and pasteing.
The reality of adding up the figures of what is or is not there. Every year we can put this together and get an idea of how much into the black or red we are. Such a clever way of finding out where we are numerically. Such a clever way for the government to add to their coffers. Who owes what and how much?
In some ways we need to have such a system to measure how far we go in our own lives. Are we just stuck or moving onwards or downward? How do we measure how we are moving? What parameters do we use? Just the black and white of figures? Our vices? The place we live in? The car we own? Our dogs? Cats? Our partner or the one we found or lost? Our children? The articles, books we have published? The jewellery we now have or lost? These things and more can be added and subtracted in our own personal tax year. Then what about the lies, untruths, deceptions – not only to others but also to ourselves? How do we tally these up? What about large corporations that do not pay tax? People that avoid it? Do they avoid life too? Or do some also have their cake and eat it?
Anyway doing my tax returns made me realize how beautiful a process and ritual it can be. In the end it all comes down to us. We have to check not just our own figures but also our own behaviors. In the end we face ourselves. It is a ritual we need to be doing everyday. Not just at the end of the year. Will the next year be better? Can we improve it with a few tweaks and changes here and there in activity and lifestyle……
Start with the end in mind……
©2016 Yaz
Dr Yaz Headley 