Not many people know this, but I used to host my own TV show in Japan. It was called ‘Beth Nicholls and Friends’ – cheesy or what? In it I interviewed foreigners living in Japan about their life in that very different culture. It was a huge amount of fun, and a brilliant experience. It was hardly prime time TV, although I did once get recognised by a monk in a clifftop temple. Who knew they had cable up mountains?
Anyway, the other day I was thinking about the unusual opportunity I had to present the TV show, and tried to pin down the exact decision that had led to it. I realised that it was back in school, when I had chosen to study Japanese for my degree. And that had been no ordinary decision.
Back then I was one of those people who just loved school – a straight A student studying A levels in very academic subjects, aiming for Oxbridge and a career in accountancy. But something happened the summer I turned 17, and everything changed (that’s a story for another day).
The upshot was I decided to use my time at university for a big adventure, and was determined to find a course that sent me somewhere exotic for a year. At that time, if you hadn’t studied a language at A Level (high school equivalent), you could not take languages at college. The only exceptions to this rule were Chinese, Japanese, Russian and Arabic. So with no knowledge of any of them, I used the children’s counting rhyme ‘Eeny Meeny Miny Moe’ to choose Japanese. Simple as that. Pure chance. And that ‘decision’ has shaped every step of my life ever since.
The point is that every decision is a chance for a new beginning. And it is never too late to make a new decision. This week, when faced with a decision, however big or small, think of it as a chance for a new beginning and see how this influences the decision you make – or even be bold and leave that decision to chance!
Have a great week,
Beth and team
