Advise to self. If you don’t use it, you most certainly lose it. Writing is like your muscles, when left to idle, they become flabby, weak, tired… I sit in front of my laptop with the little imps on my left and right shoulder squabbling to gain my attention. Arrgh! Said the imp on the left, ‘You no longer have the words. You can’t seem to think of what to write. Why not wait till early tomorrow morning when you feel perkier and up to the task of tasking your brain? Sounded like a very good and friendly idea to me.
Wait a minute! Squeaked the imp on my right. This same dumb reasoning is what has kept you in this rut all these days. Many early morning plans set for tomorrow have come and gone and we have lost count of the tomorrows. I don’t truly care if you’ve got nothing to say now, but say something, anything. JUST SAY SOMETHING. Each day say something, ‘cos I am tired of how I am compelled to listen to those nagging, guilt-ridden inner voices of yours complaining and reminding you that you have simply sat of your wide butt and done nothing about the thoughts dancing in your head. I have heard their whispered threats and witnessed your sad countenance. I am fed up lady. Say something, he or is it she urged.
So, this is me saying something; a befuddled attempt to get back to my daily blogging. Hope you are doing well? Happy Easter to you and your family.
So WordPress sent me a congratulatory message for having spent 8 years in this space and I must say that the notification escaped me except that I just started going through the outstanding comments that I haven’t attended to in a while and found the gem tucked away in the thick pile of comments. How remiss of me!
I honestly can’t believe that 8 years have passed since I first made my post albeit in hesitation and yet, here we are – years down the line and the excitement for blogging hasn’t waned in the least. Although I did take a hiatus now and again to get myself together when life is a bit rough, my blog has never been far from my mind and has become that interwoven abstract tapestry of my life.
In this space I found a voice, I found a part of me that was missing, I found a community of likeminded souls, I found friends who though I have never meet them physically, I feel like I have known them for a good while. In this space I have found solace and encouragement, laughter and upliftment, inspiration and growth, camaraderie and so much.
Time does pass in a blink of an eye. I still vividly recall sitting on the high-stool of my kitchen’s island back in Houston, with the hot Summer sun peeping in through the blinds and tapping out my very first post not sure where I was heading…. and here we are… 8 years later. It has been a worthwhile experience and I have enjoyed it in entirety. To many more years of blogging, may this space continue to treat us well.
Life is an interwoven maze of our experiences. Days blur into each other creating our past, present, future and indeed, life is truly what we make of it.
The past is done and gone. A mere recollection that serves, hopefully, as a compass and guide in our present. A memory bank of moments lived which we sometimes relive in nostalgia or regret. The past we can never return to nor regain no matter how hard we try or how much we want it.
The present is what we live and inhabit and the culmination of our presents make our past, which is why our presence in our present deeply counts. This is where the key to our happiness lies. Staying fully present and living our best moments in the now – no matter how mundane our day may seem – so that when we look back on our recollections – which we tend to ruminate on – we will have fonder thoughts and reasons to smile and not sigh nor wince in regret.
The future is an illusion of time that we do not have. The future is infinite. We postpone everything to an imagined future when all we truly have is ‘NOW’ This is the bane of most of our lives: waiting, postponing, planning! When we truly get to understand that
Live all aspects of your present time as well as you can. Give everyday that you receive the best of you and life will reward you in the same coin.
I know that millions of us have faced this dilemma and sometimes, we are not sure which way to take out of the quandary. You are in a scenario where you are working just to make ends meet and find yourself stuck in a job rut for years on end. You are afraid to quit – because bills have to be paid, you don’t feel like searching for a new job – because you are comfortable in your stagnation and the uncertainty of starting anew occupies space in your mind, hence, it’s a case of the evil God known is better than a good God unknown. You are not particularly enthused with your colleagues maybe because of so many reasons better left unsaid. Simply put, the job has lost its allure.
There are ways to pick yourself up, to boost your mood and to get past the difficult period at work.
Take time away from your desk
Doing so does not equate scrolling the pages of social media, surfing the internet or idling by the water cooler when you should be creating a document or filing a report. Ensure that you take the necessary breaks owed to you and use them diligently. Try and fit in something that you truly you love during your lunch break whether it’s reading a book, going for a cup of coffee at the café in the neighbourhood, meeting up with a friend, heading to the gym, taking a walk, or a Zumba session, the time spent away from your desk will become something to look forward to and will boost your spirit.
Friends
In this aspect you can apply a two-pronged approach. Firstly, create time for your buddies no matter how tied up or how down you’re feeling. It is pretty easy to throw a pity party, retreat to the sofa and vegetate with a tub of ice-cream, pizza and what not, but at this point in time, what you truly need is to spend time with the people you love, people who love you and uplift you. Even a brief chat will remind you there’s more to your life than your present job. You can even pick up an activity, hobby or class to attend together and create more bonding time.
Additionally, make the necessary effort to build friendships with worthwhile colleagues. Though we are to remember to create the right boundaries in our workplace, It’s very rare that there won’t be even one person you get on with, and getting closer could make things more fun. Ask if your friend would like to go for lunch or borrow your book – anything to forge a bond.
Find laughter
Don’t be too glum faced and grimly serious about your job with your mouth turned down or in a straight line and a permanent frown on your face. Indeed, work has its serious aspect, but when you develop a playful aspect for yourself, you will be more lighthearted whilst accomplishing your set goals. As we laugh, we are better able to enjoy things. We release that sense of anxiety, frustration, pressure and undue stress.
Try harder
Truly, it’s a challenge not to develop an apathetic mindset when you’re interest in your job has waned, but don’t forget that at some point in time, you wanted this job. Putting in extra effort can be the difference in feeling bored at work and also makes time go quickly, besides, it gets you noticed. Portray yourself as someone who gets things done and others will be interested in offering you different projects etc. You really need to take things in hand and it might lead to a new, enjoyable and rewarding path.
Furthermore, you can think of better ways of improving your work processes and make suggestions to your boss or those who need to hear your thoughts. It will show that you are someone who thinks outside the box.
Personalitypep-up
Though the workplace is an arena where everyone has to temper themselves a bit, but it’s vital that you don’t go too far to dampen your lively or interesting character. If you someone who never has anything to contribute or interesting to say, as a matter of fact, people will be least interested in talking to you or being around you. Engage in work related social activities, share your thoughts of interesting outside the job related topics when discussions are being held. Don’t be afraid to speak up. Inasmuch as you are unique, also remember to be a part of the whole.
For those of us who enjoy putting our thoughts down in writing and etching our memories in journals and blog pages hopefully not to be forgotten, it is kind of disheartening to realize that there seems to be a natural decline in blog posts, bloggers and blogging. Correct me if I am wrong, but it does appear that the continuously evolving, newer and shinier ways of Social media interaction such as Tiktok and many others that I don’t know of keeps eroding into the audience that was initially dedicated to blogs.
Readers keep minimizing and engagement has dwindled down to the barest minimum. From my own perspective, I think this can be attributed to various reasons,
Personal blogging is quickly becoming a thing of the past, but as I mentioned above, there are multiple types of blogging.
The type of blogging that’s still alive is probably content marketing.
I think that the main shift here is that personal blogging is focused on the writer/blogger whilst blogging with the purpose of content marketing is focused on the reader.
The question online writers today are faced with when content writing is “how to their readers solve their problems?”
And from my observation is that the bloggers thriving nowadays are the ones who are:
creating problem-solving content
recommending products (either affiliate products or their own) that further solve their audience’s problems
I feel that in as much as content marketing has exploded in other areas of the internet, like YouTube, Instagram, podcasting etc. the written word still remains powerful.
Nowadays, for the most part, I don’t think people are logging onto their computers or phones excited to check up on their favorite blogger/writers like before. Maybe it’s me, but I would love to hear your thoughts about the blogging phenomenon.
There are those times when we think that things are not going the way that we hoped or planned. Our plan(s) seems to fall apart instead of coming together and as humans, sometimes, that sense of frustration sets in.
Countess times, our most important journeys becomes the ones that seem to lead us on a winding path that seems like the dead-end cul-de-sac, but to the glory of God there are no dead-ends. Adversity offers us opportunities to learn, to hope, to be patient, to trust, and to grow. Such seasons are inevitable in our lives and how we navigate them matters most.
When next you are experiencing life’s inevitable disappointments, don’t despair or panic. Never be reluctant to switch to plans, approach but don’t lose sight of the goal. Consider such setback as an opportunity to choose a different, more appropriate path.
Always have faith that God may actually be guiding you to an entirely different direction, a direction of His choosing and in line with His purpose for your life.
A dead-end to you may in actual fact be a highway set by God for you.
When the sun sets, it naturally reminds me not only of the end of a day, but the promise of a new dawn and I love them. Back in my home country Nigeria, we used to have very gorgeous sunsets especially where we lived, which was nice sleepy town located around the hills of Enugu.
However, living in these parts, it gets too hot in this horizon of the UAE that most times, I find myself running away from the sun instead of running towards the sunset.
Occasionally, I have stumbled across a lovely sunset here, unfortunately, I don’t think that I have ever managed to capture a great photograph of it.
The best that I have seen so far was around Jumeirah beach, close to the Burj Al Arab and it was truly beautiful.
Who knows, hopefully I’ll get to see another truly remarkable one before I venture away from these parts.
p.s. I finally concluded the bloganuary. So slowly but surely and I have enjoyed it immensely. I has helped me reignite the need to write/blog more frequently. Hope to see you around.
I can bet my last dollar or should I say dirham that I am the only person still writing Bloganuary prompts. Anyways, it’s the way things are and I have been balancing many nuts per se. Do I wish I had stuck to the prompts judiciously during the last week? Yes, I do, but unfortunately, I didn’t and I won’t beat myself over the head for it knowing all that I have been handling lately.
The thought of writing an autobiography has never been too far from my mind, though I still had to process the prompt. The need to write my autobiography is borne out of a survivors need tell their story and though it is a project that I plan to tackle during the sunset days of my life, hopefully many many more years ahead (who knows) maybe, it is time to chalk it down on the drawing board.
When reflecting on how I would title the chapters of my autobiography, I think it will be broken down in 3 main chunks – not cast in stone of course, but my thoughts twirl around:
I have been on a continuous learning journey and have learned a couple of new things recently. As a matter of fact, it has been a conscious choice to ensure that I keep learning and improving myself day by day.
Late last year, I started a TikTok account and had to learn how to use the app, how to create posts which are different from my usual blog posts and how to grow my account. I have also been taking an intensive Business Analyst course, and learning stuff like how to use Visio, Figma, Jira confluence, creating functional and non-functional requires, user case story, swim lane etc. It hasn’t been a cheap or easy venture, but I know that it will yield sufficient dividends in the long run.
In-between that, I have taken a life-coaching course, teaching myself how to create a book cover and do all the necessary works to publish my 3rd poetry book myself without outsourcing it – because I want to use it as a learning opportunity. It is painstakingly slow since I have to learn a whole lot of stuff by scratch, but I have come to realize that it is not always about rushing to reach the finishing line but to enjoy the process getting there.
I feel far more alive when I am learning new things and viewing things from a broader perspective. I sincerely believe that every day, it is imperative to push ourselves to learn something new and that for as long as one is alive, we should be life-long learners.
My Achilles heel in this life is my sweet tooth. I am that girl that will be seated near the dessert avenue at a buffet listening to the cakes and whisper sweet nothings to me. I love cakes especially moist chocolate cakes, cheese cakes, red velvet etc. To be honest, I love them all and I am yet to meet a cake that didn’t get along with me.
For my birthday, I would probably order up a cake that offers something in these three flavours mentioned above. My absolute love for sweet things and the need to balance it for my health and weight sake, I stopped baking at home as often as I used to, because I always ended up eating half of the cake and giving family members a little slice here and there to fulfill all righteousness.
a cooking pot and twisted tales 