Tag: daily prompt

Be Bold Enough to Live Life on Your Own Terms

What does it mean to live to boldly? That’s today’s prompt. I have no idea so here goes nothing.

Lets start at the beginning. The Oxford dictionary defines bold as ‘brave and confident; not afraid to say what you feel or to take risks’. In this day and age of social media, where so many are trying to be something they are not, I would say anyone who is not afraid to be true to themselves fits that definition. Why are we so determined to be someone else? Why can’t we just be ourselves? There is far more power, fulfillment and happiness in it.

“Be bold enough to live life on your terms, and never, ever apologize for it.”

Mandy Hale

Not a single one of us is the same as the other. Not even identical twins can claim this. We each have unique traits and talents. Even if you and are both painters and are asked to paint the same picture, our pictures will not be exactly alike because we interpret the world differently based on our experiences. We will therefore interpret the picture differently. Our differences should be celebrated and not criticized as if they were faults. They are not.

If you think of the people who are most memorable in your community, I am willing to be that they are also the most original. They don’t “try” to be original, they just are because they are themselves. They tend to be ‘a breath of fresh air’. They are not perfect and they don’t try to be. They accept themselves as they are. They stand out in the crowd.

I am inspired by Elon Musk for much the same reasons Steve Jobs inspires me. He is supremely confident in what he is capable of and cannot be bothered with the naysayers and the sceptics. He is a dreamer but a practical dreamer and his actions are impactful. Both have moved us forward technologically through their visions. They have not tried to be anyone else but themselves. They have not tried to live anyone else’s dream. They have built on and being inspired by those who went before them but they have not tried to copy them. To be honest, his personality rubs me up the wrong way a bit but that doesn’t take away from the things he has accomplished.

In a nutshell, for me, being bold is having the courage to be yourself and to follow your dreams. Those dreams are God’s wish for you, in fact, I believe His dreams for you are bigger that you imagined but you will only discover what He truely has in store for you if you have the courage to follow your own dreams first.

On that note I will leave you with these words of wisdom from Oprah Winfrey:

“Every time you suppress some part of yourself or allow others to play you small, you are ignoring the owner’s manual your Creator gave you. What I know for sure is this: You are built not to shrink down to less but to blossom into more. To be more splendid. To be more extraordinary. To use every moment to fill yourself up.“

Oprah Winfrey
Image: Canva

Gratitude Turns What We Have into Enough

Image: Canva

Gratitude. My favourite topic! For the last 3 years I have made December my month of gratitude so that I enter the new year with a positive mindset and feeling abundant. I highly recommend it. Not only do you feel good but a few miracles are likely to occur during the month. I receive one or two surprises between the 10th and 20th December. It blows my mind every year 🙂

Today though the topic is 5 things that I am grateful for. So today I am grateful for:

  1. Another year around the sun completed last Friday. My 49th to be exact. It’s been an interesting journey thus far filled with abundance, love and laughter. All made possible by God’s grace.
  2. My son. What an awesome young man he is turning out to be. This year I allowed him to spoil me on my birthday. I usually don’t because I believe the money he receives for Christmas is his to spend on himself. He usually gets offended when I refuse an expensive gift on those grounds. This year I let him spoil me. I am so glad I did. He was so proud of himself. He took me to dinner and bought me a pair of earings. For his efforts, he was rewarded with an extra discount in store. He couldn’t believe his luck. It was so awesome.
My birthday gift from my son ❤️🙏
  1. Our semi-adopted cats. George and Georgina have brought a lot of love and laughter to our home. I have felt like a behavioural scientist of sorts documenting their every move out of sheer curiosity. Today I am extra grateful that their depression has started to lift and they are eating and playing again. They mum has officially abandoned them as they are about 3-4 months old now. They were heartbroken. It was really hard to watch them these past few days as they refused eat and just wanted to be near us. All we could do was give them lots of love but we felt so helpless. So very grateful to see the twinkle in their eyes again. Btw, I say semi-adopted because we are not allowed pets in the complex but there are no rules saying we can’t let a stray cat or two visit every day…
Georgina (L) and George (R)
  1. My home and everything in it. It is my haven and, thanks to covid, my place of work as well now. Not that I mind. As an introvert, working from home suits me perfectly. My son once said to me that he loves our home because there is a lot of love here which makes me believe that God is here and working His magic through me for him. What more could I ask for?
  2. My job. I have worked for the company that I do for over 20 years. I have worked in largely in the same department and that is simply because I love what I do. I also get to see the impact of the products we make on the people that use them which is what really keeps me going. It has also enabled a few trips to different countries. I just have 2 continents left to touch down on, Australia and South America. I also plan on explorating each one of the 5 continents I have already being to a lot more in the coming years. Lastly, it enables everything that I have today and I have a lot. A lot to be grateful for.

This list is in no way exhausitive. I could go on and on but today I have chosen these 5 to write about. I will leave you with words of wisdom about the power of gratitude by Deepak Chopra:

Gratitude opens the door to the power, the wisdom, the creativity of the universe. You open the door through gratitude.

Deepak Chopra

What people assume about me is not my business

People are ALWAYS going to make incorrect assumptions about me. This is a given. The beauty of getting older is that you begin to realise that other people thoughts and assumptions about you are not your business. Here’s why it actually doesn’t matter:

“Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.”

Lao Tzu

They could be judging an older version of me

I don’t know about you but I keep changing and evolving. The person I was as a teen is not the same as the person I was in my 20’s. I became a mum in my 30’s and that definitely changed me. My 40’s have been a revelation! Losing my mum 3 years ago also triggered a huge change in the person I am today. So, unless you have spent time with me over the past few months or maybe a year, whatever assumption you have of me is probably false. I am definitely not the same person I used to be when you knew me. Heck, if you last read one of my posts more that a year ago, you need to catch up. I’ve read more books and met knew people so I have ideas and philosophies. I am definitely not the person I was back then

They are judging my book by it’s cover

Yip. I am often told that I look like a teacher. I always ask myself how do teachers look. They are each individuals who look very different to each other but somehow I look like a teacher, especially when I have my glasses on. I must admit, that has been consistant throughout my adult life. Weird. Apparently I can also look intimidating. To tell the truth, I have lived most of my life scared of my own shadow. So if you are one of the people that think that about me, I am probably more intimidated by you than you realise.

They judge the way I live my life

I cannot tell you the number of times people have assumed that I am so strong because I am the single mum of a newly minted teen with a career and I am a part-time student and I blog and I read…a lot! How do I do it they ask? The same way you do. I get up every morning and put one foot in front of the other and eat my elephant one bite at a time. I have no other choice. It doesn’t make me strong. I cry and fall apart like everyone else. The only difference is that I don’t have someone to do the heavy lifting while I am falling apart so I have to keep those episodes short and sweet so that my son doesn’t even know it happened. I am super afraid of what’s around the corner like most yet because I get up and do what I do, it is assumed I am strong. My most recent request to God is that it is high time He sends me a life partner of note! Being independant has it’s perks but so does having someone to lean on and someone to share life with. So thank you in advance God, I know you are listening.

They judge the way I don’t live my life

Can a girl ever win? lol.

At the end of the day, people will always make assumptions about us. It’s human nature. Our job is to ignore other people’s assumptions and focus on living our lives otherwise, as Lao Tzu says, we risk becoming their prisoners. Why ever would we want to give people so much power over us?