Tag: Life

Mid 2025 Roundup

I think this is the first time in a long time I can say that this has been a long year! How are we only halfway through! It has been a real rollercoaster ride.  From the stress of having to apply for my job to the high of our latest product launch!  It’s been crazy.

Image: Canva

Choosing to reapply for my position

At the end of January, our new team structure was announced, and most of us had to apply for the available roles.  I had no idea what the future held, which made me very anxious.  I had to apply for a role and would only be retrenched if I were unsuccessful in my application.  I was the only person who applied for the role, so they gave it to me.  I am not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. I tried to be cool and calm through the process, but I completely underestimated how stressful it would be.  As much as I didn’t really mind being retrenched (I have other plans), the idea of not having a nine-to-five job was scary.  I also had a team that needed support as they were going through the same thing.  The biggest and scariest lesson for me was witnessing the effect stress had on my body during this period:

  • Stress wreaks havoc on one’s heart – my resting heart rate had risen dramatically.  This impacted my heart rate when exercising.  My heart rate would rise higher than normal when I performed my usual exercise.  It really scared me. 
  • My blood sugar levels were higher than ever before.  This was likely due to an increase in cortisol.
  • My blood pressure was higher than usual as well.  

All of these readings dropped as soon as my role was confirmed, so it was definitely linked to the stress during that period.  Considering that my words for this year were “Health and Wellness”, it was not easy watching those numbers rise.  Hopefully, I never find myself in that situation again. 

Reassessing my future

Naturally, this entire experience has caused me to reassess where I am in life, why I am where I am, and where I want to be.  I am guessing that because this desire to reassess and to heal is so great, God has stepped in to guide me through the people and, of course, my favourite tool, books.  I say heal because I feel traumatised by the experience I have just been through.  There have been a few messages that I have received that are guiding me through this process:

  1. Exercise God-confidence instead of self-confidence.  I first came across this term in Demi-Leigh Tebow’s book; “A Crown that Lasts”.  I felt that there was another level I could reach for.  I have worked so hard to build my self-confidence over the past few years, yet it just didn’t feel like enough, and that’s because it isn’t.  There is another level of confidence, and it is God-confidence. My faith has not been strong enough.  I have relied too heavily on myself and other people.  This has been a mistake.  And so my journey begins to strengthen my faith in God.  I have to be honest, I thought I had, but it is clear that I still place my faith in all the wrong people and processes.  
  2. Take action – Strengthening faith is not a passive process.  When I look around at all the people who inspire me, especially those whom God is using right now to draw me closer to Him, they all take inspired action.  Each has had their journey to achieve all they have thus far.  No part of their journey included passively waiting for God to take action on their behalf.  It has been through, and because of, their inspired actions that God was able to display his glory.  
  3. My vision is not big enough – I realise that I am acting on a goal that plays to my ego and has very little benefit to me, my son, and my community in the long run, and doesn’t bring me closer to my vision. One of the lessons is that by putting all my focus on a small goal, I lose sight of my vision, and I really feel like I have been wasting time. No doubt there are lessons I can take from this pursuit, but it is not even a stepping stone in the direction I want to go. 
Book cover. A woman in long grass
Image: Author’s own

Green shoots

Thankfully, it has not all been doom and trauma.  We recently launched our new hand and body range at work, and I represented R&D at the launch events.  It was a whirlwind of activity, including a launch event and two TV appearances.  The team has put their heart and soul into bringing these products to the market, so it was wonderful to be a part of the activities that created awareness around them.  

Traipsing around the countryside to promote our new range also meant I got to visit with old friends that I hadn’t seen since before the COVID-19 pandemic. The biggest highlight was finally getting to meet my friend’s daughters. I had been watching them grow up on Facebook since birth, so it was fantastic to finally meet them.

I am also seeing the end of the teenage drama that we have been living with for the past few years.  My son is becoming his old playful self again.  It is heart-warming to see and feel the lightness in his energy again.  I also see the excitement building as he prepares for the next phase of life.  He is exploring career options, and we will be booking his learner’s licence test soon.  I am so excited for him. 

I am grateful to have made it this far. I am also looking forward to the wonderful surprises that this year still has in store.  How did the first half of your 2025 go?

Thanks for popping in!  Be blessed!

A Month of Gratitude 2024: Day 30

Two more sleeps until 2024 is over.  What a year it has been!  I am very excited to see what 2025 holds though. 

I got a call to say that my son has shingles this afternoon.  His poor grandparents were up with him most of last night, but thankfully, he is feeling a lot better already. I am so grateful that it wasn’t anything more serious. It’s always such a shock when he gets sick as he has an excellent immune system.  The doctors don’t know us that well because they hardly ever see us. 😂

I am also counting down to my fifty-second birthday on the seventh.   I sometimes sit and think about how old my mum seemed to feel once she hit her fifties.  That was the norm for her generation, though.  I am very very grateful that I get to enjoy my fifties inspired by the generation ahead of me.  Celebrities like Halle Berry and Viola Davis who are turning what it means to be getting older on it’s head.  I love that social media is filled with women who are over forty, who are embracing their age and looking fabulous.  Some are launching modelling careers in their fifties and sixties!  It is so cool to be older now.  I am blessed!

That’s it from me today.  Thanks for popping by. I hope you have had a great day.

Bye for now

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies . . . The man who never reads lives only one.”

George R.R. Martin 

I finally finished Discipline is Destiny by Ryan Holiday today.  It took me two years to read.  So much for discipline.  🫣😂. I had set myself a goal of reading 45 books this year since I wasn’t studying and I managed to read 29. although I should end the year 30 as I will finiish current book by Tuesday..  Not too bad.  That was more than two books a month.  

If there are three things that I am always grateful for it is that:

  • I can read and write.  There are still so many illiterate people out there who have a limited chance to achieve their potential because they can’t read and write. 
  • I love reading.  My love affair with books began in pre-school and will never end.  
  • There are so many fantastic authors out there who publish their work so that we can entertain and enlighten ourselves through reading.  
Image created on Canva

My favourite books of 2024

This year, I listened to half my books every morning on Audible.  My favourites are read by autobiographies that the authors read.  This year’s pick is 12 Notes by the late, great Quincy Jones.  I listened to it a few months before he passed away.  I was blown away.  What a man and what a full, rich life he led!  I really hope my son chooses to listen to it, too.  There is so much wisdom packed into it.  The story would not have had the same impact if it had been read by anyone else.  Only Quincy had walked in his shoes, so only he could emphasise the lessons in the way that he needed to.  I am so glad he chose to read the book.  The world is a better place because Mr Quincy Jones was in it and God made sure he was in it for a very long time so that he could touch as many lives as he has. He was not perfect but he was a blessing. I highly recommend it. 

I also discovered Robert Galbraith ie. JK Rowling by another name.  I love her character, Commoran Strike.  She uses the same formula as she did for Harry Potter so the two books I read are are looooong.  I didn’t realise how long because I read them on my Kindle.  I read a Michael Connelly novel in between the two.  The pace of his book was so much faster yet I enjoyed both author’s books.  

The book I really struggled to read was Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.  It was set in the 1960s and tells of Biafra’s struggle to establish an independent republic in Nigeria. The war was brutal.  I read this book as it was recommended to me while I was in Nigeria last year.  One of our directors told us about his dad’s experience of the war, and that’s when the book was mentioned.  I picked it up at the airport but only started reading it this year. It’s interesting but it took me a while to through it. 

That’s it from me today.  Thanks for popping by.   What are your favourite reads from 2024?  Let me know in the comments

Bye for now.