writing – Page 9 – Grounded African

31 Days of Gratitude – Day 27

6 more sleeps until the New Year and 2 more sleeps until my son comes home! I have lots to be excited about! My little desk also arrived today. This one will be dedicated to my writing. I am so gratefil that I will have a little writing spot which I am hoping will help me create, and firmly entrench, a daily writing habit. I am counting on Bloganuary to really kick start the habit again as well. I had so much fun with it this past Jan.

I also spent some time this morning listing all the things I did this year. I have made so many changes and pushed so many boundaries. I am very proud of myself and very grateful for the opportunities and the means to do it all. I had also promised myself that I would be intentional about certain things this year. One of which was to stop absorbing knowledge and spend more time putting what I do know into practice and sharing it where I can. I’ve done it but there is so much more to share so I will definitely keep this on my list for years to come.

Another item on that list was to learn to love myself a whole lot more and I am glad to say that I have definitely made progress on this one. These days my first reaction when I look in the mirror is to smile at myself rather than look for faults. I have changed the way I dress and I have discovered the impact and power of lipstick ! Phew! I have a whole blog post planned on the power of lipstick alone. Who knew!😜 All in all I must say that it feels good to like what I see in the mirror and I am grateful that I am able to make that switch and start appreciating and valuing myself more.🙏

That’s it for today. I have finally started the Fire & Ice series of books by George RR Martin. I bought them in 2018 but only feel like I am ready to commit to them as of today. I am only 2 chapters in and I am enjoying his writing already. Ooh and my favorite part was officially opening the boxset and having the smell of a brand new book hit me. The highlight of my day 😁.

My reading material for the next few weeks

Habits – To Be or Not To Be

Creating a system to implement new habits has fascinated me for a long time. I think I have found the answer for me…

I am fascinated by habits. I am curious about how we create them and more importantly, how we make them stick. My fascination started 9 years ago when I became a non-smoker and was I was given a copy of “The Power of Habit” by Charles Durhigg. This was where I first leaned about keystone habits. Keystone habits are rountines/habits that lead to other actions because of them. As an example, exercise is often a keystone habit as it can lead to a change in eating habits and sleep routines.

True behavior change is identity change.
James Clear (Atomic Habits)

I have been on a quest to become healthier for a while now and to be a writer. But I suspect that therein lies the problem. “Being on a quest to”, “trying”, “attempting to” – all of these thought processes never actually get you there. I have actually cut the word “try” out of my vocabulary. There is no such thing. Either you do or you don’t. So my word for 2022 is “Action”. I act and I do. Oh and the word healthier is probably part of the problem. Either I am living a healthy lifestyle or I’m not. I’m sure you can see where I am going with this.

The thing is that in order to become, you first have to be rather than become first in order to be. In other words , you have to tell yourself that you already are so that you take on the behaviour of that which you aspire to be. So in order to adopt healthy habits, I have to keep telling myself that I am a healthy person. The day after I made the decision to be the person I aimed to become, a clip of David Goggins popped up on my instagram feed talking about being the person mentally in order to adopt the habits of the person you want to become. He gave the example of a motivating yourself to run in the rain at 5am even when you have no desire to. He says you need to tell yourself: “This is who we are now”. That made perfect sense to me. So far it is working for my goal of writing every day. I have now written every day for more than 33 days straight because this is who I am now. I am a writer. I have so many other commitments every night but this is the one that I have enjoyed the most. To be honest, I am ususally dog tired when it is time to write but I do it anyway because…yip, that’s right,…this is who I am now. For the record, my last writing streak was for 7 days so this is very impressive for the old me. For the new me…this is my new normal. As for being a healthy person…well…I’m not quite there yet.

So this is my goal for 2022, to decide on what it is I want to achieve and be it. I am under no illusions that this will not always be easy but I know that if I am doing it for all the right reasons, I will definitely enjoy the journey. Watch this space and I will keep you updated on what’s worked and what hasn’t worked over the coming year.

Why I like my writing

I started my blog over 3 years ago. I had always dreamt of being a writer but was afraid that I sucked at it. I never got passed the first few pages of capturing the stories I had flowing through my mind. I have also always kept a journal since I was a teen. My ex-boyfriend encouraged me to give it a go anyway. So here I am.

People say there are two kinds of learning: experience, which is gained from your own mistakes, and wisdom, which is learned from the mistakes of others.
John C. Maxwell

I love reading and I love learning. There is a lesson in every story ever told. It actually doesn’t matter whether you read fiction or non-fiction. There is something to learn in every book you read. I have learnt about identity theft online from a Jeffery Deaver novel which made me a little more cautious with my personal details online. Dan Brown got me thinking about what I really knew about religion. These are just 2 examples of how fictional works have impacted my life. Non-fiction has had an even bigger pact over the last few years as well. I learned from other’s experiences whether there were real or imagined.

I also make my own mistakes every single day. I am 100% perfectly imperfect just like eveyone else. I also know that every mistake I make and how I react and deal with it, is not only a lesson for me to learn from but it has the potential to help someone else who might be on the verge of making the same mistake or has made it and is not sure how to deal with it. My writing is in no way advice, it’s just a shared experience. At minimum, I hope people read my posts and can breathe a sigh of relief that they are not “the only one” to have made that mistake. For this reason, I write from my heart more than from my head. If I want to make some money from this I should probably add more head to my writing I suspect😜

I know that my posts do achieve my goal of touching at least one person’s life or getting at least one person to stop and think. Readers often message me to tell me how a post impacted them. I am always humbled that they took the time to let me know and I am very grateful for the feedback. It is also why I keep writing and why I like my writing. Making a positive difference in someone’s life no matter how small, gives me energy. My writing fulfils me.

I do dream of touching millions of lives the world over. Perhaps I will do that one life at time over the years through an international platform like WordPress or perhaps I will write a best selling book/a series of books. I will leave that outcome in God’s hands and focus on writing. Until then, I hope we will continue to meet on WordPress and that I will in some way add value to your life at each encounter. Thank you for supporting my blog with your time😊🙏🫂

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