Making a mountain out of a molehill

It might not be such a bad idea.

When it comes to creating content, you have so many options: blog posts, Instagram feed, Insta-stories, IGTV, YouTube, podcasts, tweets etc.

I’ve been thinking about how instead of just creating one thing, you can share one piece of content across different platforms.

That’s a great way to reach more people because blog readers might not watch YouTube and people that listen to podcasts might not be on twitter.

I think it can also be useful when building a brand and trying to grow your audience to not just be in one place.

With this blog I’ve been reluctant to do anything apart from write a blog posts each day because I don’t want to create more work than I can handle alongside a full-time job, part-time study and my lifestyle blog.

But I’m at a point where I’m close to 1 year of daily blogging and I’m opening myself up the idea of sharing things on Instagram and possibly having audio versions of the post or perhaps a podcast.

And so the blogposts are the molehills but the potential to create a variety of content from these posts is the mountain.

I’m realising that this writing practice based around personal growth and random musings can become so much more than I initially intended.

Worth seeking advice from

Just because someone is older than you doesn’t mean they’re the best person to seek advice from.

I think there’s a level of vulnerability that comes with asking for advice, to be open and honest enough to say ‘Hey, so I’m going through xyz and I just wanted to get some advice from you as I’m not really sure how to move forward.’

Something I’ve learnt is that when I have a difficult decision to make it helps to view the situation from a different perspective and sometimes that happens quickest when you talk to someone.

However, it’s important to make sure that you’re talking to the right person.

For me that would be:

Someone I trust.

Someone I look up to.

Someone I admire.

Someone who has my best interests at heart.

Someone who will give impartial advice.

Someone with experience.

When you feel stuck and want some advice you probably want it from someone who can help steer you in the right direction rather than someone who leaves you feeling stressed or further fuels your indecision.

Whilst recently asking for advice I realised that often the main thing I want is someone who can shift my perspective.

Perhaps to not even advise on my specific situation but to remind me that I’m capable of making the ‘right’ decision.

On being content with not becoming a writer

Or at least trying to be.

I remember being around 16 or 17 telling a classmate about my writing hobby and that I had thought of doing it as a career. At the time I was pretty lost with regard to career plans and my civil engineering dream was becoming less and less likely.

My classmate on the other hand was an excellent academic – who went on to study medicine.

He told me (in a roundabout way) that sometimes when you try to turn your hobby into your career it ruins it.

At the time I think I said something like yeah you’re right. But in my head I thought but I wanna be a writer and over half a decade later I still think that.

However, despite wanting to be a writer, I’m now 2 years into a career in transport. For the most part, I’m pretty happy with where I’m at and that has made me realise that more than wanting to be a writer what I really want is to write.

And I do write.

Every.

Single.

Day.

Good thoughts and bad habits

I think this statement is true for a lot of people.

We all know what we need to do in order to reach our goals or get things done. It’s the doing it part that hold us back.

You’re working on a project and maybe you spend a morning planning and preparing what to work on for the week ahead. But then when it comes down to it you’re scrolling through meme accounts and reading the lyrics to your favourite rap songs.

You’ve got good thoughts, you know what needs to be done.

You’ve got bad habits and you often find yourself procrastinating until it’s too late for things to go well.

There’s a discord between what you know and what you do.

You have to find a way to bring your habits into harmony with your thoughts.

That’s one way to transform your life.

In search of the next big thing

Setting goals achieving them but always wanting more because you’re never satisfied.

I’ve often found that when I achieve something I’ve been working towards it never feels as good as I thought it would.

I just move on to the next big thing.

It’s as though as soon as I attain the thing I want it’s no longer a big deal because if I can get A then I want B and C.

But the problem with always being in search of the next big thing is that you might just be forever dissatisfied.

And maybe you feel that way because you don’t really know what you’re chasing.

Are you doing things you never thought you could do just to prove you can? Or is it because you want to make an offering or leave a legacy?

Whatever you’re reason might be, it’s definitely worth having one.

Keep learning as you go

Great advice in 5 words.

So many of us want to be successful or achieve certain goals but what are we actually doing about it.

You might think you need another personal development, business or self-help book. Another conference, podcast episode or online course.

When you’re consuming with the goal of applying it to your own work, projects or goals it might be useful to check in every now and then and ask yourself ‘Is this helping me reach my goal?’

If the answer is no then stop trying to collect as much information as possible and start doing whatever your thing is.

It’s easy to think that more is always better but if you’re not doing anything with the information, what’s the point?

I think for some people fear comes into play. They say ‘I’ll start when I know more about it’ but there will always be something new to learn.

I think a pretty good approach is to just start and keep learning as you go. It might be scary but I bet you it will be worth it.

To envy and to aspire

People often complain about their life circumstances and how if only they weren’t working class, their parents were born in the western world, they grew up in a better area etc.

In some ways they envy the opportunities that more ‘privileged’ people have had in life. They may think it’s not fair that others have had the upper hand from the moment they were born where as they’ve had to ‘try and try , try and try’ (from the song You can get it if you really want by Jimmy Cliff).

But the thing is as much as they may think and feel this way, it’s also what they aspire to. To raise families more well off than they were. To have the money to live somewhere bigger and safer. To be a able to give the people around them opportunities because they’re well connected.

Essentially they aspire to become the people that are ahead of the majority, more privileged and people with the upper hand.

It’s hard to make comparisons about who has it harder but that’s not something worth competing over. I think we can all agree we’d like to have things better than they were or currently are.

And who knows down the line your family could be the privileged ones with countless opportunities compared to others.

But from someone else’s perspective, you might be considered pretty privileged right now.