Why are you online?

There was once a time where we would tune out of ‘real life’ and go online. These days many of us live online and tune out to experience ‘real life’.

We go from Instagram to Twitter to YouTube to Amazon to clothes shopping to reading articles to watching webinars. Not necessarily in that order and many of us frequently going back to social media throughout the day.

In the past we would go online with a purpose and once that purpose was complete we would log out and get back to our lives. Perhaps it was to play games, chat with friends or watch a show. But once you logged out you couldn’t access those things until you logged in again.

We had reasons to go online but these days online has expanded so much that we often struggle to find a reason to go offline.

I think it’s important, even though we’re online so much more than we used to be to still give yourself a purpose. Get out of the habit of simply going online just to be online especially when you become aware that it’s distracting you from your real life.

Writing through writers block

When you feel stuck and don’t quite know what to write, instead of shying away from it, follow it.

Start typing and just see what happens.

Don’t focus on how good or bad it is. Don’t focus on whether it’ll be worth sharing online or what people will think. Just write and then write some more.

Keep going until the words start to flow with ease. It might get easier after a few sentences or a few hundred words but keep going and just write.

When you finally decide to stop, you might find that you love what you’ve managed to write but that isn’t the goal or the purpose.

The purpose is to write through the ‘writers block’ because doing so teaches you that maybe it’s not as big of an obstacle that you think it is.

Knowing when to disconnect

The internet and social media in particular can get very overwhelming. There’s always something new to see.

Trying to keep up with it all can be stressful. Instead of just knowing about the lives and thoughts of your close friends and family, you now have an insight into the lives of millions of other people.

Sometimes you might find yourself picking up your phone every few moments with no real purpose except to check for something new and of course there is and so you keep doing it over and over again.

When you find yourself excessively checking, what you probably need is to take a break and disconnect.

Put your phone down and maybe even just turn it off for a few hours or a few days. See how you feel.

You’re likely to find that the less you check your phone, the less you feel the need to check.

Worth celebrating

Good news is worth celebrating.

When you set yourself big goals and have high aspirations it can sometimes feel like the little wins aren’t worth celebrating.

But when you get a some good news, why not celebrate.

You don’t have to go all out and do something grand. Perhaps you just eat your favourite desert or put on your favoriye music and have a solo dance party.

The purpose of celebrating is to acknowledge the good bits instead of letting them pass you buy. So often we’re just focused on the end goal that we ignore what it took to get there.

How to figure out what you want?

This is a topic that has been on many peoples minds mainly because we’ve all had much more time to think about our lives over the past few months.

For a lot of people what they want is actually what they think they want because it comes from other people. When you’re constantly being told what you should want and what you should do with your life it’s no wonder you don’t know your own mind.

It’s in the quiet moments where external influences have fallen away that you’ll figure out what you want. It’s like when people say they get their best ideas in the shower. When you’re alone with little distraction, your mind can finally relax and peacefully wander.

One of the biggest distractions in this day and age is social media. You can spend a few hours online and come away thinking you want to create fashion content, be a painter, start a podcast, work in marketing, start a project for your local community, be a graphic designer, start a youtube channel, make music, be a makeup artist, be a textile artist, start a band, be a poet, be an artist and so much more.

Granted you could be interested but when you constantly surround yourself with other peoples stuff it makes it harder to figure out what you want for yourself.

I’ve found that trying new things is invaluable, to be able to say I tried painting and it wasn’t for me but I really like sculpting. So often we try one thing and then get frustrated if it doesn’t work out as though their aren’t over 101 other options for things to try. How are you meant to know what you want if you haven’t tried anything.

Secondly switching off and embracing quite moments is the perfect way to get more in tune with yourself. I’ve found myself most inspired when I’m gazing at the sunset, taking a walk or crafting whilst the sounds of Litany, Montaigne and Hayley Mary drift through the air.

Lastly, give it time.

Forgotten dreams

What happened to those dreams off yours, those dreams you had to make, see and do?

When did you forget about the plans you made and what exactly are you doing now?

Everybody has a dream.

Whether it’s something you once worked towards and gave up on or merely that thing you think about as a form of escapism from your reality.

But sometimes we allow our circumstances to crush our dreams and suddenly we’ve forgotten all about what we really wanted. A dream is so much more more than a dream, it motivates us, guides us through daily life and gives us purpose.

Think of your forgotten dream as a neglected plant, now might be the perfect time to tend to it.

Someone to polish your glasses

On learning to see things more clearly.

In situations where your perspective is hazy you might need someone to polish your glasses.

Not in the literal sense but in the form of sharing words, interacting and connecting.

When you’re so used to your own way of thinking you might find that you’ve become rigid and closed minded.

And unless you make a conscious effort to open your mind, your way of seeing things is not likely to change.

That’s why it’ll take someone else to shift your way of seeing things. Someone that’ll come into your life with polish and one one of those microfiber dust free cloths to give your glasses a little polish.

And it’ll rarely be explicit instead it’ll be so subtle that you don’t notice until it’s already done.

I think that’s the purpose some people serve in our lives. They could be in your life for multiple years or a mere moment but they spark change.

In search of purpose

I’ve never been a career person. But I’ve always thought I had a purpose, some thing I was meant to do. I have no idea what that was meant to be.

I don’t have any particular talents outside of daydreaming, keeping a journal and being an ideas person although they are things I’ve been doing for over 10 years so perhaps they are merely practices rather than talents.

But I was work bound a few days contemplating my purpose in life knowing that it couldn’t have been the building I was heading to for the day.

I started thinking about how there’s little chance of me achieving much if I stay in this very limiting box that I often put myself in as a result of being anxious.

I’m much more out of the box than I used to be but what I’m learning is that your purpose, your joy whatever that thing is for you in life will only be found when you’re being your true self.

In search of purpose

Sometimes I think about what my purpose is in life, what my main driving force is.

Last year I had a big revelation about this idea of experiencing joy. I realised that there is an abundance of joy to be experienced in life, if I was open to it.

This was a major mind shift as a couple years prior I had a pretty bleak outlook on life. Last year I also began to embrace my curiosity and once again I came to the obvious realisation that it’s who I am, I like learning and knowing things.

And so I’ve taken joy and curiosity as my purposes in life rather than something more specific but I think that’s enough. Gone are the days of thinking my purpose is to help people etc because that often came from a place of feeling like I needed to do things to be liked.

Spending my life exploring joy and curiosity sounds much more fulfilling.