Tag: Blogging

You feel you’re stuck or you think you are. I get it. I had those days. Plenty of them.

Perhaps you’ve been waiting for that lightbulb moment to come but it’s playing hide and seek with you. The more you try, the harder it gets. How frustrating!

It’s funny, we live in the world of contradictions: Less is more. More is less. It doesn’t make sense but it does.

If you desperately want a lightbulb moment to happen to you, perhaps it’s best to do the opposite – switch off the light and get some sleep. Then wake up and let it come to you naturally.

So, what to write when you think you have nothing to write about?

Think again!

Let’s explore the possibilities:

One. Write about your thoughts: Each of us has thousands of thoughts every day according to the experts. That’s enough to write about!

Two. Write about what makes you angry, what makes you cranky or what makes you stressed out: Your emotions can tell you a lot about your attitude towards the world around you. You may not know it till you write about it: You have a choice, a better choice.

Three. Write about your vulnerability: Expressing your vulnerability openly is a strength in itself. You may realise, after all, vulnerability is one of your “abilities” or “secret weapons”. It’s not a weakness as such.

Four. Write about the best or the worst customer service you’ve ever experienced: Did it tell you something about that individual or the company as a whole? If you also run a business, what can you learn from that experience?

Five. Write about your current situation: Are you looking for a job at the moment? Are you saving money to buy something special? Are you in the process of changing a bad habit? Even something petty or tiny can make a big difference over time.

Six. Write about one of the memorable travel experiences: Has it got something to do with the people, the food, the culture or the scenery? Tell the world why the world is your oyster.

Seven. Write about your struggles: Are you battling with some anxiety, depression or other mental health conditions? What’s your coping mechanism? Share your recovery journey and let us know you are not alone and we are not alone!

Eight. Write about money: Any good saving tips that have helped you buy your first home, clear the credit card debts or reach your financial goals?

Nine. Write about your pet(s): What have you learned from them? Unconditional love, loyalty, playfulness, forgiveness, letting go or not giving a fuck?

Ten. Write about now: Perhaps you’re still scratching your head about what to write. Then write that experience. You’re sitting down, nothing comes to you… You’ll find many readers out there can relate to that.

Well, that’s all I could come up with. If I can think of anything more later, I’ll let you know. Now it’s your turn, go and spread the word!

Two years ago, I finally ignited my passion for writing and created my own blog. Admittedly, still at its infancy stage but at least it was born.

Without trying to sound too arrogant, since then I’ve embraced a new identity: a writer and a blogger. It doesn’t just stop there. I have evidence to back it up!

I don’t deny the fact that I did give up once. But thankfully not for too long. Two weeks later I made a comeback. I realized I simply cannot walk away from it.

Two years on… Well, what can I say? If I could sum it up in only a few words: Watch this space!

From me to you… Never surrender!

Ted

I meant to write something else but as 2018 is about to come to an end, I thought I’d just “cheat” a bit by writing about a reflection on my one year blogging journey. It’s like a year end review that kind of thing. I can’t find a better way to farewell 2018 and welcome 2019 than this.

This is how I see it, when people read my blog posts, whether it’s one or many, whether they spend only five minutes on it or longer, I’m actually taking them through a part of my journey that I hold dearly. Isn’t it wonderful when readers go venturing into the material you’ve written, then decide to give you a like or even follow you? It’s a big honour. I can’t say enough about how much I appreciate it. That’s why it’s ultra important for me to produce quality writing whenever I can. One year on, it still gives me the chills and I’m still like the new kid on the block. I keep reminding myself, stay grounded, don’t take anything for granted.

What can I say? It’s been amazing and daunting at the same time. Just like a roller coaster ride, ups and downs, ups and down, some days I thought my blog posts had done good deeds and added value to readers, some other days I thought not quite there yet, there were still many holes in my writing.

All in all, I’m here for the long-run. Not to dismiss the fact that at one stage I did quit. But two weeks later, I came back and re-launched a new website as you see now. I’ve been managing my blog like a small boutique store on a quiet corner – quality over quantity. We’re all here to “sell” something. So, what do I sell? To put it boldly: I’m here to sell the concept of “personal experiences”. Do I care about the stats? Of course I do. Traffic or readership can go both ways, either encouraging or discouraging. But I try not to get too hung up by that. They say you rather have 1 quality reader than 1000 non-quality ones. That’s so true. Even if my blog posts resonate with only one quality reader, that’d still be awesome and like someone giving me a pat on the back… Very rewarding!

Juggling between a full time job and my blogging “business” along with other commitments has been a challenge. I admit blogging isn’t a top priority in my life at the moment. After all, I have a day job that I enjoy. It helps pay my bills so I need to give it my 100% when I’m there. But outside that, the creative process begins in my head everywhere I go – when I’m out and about, catching a bus, doing house chores, walking my dog, taking a lunch break or having some me time in the evening etc. By the time I sit down and write, though tired and exhausted from all other activities, I still get a pretty good vibe about what I want to share with readers. As much as I’d love to finish writing in one go, the reality is it always takes more than one session to complete one blog post. It’s also not uncommon for me to go back and refine my writing even after I’ve published it.

2019, it’s only one more day or two more sleeps to go here in the southern hemisphere. How time has flown by so quickly this year. I won’t bore you with my New Year resolution in fact I haven’t got one. But now looking at the drafts box on my website, it shows 27 (including this one) blog posts waiting to be published. A light-bulb moment! I think I see the sign. I’ll make them my 2019 New Year resolution. Happy New Year!

They say we are our own worst enemy. 100%! When it comes to giving advice to others, we act and sound like experts. But when it comes to following our own advice, we become paralysed and lose our way very quickly. At times, we even sabotage ourselves for that matter. It’s like everything we’ve learned about how to tackle life issues, big, small or ugly, all goes out of the window in a flash. But why is it the case?

In the first five month of my blogging experience, I talked about many great lessons and inspirations that came to my life. When I wrote, I often had this thing in mind: I want to walk readers through my journey and give them the leverage to deal with their own challenges in similar situations. Yes, on paper, I did just that. But then one day when I ran into a bump in the road, The irony? I found myself not coping well. The positive stuff I’d been advocating all went down the drain. I felt like a fraud. At that point I decided to cancel my website altogether. It may sound a bit over the top or too dramatic in my reaction but my then-sentiment was that if I can’t be a testament to the things I pitch about, then it’ll probably be useless and meaningless for me to keep on doing this. So, I went ahead and shut down my first website completely and permanently.

Surprised and not surprised, I came back a few weeks later, launched a new website and started blogging again.

Strangely, in the last few days, I kept going back to the idea of “blind spot”. We know in the context of driving a car, there’s an area we can’t see. Therefore, checking our blind spot is essential if we want to stay safe on the road. Using this as an analogy, it’s fair to say that in life we also have a blind spot somewhere – an area for improvement we can’t see ourselves. Now as I look back on those times why I failed to put knowledge into action, in part if not all might’ve had something to do my blind spot. To that effect, it may well explain the reason why it’s harder to take our own advice when a blind spot gets in a way.

So, where can we start to reduce our blind spot and make way for action taking? Perhaps it’s a matter of:

• Learning to give advice to yourself like you do to others
• Learning to see the subject from a third party’s standpoint
• Learning to view things from a different angle or corner
• Learning to appreciate the whole reflection in the mirror

The list can go on and on if I dive in deeper and deeper. That’s the beauty of taking a personal development journey – there’s often something new and profound to explore and expand. For now though I’ll just take one step at a time, look before I change to the fast lane…