I’ll be the first to admit, I’m not a writer. Yet, here I am writing a blog.
Last year was a momentous year, I not only overcame a large professional hurdle of obtaining my accreditation but also a personal one, I began working on my health and fitness levels.
Little did I know, working on my health and fitness also helped focus my mind and helped with my overall mental wellbeing. This day and age, mental health is becoming less of a taboo subject. People are demanding a better work and lifestyle balance.
And so, this blog is about personal perspective.
After such a large chunk of my time became free again, no longer working full-time and over-time with part-time study, I began to feel a little lost. What can I do with my time? Where do I go from here? What’s next? A good friend of mine recommended some literature to read. At first, I will be honest and say, I was ambivalent. I had always seen “Self-help” books as something you read if you were so deep down the rabbit hole you really did need help. Again, this was the same mindset that scoffed at Yoga.
I am very proud to say, I overcame that closed mindedness and not only started becoming a yoga addict but started to read the recommendations. At first, out of curiosity, then I really started to absorb the information and gain a whole new perspective.
The first book I read was “The Richest Man in Babylon”, there was a reason this single book had sold over two million copies. Wow.
This book managed to combine all the previous knowledge I had about finances and focus it. All the advice I had received over my lifetime was now defined and bullet pointed.
“Lo, money is plentiful for those who understand the simple rules of acquisition”
There are 5 laws to gold, follow these laws and you will begin to make your money work for you opposed to you working for money. I’m paraphrasing but:
- 1/10th of all earnings into savings for future purposes
- Find profitable employment (i.e. a role you can grow in)
- Invest your money wisely (take advice from professionals in the correct field)
- Do not invest in businesses which you have not researched.
- Don’t invest if there is too higher risk against your money (i.e. don’t follow advice of tricksters of schemers or invest in liabilities.)
After reading this book, I sat down with my finances and realised; the current role I was in was not profitable, to save 1/10th of my earnings meant I would have to reduce my overall outgoings and finally, I had no investments. So, I began looking for options and ways to change this.
The second book I then read was Miracle Mornings. I am not a morning person, anyone who knows me can tell you that. After reading this book, I woke up earlier, I began my mornings earlier and I felt so much more productive, happier and overall on the ball! Everything was beginning to come into focus.
I began to understand why people loved the mornings so much. The six habits that changed my mornings and perspective:
S.A.V.E.R.S
S – Silence
A – Affirmation
V – Visualise
E – Exercise
R – Read
S – Scribe
I personalised this to follow my own routine:
My mornings begin with 5minutes silence followed by 30-45mintes exercise. I then shower and begin my day.
I recite my personal affirmations, I begin with immediate goals then future aspirations.
On the commute to work I read, 20minutes each way.
I arrive at work 30minutes before my contracted hours, to sit and write. Figure out how my day would pan out followed by further planning on how to achieve my goals.
It sounds like hard work, right? Wrong. Once you have begun your first week like this, it becomes addictive. You then find yourself waking up earlier, brighter and lighter. Becoming more positive, smiling more and achieving so much more in a day than ever before.
The final book which launched me into the next step was “Feel the fear and do it anyway”. I enjoyed this book most of all. It gave me the motivation to fill in the missing pieces. I needed to push myself, find a better role and figure out where my interests truly lied. Like the book stated, I had this voice in the back of my head that continually doubted my desire for change.
“Why change roles when this one is so easy, you really enjoy working with the people, yes the work might not be great but what happens if you move to a different role, you don’t like the people, the work is too hard?” – I shot down the voices and began altering my perspective once more.
So, what if the new role was hard, it’s a challenge!
“do one thing everyday that scares you” – Eleanor Roosevelt
After overcoming such a professional hurdle, and then gaining so much time back I began to feel a lot of anxiety. As if I had to fill every waking moment with something or I would be wasting time. The anxiety then filtered into social situations, I felt an unbearable weight when walking into an unknown situation. I then recited “feel the fear and do it anyway”, repeatedly until I felt slightly calmer and then threw myself at the situation until there was no longer fear.
Suffice to say, I have now got a new role, new perspective, and I have not said “no” or “flaked” out on a single situation because of anxiety. My calendar is filled with events, new experiences, new possibilities.
Sometimes we just need a little perspective on a situation.
StudioFAFF 