How to write a longer editorial style article

I’ve recently written about how to pick your writing style and in developing your writing. I hope some of those tips have been useful in your writing endeavors! When it comes to writing in any style, you need to be very clear about the message you’re trying to convey and who your audience is. Your intended message will be better received if it is in the right format, so understanding the various contexts you need to write within is really important to successful engagement.

When it comes to writing an opinion piece or overarching viewpoint, editorial style articles are an excellent way to do so. They give you the length and format to not just go on an absent-minded ramble, which is also an ok way in getting your message across (though I don’t think it would be very positively effective). The purpose of an editorial post will be so that you can dissect your argument or provide other sources and references. It’s like writing a short essay but it comes from your point of view.

Characteristics of an editorial article

There’s some important characteristics of editorial articles. They need to be cohesive and well written because they are going to showcase your viewpoint. You want to be professional. Regardless of your point of view, the purpose of the article is intended so that you can either persuade others in a change of opinion, provide praise for something well done, interpret a circumstance or topic and especially, to criticize the actions, decisions, behaviors/ideologies or events that your subjects are involved with.

Writing an editorial article – the elements

The fun part! When it comes to finally writing your article, you do need to be mindful of a few key elements. I’ve summarized them in the infographic, but you do need to be aware of them in their entirety.

For example, you need to have the following planned for a really effective article:

1. Picking a topic that is not only close to your heart, but also relevant to current news. If one of your goals is to increase your traffic, popularity or showcase something new in your portfolio, you need to showcase that you are a dynamic and robust writer who can challenge current topics and issues. You need to show you can develop engagement and interest potential audiences.
2. Collect all your information, conduct fact checking, do wide research and develop a plan. It’s easier to map out your thoughts this way and find the for and against arguments, ensuring that you have valid evidence backed discussion.
3. State your opinion at the beginning, but without using “I”. make it brief so you can get on with the rest of the article. Explain the issue objectively and why it is important, or up for discussion.
4. Depending on the length of your article, pick a variety of for and against viewpoints. If your article is 2000-4000 words, then you might need 3-5 view points on each side. Each opinion will have a slightly different angle and can potentially be a lead for a future article. If your article is shorter though, then be more realistic about displaying too many viewpoints. The aim is to provide your viewpoint, with supporting for and against opinions.
5. Encourage debate and refute the argument. Make sure you use facts and research to back it all up.
6. Be rational. That includes finding something within the opposing view that you resonate with.
7. Make sure you have adequate paragraphs and address each point for discussion concisely. This enables you to reinforce your opinion and to establish key phrases.
8. Provide recommendations and solutions that are realistic.
9. Provide a conclusion that restates your opinion and summarises the article.
10. Finally, hit publish, post or send and let the world be thy oyster. Stand by your opinion and be confident!

Writing doesn’t have to be a chore, especially for those of us who love to write. Learning about writing in new styles and formats is always challenging, but once you master any type of writing, your confidence is boosted and your skills are developed. Plus, it’s always a great addition to have to your blogging repertoire as you seek to one day make your blog more of a life change or transfer your skills to freelancing.

Now that we’ve got all that covered, what are you planning on tackling as your next editorial project?

Lessons I’ve learned from blogging

I haven’t been on my blogging journey for long, so my answers to this statement are not going to be prophetic by any means. Regardless, it doesn’t mean that your journey isn’t one where you’re always learning and I dare say that at different points in your blogging life, you’ll have learnt different lessons.

But to start with, let’s consider this in a personal way. What have I learnt by blogging? Well, let’s have a look:

• I’ve learnt that self-expression is really important and finding the right medium can be hit or miss. You don’t have to use every type of social media – social media platforms I think are tailored for different types of communication and I also don’t think you need to use every single one if you don’t want to. Whilst I boycotted Facebook for my own personal reasons and my personal profile, I did keep my page for the blog active because I want to use blogger network groups to learn and network.
• I’ve learnt that having a good foundation makes blogging easier. Sometimes it’s hard to have an idea of what you want though which is where many blogs and bloggers give up. Like anything though, I think if you’re at a moment in your life where you are thinking that you want to blog for expression or to develop something as a side hustle, you already have an innate, internal context of where you want to go. The discovery part, is what is exciting.
• Speak in your own voice and in your own language. If you try to imitate people whose prose is eloquent or poetic, when you’re not that type of writer, you will not only waste time trying to replicate that, but you’ll develop a set of standards for yourself you don’t actually want to achieve. By all means, if improving or changing your writing style is a goal, there are other avenues to take, and maybe blogging is an outlet for that, but I don’t think you should try and imitate someone for the sake of imitation if it’s not something you want. It makes sticking to that new style of doing something that much more difficult.
• Keep writing. Even when you don’t feel like it. As a backup, when you’re in the mood to write, have a word document with things written about your main categories so you have some go to posts ready for when you’re not in the mood. Alternatively, if you have some time to spare, an extra day off or whatever, do some scheduling and pre-post some content so that you’re a few weeks in advance. Especially if you’re planning a themed week or on doing something slightly different, like more research or an editorial style post. It also frees up more time to develop that product or downloadable or ebook or whatever other tasks you have going on the side.
• It’s important to get involved in new blogger groups, boards and forums. When I decided to reinstate Facebook for my page only, I made sure to join groups where you could share posts about your blog, and ask for assistance in something in particular. Other bloggers could then give you tips, tricks and advice for improving. Within two days of doing this, I changed the layout of my blog and have increased page views. For one, I introduced categories as themes to my menus, added a sidebar about me description and outlined the days I post. These three changes alone have now given a better message to new readers about what they’re going to get when reading my blog. It’s so easy to miss these simple things and learning this just by reading other people’s blogs and blog posts encouraged me to make those changes.
• Look at the post themes other bloggers within your niche discuss and make notes about their personal branding. It helps to get some tips about how they’re presenting information, in order to see how you could make it your own.
• Get feedback, often.
• It takes time and love to nurture a blog. It needs scheduling, apps, content, pictures, and understanding basic marketing, social media posting and branding to really launch…especially if you’re offering a product.
• It’s ok to change tack midway through. If you are doing an editorial post for example and not getting many views, try a week or two of more regular posting. If this increases your views, then your readers prefer this content. It’s ok to experiment.
• Get involved with guest posting.
• Don’t use overly bold colors for the backgrounds of your blog. Pick neutral colors, but use vibrant pictures. Try to use as much original content.
• Link appropriately and give credit where credit is due.
• Stand by your opinion.
• Write well. Use spell and grammar check, and read over your draft with fresh eyes often to ensure your writing is as professional as possible.
• Your blog is about your life. It doesn’t have to necessarily be about things in trend because it’s your story, and your space.
• Have a nice place to write in. Whether its a nice space in your study, a beautiful app on your iPad, or a nice journal you jot notes in. Make sure that your writing space is innately yours.
• And lastly, get involved in online communities. Like other people’s posts and comment on things important to you. If you want to develop a positive brand, you must be proactive.

What about you? What lessons have you discovered on your blogging journey so far?

Time, is on my side, yes it is

Gah! A little late in last week’s posting! So there are a few reasons why but rather than get too much into it, I wanted to outline what I will do, because as a result of being late for last week’s post some new things have popped up which I think are really exciting!

First: I’m working on an LCHF (Low Carb High Fat) meal plan for my mum. I made her a 7-day meal plan and am halfway through calculating the macros. And then I thought, this would actually be an AWESOME free downloadable I could provide for the site, since it fits into the theme of living a fitology life. So keep posted for that because I will hopefully have it done within the next few days and as a result, I need to possibly add an LCHF page, or a recipes page, or a something page to the site. I’m still thinking, but I would really like to incorporate some of the LCHF stuff I’m doing to thatfitologylife. I also would like a space where I can update specifically about that, without it affecting the rest of the site. I want it to be a standalone but connected endeavor.

Also, I really wanted to review the documentary movie “The Magic Pill”. So I will link to that when I’ve written it because I wanted to make sure I covered all the important elements off. I think everyone needs to see it.

Another thing I’ve been thinking of lately is making a suite of downloadables I use often. I always talk about productivity, habit formation, motivation and goal setting, yet haven’t materialized any of that formally. So I am working on a suite of organizational tools for download or to be included in your existing planners and diaries. And, it will be FREE!

In other news, the ducks are settling in really well. We calculated that they’re about 7 weeks old and I think the fact that there was 4 of them ensured they weren’t picked on by the chooks. They LOVE bathing in their little tub and no wonder the water gets so dirty! They jump in with dirty feet and splash around. Hey, if it works for them, it works for me. So far they’ve been very low maintenance and incredibly intelligent. By the first day at home they already knew where the house was and where the food was, and now they know when I come home from work usually means they can be let out of their yard (they have half an acre) to fossick around. It’s like they’ve been around for ages. We don’t know their sexes yet, but are eagerly waiting for them to mature a little bit so we can see if we’re going to have a layer or two.

I’m also trying to develop a network on G+, Pinterest and Instagram and that is proving much trickier than I originally thought. So, as per last weeks post about boycotting Facebook and Twitter, I need to find new ways to reach readers and so I’m trying to get involved in other networks for new blogs, group boards on Pinterest, in guest posting and other collaborations. I don’t want to lose time by doing nothing, but I’m also trying to do things about branding and marketing whilst learning, about branding and marketing…There’s a whole suite of apps and sites that have been recommended to me, and it’s just about scheduling time to review them and learn the basics of how to use them. The other thing with this is, when it comes to using scheduling apps for posting, I also then need to make some original image content because I don’t want to just use something that someone else is doing. So, finding the time to cover off a bunch of tasks on blogging day ends up being an entire day and then I always miss something.

Sometimes I wish I could do this full-time for a good like, 6 or 12 months or something so I could really kick it off and make it viable without being intrusive or using overt advertising to make money. When it comes to blogging one thing that really resonates with me so far is how much people talk about it being a full-time gig. Like, it isn’t just a random thing. Well it could be an entirely random thing, but when you have it in mind that you want to share your views and thoughts and message to the world then it becomes something you’re really passionate about. Ideally, I’d love for it to be viable enough to supplement income. So if you want a blog like that, you need to be able to invest a good chunk of hours to blogging, to making original content, research and writing and some marketing, promotion and branding. And all of that plus working full-time can be overwhelming. It’s about finding the right balance and I haven’t found the correct combination for me….yet.

I did also mention last week about wanting to talk about wasted energy. I wanted to dedicate at least a post on this, as it resonates a lot with what I learn from my weightlifting coach right now, so I won’t tackle that today. But I will make sure to link through to it when done.

And with that…I must go. I’m starting to feel the early stages of the flu (which I thought I could beat this year, but, that seems unlikely) and still have afternoon errands to run. Luckily for me though, I got to work out of another office today and my travel time was reduced to an hour return trip as opposed to 3-4 hour trip from my normal workplace. Definitely something to negotiate about with my boss. But I just wanted to give an update, and provide a landing page of sorts for some link throughs to new posts I will be doing this week.

Until then!

p.s No music list today. But I was thinking to have an active playlist feature on the sidebar too….so many ideas in my brain right now!

Another week bites the dust

So, I made a commitment last week to organize my life more. I kind of promised to buy myself a planner and start writing. And wow, what an excellent exercise in reflection it’s been. It isn’t just about writing, it’s about organizing your thoughts and getting out of those moments where you ‘forget’ or feel as if you’re missing something. I can see how people can get too hung up about this, but for me and how busy I am, it actually helps me anchor thought processes, reminders and tasks. I write down a master to-do list for example, and then use it to insert small tasks throughout the week. This is another way to work on habit formation and see where you might have deficiencies in the way you plan or why you might be procrastinating. For reference, I purchased a planner like this one , however mine was a runout special with a chrome silver leather bound case. I paid about $44 AUD for mine, and the inserts (cos I got additional) were 2 for 3 special, so that was I think $15 or so. The original setup might be pricey – but the quality is way better than a Kmart or BigW version and they fill standard filofax sizing, so you can add these too. I also think if you’re going to journal and plan, make sure you enjoy the space you do it in. Splurge a bit on your journal, and make it yours.

So another thing I’ve been doing which I failed to mention last week, was a change in WOE, also known as ‘way of eating’. I’ve been hearing a lot about LCHF, Low Carb High Fat for a while and finally took the plunge about 5 weeks ago to change the way I eat. What finally spurred it on was the death of my grandmother and me being in Melbourne. As some of you know, and some do not, I transitioned my gym training program to Olympic Weightlifting about 4 months ago or so, and I ABSOLUTELY love it. I couldn’t have found a better match for me. But I will discuss that in length on another post.

So I came back home and was bloated and swollen and just felt disgusting. I was talking to my coach about it and he said, well, why don’t you look at going back to basics, and insert some more anti-inflammatory vegies into your diet to try and reduce it, and we will see where it gets you over the next few weeks (I will boast about how awesome my coach is also, on another post, cos he isn’t just my weightlifting coach, but he is also teaching me patience. He’s a part of my life nobody has access to, and I just love him and think he is phenomenal).

So I did. I came home, and started researching diets or ways of eating that were back to basics. And what came up a lot was keto and LCHF, which was targeted often at those with other medical conditions like diabetes and insulin resistance (as also some of you know, I suffer from PCOS and so my body does actually have a form of insulin resistance, buggers my hormones and all that other nasty stuff). I read and read and read everything about it, and me being me, made myself a food/meal plan, shopping list and then removed all the nasty stuff from my kitchen closets. Before I knew it, I was ready… technically… but something in my mind held me back. I started it the next day without giving this phantom thing in my mind any further thought, and have not had any slipups since then. It’s been 5 weeks – I’m 5.4kgs down, several centimeters across the measurable bits down and feeling absolutely amazing. As a lifter, I haven’t lost any strength or ability to train heavy, and believe me, I train really heavy…

So basically for those of you not in the know, LCHF is a low carb (20-50g per day), higher fat way of eating that removes all processed foods, sugars and carbohydrates and encourages you and your body to just eat clean, whole foods. It’s basically removing pasta, rice, bread, sweets, desserts, sodas etc. You still eat normal food – and believe me I have bacon and eggs daily, avocado on toast made from almond meal and flaxseed, coffee, sweets (made using stevia) etc, just no additional empty carbs. I get enough carbs and fibre from vegies and fruit and meat etc throughout the day that I have actually started reducing the frequency I eat. Training days are different, and that is expected because you will need more energy, but LCHF is basically encouraging your body to change from using carbohydrate and sugar as your energy source, to using fat. I am not a scientist, and have no idea about the science on this, but there is a lot of literature on the WWW discussing this. I will post these in a separate post because I do want to discuss LCHF on a more prominent note.

Other than that I have been incredibly busy. I don’t know If many of you know but I did get a new job this year and a sizeable promotion, so that was life saving considering the awful place I worked and spent 13 months at. Some of my angst regarding this job is written about in this blog. But it’s funny because I’ve not been at this new job for long but it feels as if it’s been more like 9 or 10 months that I’ve been there. The 13 months at my previous job that made me question life and whether or not I wanted to stay in my field of work, that’s how much I hated it. And then this new job came along. And it’s crazy. There are days I get severely bored, but it’s because the subject topic can be a bit dry. More often than not I am learning something new and that keeps me going for the remainder of the day. And I remind myself, this isn’t going to be forever, because it’s not. I know that – I know I am using this job as a stepping stone, so I am learning to just embrace the crazy and see what I can get out of it.

For the most part, settling in has been really easy. Everyone is so ridiculously nice. There is office politics there, of course, this is everywhere, but for the most part I keep out of it and chuck my earphones on and listen to podcasts. Again, I say to myself, I won’t be there forever and just get on with it. I’m currently buddied up with one of the ladies who, seems as if she is the favorite. Personally, I don’t rate her and I think there are better analysts in the team than her, but I digress. But I’m finding it really difficult being around her because she’s creepily nice, like you know the type of person you feel bad for being upset at, because they’re too nice. This on its own made me weary straight up, cos I can’t trust someone who uses facades, but anyway – she is so ridiculously technical in what she does that I feel inadequate sometimes. She just goes over the top and to use the analogy, needs to know about every single grain of sand.

For example the other day she was using a table to represent a heat map of highest percentage and lowest percentage of representation in a population group. She then had a separate section to attempt to display “relative magnitude of influence”….for me this is not only unnecessary but ridiculous. If your stakeholder reads your paper and cannot determine that 60% is a relative high sample of the population group in comparison to others, and you need to add this in, then you are stupid. She just goes over the top, and this coupled with other things makes her one of the people you just get anxiety from.

So in my quest on learning about myself and the experience of my previous job, I’m just going to go straight in and confront her, in a nice way. My only stress right now needs to be travelling to work (Because it takes a while), and I don’t need additional stress from feeling inadequate against someone who is going to the enth degree to make herself look and feel valued and important. She gives off the vibe of ‘teacher’s pet’, if that makes more sense.

Other than that, things are moving along nicely. Hubs and I are planning for the next property purchase and are meeting with a new broker who just seems as if she will fit really well with us. We had a phone conversation with her yesterday and she was straight up, ‘hello darling’ and we just, we laughed and we just got each other. We look forward to seeing her next week – which reminds me, I need to update my to-do list!

The rest of today will be finishing some of these nagging tasks and house chores, making a zucchini lasagna and stopping at the fruit shop. I probably will need another caffeine hit along the way – no, I definitely will. I did plan to do my blog content schedule, so I might even get to that today…..

Oh, and new Youtuber I found. She is phenomenal. Lavendaire . She looks at planning, motivation, changing your life, inspiration, being successful, writing, journaling etc. She just has a unique look at the world and encourages you to live the best life you can. I’ve been binging on her videos of late.

Until next time.

I’m baaaaaaack!

Well, well, well….

It’s been a hot minute or two warriors! Damn, I totally neglected my blog and just got so ridiculously busy with life. Not that that is an excuse, but I barely have time to even sit down in my study and do the tax papers, let alone blog.

And the worst of it all is, when I had the time to blog I sometimes felt as if I were scrambling for ideas, looking around and trying to plan, and when I am not planning on writing, I have a million and one ideas, challenges, and photo ideas I want to do.

I think I should buy myself a journal and actually make time to write things down throughout the day. I mean, how often do you see a great story on the news or a funny picture, or something interesting when you’re out and about? All-the-time. There goes six months’ worth of content because I think I can remember it all and I actually can’t. Journaling is such an amazing thing to do, and I believe it has about it a sense of tradition, of something “old school” that we can still do in this modern, digitalized era.

I guess the point is life doesn’t have to be a catalogue of the same things, but it also doesn’t have to be a mirror image of others people’s lives and other people’s blog post ideas, when really, so much goes on in our day to day that we should be just writing our thoughts on that. That’s the whole point of being an individual I guess, standing independently in the world with your feet on the ground, and in the clouds, all at the same time.

So, thatfitologylife still means what I said it would mean when I first started this blog. I love it, truly. My life has gone through such an enormous change in the last year and me personally as well. I mean, to think about how I felt this time last year compared to now is absolutely chalk and cheese. My own personal transformation and the things I feel I have learnt about just, well, life in general makes me feel as if I have come out of a cocoon somewhat. It’s like I’ve shed old skin and replenished new skin. My mind feels different, my heart feels different, my body even feels different. I’m different, and I like how I’ve grown.

Lots of things have changed also, and I attribute it all to this personal journey and transformation I’ve gone through. What would’ve absolutely made the cake is if I had made it to UPW (Tony Robbins seminar, cos he is like an idol to me regarding personal change and growth), but I will be aiming for that next year instead.

For now, I have training, a new job and a new way of eating which takes up a lot of me time, and I am enjoying every second of it.

So I promise, tomorrow I will be going to the cute stationary shop and buying myself a journal. I am going to plan my new content schedule and blog post ideas and go back to posting. I might go back to once a week for now, to make sure I can make the commitment to write regularly. I have been so out of touch even with my promotion of the blog and all, that I’ve let slip a few good months of blog work slip away.

Until then.

Blog update – Happy New Year 2017!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

It has been a crazy busy few months. I mean, my life in general is ridiculously crazy at the best of times but it feels as if now things are starting to settle back into their own routines.

That being said, a lot has happened in terms of my diet, lifestyle, training etc.

The most difficult part has been getting back into the grind. I realised this as I scoffed down two cupcakes today at work and then felt ridiculously sick.

Part of this craziness at the end of last year also meant that I got burnt out – seriously burnt out. I just needed to have a break from everything. I didn’t really get the opportunity to go away, but just being at home and focusing on stuff around the house was awesome.

We’ve been productive enough to have a lot of work done around the house which is giving us both an exciting vibe and helping plan things for the future. It gives you perspective, and something to look forward to and plan towards. I’ll add some images soon.

I’ve had three injuries in the last four months, so that has stifled my training and the fact that I had a heap of job interviews meant I was also totally focused on these processes and hoping I portrayed myself in the best possible light, every.single.time. It’s a difficult time – I’m waiting to find out if I was successful for one of these jobs that will hopefully, probably, likely, take me back to my roots and give me peace, finally. Once that is done, then I know that training will be easier, because I will be able to focus entirely on it again. I’m looking at getting into some crossfit also, to give me that high intensity, anaerobic touch that my workouts are lacking. And as for food…./sigh…I totally neglected that too. There is no time like yesterday to get that back on track.

So in general, trying to keep my life in order and blog became difficult. I wanted to write, I truly wanted to, but I just couldn’t pick myself up to do it. The heat as well – my god….the heat in SEQLD lately is horrific. We’ve had multiple heat waves and no aircon at the back of the house….which we were going to buy one, until we were told by the electrician that we are on one phase power, and should be on three, and that our total usage is like 40kw, and our aircon in the guest area alone used 22, not including all the other standby appliances that use the power. Our house was at serious risk of catching fire, if the wrong circumstances, i.e lightning, summer storm and bad wind all happened all at once…

So fixing this issue in the house has been a priority, and when that’s done, and the new aircon is installed, then blogging from my room, study or main lounge room will be a piece of cake.

I will consider dropping back my post schedule though temporarily, to at least two posts a week. It will lengthen my posting schedule and give me time to sit down and write quality content until everything else in my life is back to balance. My issue has always been that I don’t want to have an ad-ridden blog that takes you to a million other pages before you get to mine.

So, hopefully the update is sufficient for now. I will be back to Tuesday and Saturday postings for the next couple of months.

Until then. XO

 

LOOKING FOR A GUEST POSTER

LOOKING FOR A GUEST POSTER: Do you have something to say? (I usually do). I’m looking for someone (or someones) keen to do a guest post on the topic of their choice. It doesn’t have to be within the theme of my blog of “thatfitologylife” (but that always helps) – you may have some whiz bang theories on stuff I haven’t addressed yet – you may know how to deal with other stuff I don’t or have a different way of doing something (that totally works for you).

Basically I’d like to give the opportunity to anyone interested in starting a blog or who just wants to say what’s on their mind an opportunity to express themselves. It would be a voluntary contribution and I’d be happy to cross-post for you (if you have a social space of your own).

Please PM or email me if you’re keen.

The positive and negatives of being a blogger and starting out

Time is never my friend. Especially when you still work a day job and are trying to get your blog going.

A lot of what I read about in strategic communication and entrepreneurship also looks at making you think about what kind of blogger you want to be. I’d love to be able to blog for a living and make money out of it. I don’t however, want to be one of those people who spams advertising for it. I want my content to speak for itself, and my readers to enjoy coming to my site for the posts, and not some click bait.

I haven’t thought about monetising my blog yet, because it isn’t even at that point yet I don’t think, but when it does come down to it, I’d like to think of doing it in other ways.

That being said, I’d also love to have more free time to dedicate to working on my blog, and being more creative but I don’t yet want to quit my career and day job.

Starting out a blog is not easy. There are a million and one posts about how to set it up, how to find domains, content schedules and post ideas – the internet is your oyster and you are, as am I, the ultimate consumer. But working on the content, developing a following, running your social media accounts and creating your own content is time consuming – enjoyable – but time consuming. I find that I am always slightly over the mid way point on one side of the seesaw or the other – like now, catching up on posts, doing up some original graphics for my social media and posts – this is making me feel as if I am ‘behind’ so to speak, and I don’t like being ‘behind’.

Currently, the positive and negatives of being a blogger for me, are all related to that beginners exposure to blogging…the negatives are like:

• I need more time to blog
• I still have a day job
• My blog is not monetised
• I need time to make my own content and graphics
• There is no aircon in the study, and it’s too hot to work in there
• I’m finding it difficult to manage my time, including the social media requirements of a blog
• I feel I am behind

The positive lean more towards:

• I enjoy the creative outlet
• I enjoy challenging myself
• I feel I can say what I want to
• It makes me think there are other possibilities
• I am learning more and educating myself
• I have a space to say what I want

I wonder if, well, actually, I know that when a year or more passes, when I’ve written more like 500 posts and developed my readership that my positives and negatives will be different. I also anticipate to be in a different job within that time which may find my time even less available, or more, to write blog posts…who knows? Right now all I know is that despite its negatives in terms of, I wish I had more time to blog than I do, I am enjoying the challenge. We all start somewhere; we all learn and grow and develop and progress.

What have you found to be a challenge in your blogging experience? Has it ever remarkably changed from this point, i.e, did you hit the big time really quick, or did your idea tumble?

Important life lesson learnt recently

Those that have been reading my blog have heard numerous times across my writing about my experiences of the year, so for the sake of the regular readers I won’t rehash them. But this year I went through quite a shakeup in work related matters and it wasn’t for the best and unfortunately it tipped my world upside down. I have felt for the longest time that I wasted this year and that all the work I did to get to this point has been in vain.

You may also know that I’ve started reading a lot about personal psychology, critical thinking and self-development. Because of this, the one greatest message so far that I’ve taken from the experience of 2016 for me personally has been the notion that I am in charge of my own destiny and fate.

Let’s dissect this a little because this will help explain what I have learnt about life and what this blog post is about.

• I’ve learnt that I am in charge of my destiny, my actions, my habits and behaviours, my choices, my feelings and experiences.
• Therefore, I am in charge of doing something about my negative situations by changing my perception of my experience. Instead of thinking and dwelling on ‘how I have wasted’ 2016, I needed to think about ‘what lessons I learnt’.
• My motto in life has always been, ‘everything happens for a reason’ and I forgot that motto. But, everything does happen for a reason. I wouldn’t be sitting here right now writing this blog post if I didn’t experience the events of this year. My life would’ve been on a different path.
• There are no mistakes and failures. Everything is a stepping stone, something you have learnt.
• Despite many setbacks, I never gave up. I broke down, I cried, I felt sorry for myself, I closed myself in my room, watched Youtube videos and didn’t speak to anyone for two days, but after I did all that, I got straight back up and tried again. You are not a failure for continuing to try, you are only a ‘failure’ if you give-up when you don’t get it the first time. So, I haven’t failed this year – I’ve just proven to myself that no-one and nothing can knock me down because I can pull myself straight back up.
• I am mentally stronger than I perceive myself to be. I am also pretty physically strong. I am getting stronger.
• There is a lesson to be learned in every experience. I haven’t wasted this year, nor have I failed this year. I’ve just learnt more about where I want to be, what I want to do, and what achievements I need to give me the career satisfaction I crave.
• Habits can be changed.
• Behaviours can be learned.
• ALWAYS trust your gut…and lastly,
• I am a hell of a lot smarter and more talented than I give myself credit for. My self belief needs to be better, but I need to learn to stop doubting myself and my abilities. I need to stop letting stupid people think they have power over me.

When I first sat down to write this I thought, hell, I haven’t learnt anything that monumental. But writing it down just exemplifies this entire concept of personal growth and change whereby, you have the cognitive ability to self-reflect and realise that no time is wasted. Just because something doesn’t go your way doesn’t mean you’ve wasted that as an opportunity. Everything is a learning experience, a new opportunity, a new path.

What have you managed to learn about yourself, about life, about your career? How has this changed your outlook?

Blog update!

Impromptu, but I just wanted to let all my lovely readers know I am a little behind in my posting schedule. Apologies for some of the recent mishaps in postings – I went away last month and it has totally put my scheduling out, however, I am catching up slowly!

The Fitness Fitology Friday and Instagram snaps days (Fri and Sat) have been lack lustre – I am midway through a 6 week shred program and have been lax on social media lately but I will also catch up on those. You may see a few blog posts schedule at once when they’re complete as they will be back-dated content.

I am also delaying the Achieving Goals theme week for November by three days only! It was supposed to start on Nov 21 however I will start it a little later (Nov 24) as I’ve already done the content that follows it. I haven’t even done the graphics or artwork for the themed week yet, however, I am really keen on the content for that week and still would like to keep it for the November release.

Thanks for your patience! December content has been planned (but not scheduled yet) but keep an eye out for some awesome reads!