Living Well

Stop complaining about what’s not there!

I’m setting myself a challenge this week.

The challenge is to stop complaining. Its not that I complain a lot, but I think if you let your guard down, your glasses get foggy, and you can get lazy in your gratitude.

We are in a time of having just had our second gorgeous baby, and not getting the desired amount of sleep. It’s very much a time that can be stressful, and your patience get short when you’re so tired. But I don’t want to wish it all away. My babies don’t stay babies for long, and I try to enjoy every moment.. even the 2 year old tantrums, and constant bodily fluid to deal with.

If you are always looking for the current time to end, you miss out on what this part of the journey holds for you. We get caught up in the amazing ‘destination’, and we miss the scenery on the way to the place we actually never  get to.

We can often look at the gaps, the ‘glass half empty’, and what others have that we don’t. But a quick change of perspective can turn your day around. Look for the things that are making you happy, there’s always something to be grateful for!

Start blessing what’s in your hands at this time, and stop cursing for what you don’t even have!

When I grow up I want to be…

When I was a kid, I distinctly remember telling mum and dad that I wanted to be a mailman. (mail person for the PC), so I could stop at everyone’s house and get to know them.  This dream was squashed when dad explained that I wouldn’t really get to meet people because I would just have to drop off their mail in the box and keep driving. But I think this gives an indication of what I wanted to do in my life from a young age. To meet people, and connect with them, and help them. I have since developed more interests and desires, but that speaks to me of my core.

I don’t think its coincidence that kids spend a good amount of time role playing different jobs and roles in society. They need to discover what it is they want to do through this process.

I only was exposed to a handful of occupations in a rural NZ community, teacher, shop keeper, farmer or mailman were pretty much the options. I am amazed now at the world of opportunity and variety there is for us to partake in. I believe so strongly in finding a purpose in what you put your hand to. We are meant to do stuff, and stuff that we love. There is an occupation, business, vocation, job or area of interest for everyone to be matched to. And if you can’t find yours, make it yourself!

As a family we are having a bit of a tough time financially, and I know that I could easily find a temporary full time role in a government job because of the experience I’ve had. I went to an interview for one the other day, and as soon as I left the room, I thought “I don’t want to be here full time, or any time.” I struggled for a couple of days about whether I was being stupid, or just true to myself. And I came to this conclusion:

I have come to the realisation that I can’t bring myself to do things just for the money. My time is too precious to be wasting it doing things I don’t enjoy. I realised that in all things in this life, you can do it for love, or you can do it for money. I am doing life for love, taking all the steps to achieving some dreams, and believing that the money will come soon after!

Confidence…

Why do most people struggle to feel confident in themselves? I do often, but am consciously making an effort to change that. My biggest anxiety is caused by worrying about what people think of me. I have been implementing the following activities in an effort to reduce my anxiety levels:

1. Choose good friends. Did you know that you can actually choose the people you want to influence your life? And did you also know that its totally OK to cut off unproductive relationships. People who continually treat you bad do nothing whatsoever for your confidence, they drag you down into believing that you aren’t very valuable. It takes some guts, but man its good to get rid of this out of your life. Surround yourself with people that you want to be like, listen to you, and appreciate who you are, and then be a good friend to THEM.

2. Catch your thoughts. What do you say to yourself in your head? This is the make or break of successful life in my opinion. You really have to consciously and deliberately think positive things to beat the default human condition of negativity. When my little girl wakes up earlier than I hope for, I have to take a moment to get out of bed happy to be a mum, and not grumpy that I didn’t get enough sleep and its going to set my day off wrong. My thoughts for this week… I can do anything! I am loved! I am creative and talented! I am calm…calm…calm.  🙂

3. Watch your words. Have you ever listened to the way you speak about yourself to others. I started to, and am catching myself often! I started showing my new blogpage of business self promotion to my hubby, (www.jadegoulding.com) its really nothing too elaborate at this stage, but he caught me downgrading myself and my creative efforts and kindly pointed out that I should talk more confidently about it. If you can just step outside yourself for a moment, and hear the words you say, you might want to change them. Be confident in the decisions you’ve made, speak out good things about what you do and who you are. It makes a world of difference to your happiness if you do!

New things. Hopes & dreams.

This month, I turned 30. What better time to make entrance to the online world in a greater way.

I was trying to sleep last night, thoughts and ideas racing in my mind, and the title of this blog came to me. The Folksy Life. I like simplicity. I don’t profess to have mastered it, but I like it. I like understanding the original meaning of things. I like getting back to basics. I like honesty and I like simplicity.

So I’d like this creative project to be a collection of my favourite things for general living. Whether anyone follows it or not, I don’t really mind. I just want to pull my thoughts and ideas into one place, for my own reference, maybe to share with people, and hopefully encourage someone.

Thus… The Folksy Life is born.