This month’s happiness project is to pursue a passion. Passion is loving what you’re doing even if you’re not getting paid doing it. At least that’s what I learned from the Mompreneur Summit 2013. This is really true. If someone were to ask you, what would you do every single day for the rest of your life, even if you know you won’t get anything in return, apart from being totally happy? What would you answer? Ako, very much nanay: I love spending time with my kids. I love that I am a homemaker, that I have the time to be with them. But other than motherhood, I believe my passion is evident with my blog. Through this medium of social media, I was able to learn and grow as a person. So allow me to focus on blogging for this month’s happiness project.
The happiness tasks for this month are:
Write a novel.
Make time.
Forget about results.
Master a new technology.
WRITE A NOVEL
I’ve always wanted to write my own book but I’m not really good with writing. Writing for me is the easiest yet the hardest thing to do. Why? I have so many random ideas, thoughts and words that i just want to put out there even though at times they’re senseless and irrelevant. I’m the type of person who thinks a lot and likes to think a lot, and in order for me to move on from one task to another, I’d have to write down these thoughts. Well, now I mostly tweet about them. Heehee. I would still want to write my own book someday but I’d totally hire a good editor to edit away all the ‘you know’, ‘well’, ‘um’, ‘heehee’ and all the other unnecessaries to get my book published. 😉
You can start by accepting a challenge of writing a novel for a month. GR said, in order for you to achieve that you must at least write 1,667 words a day, making a 50,000 word-novel in 30 days. 50,000 words for a novel? Possible. Just like Catcher In The Rye or The Great Gatsby. Can I do it? Yes but I don’t think I have the time and energy to really write 1,500 words a day given that I am really busy writing for my blog. So I’ll just stick to what I do best- blogging. Blogging gave me an atmosphere of growth. To improve my writing, reading and even my socializing. It has made me happy because being labeled as a blogger meant I am somebody else apart from being a wife, mom, homemaker and model. It is, for me a big responsibility which has helped me boost my happiness, knowing that I get to accomplish something every time I hit the ‘publish’ button.
A reader of mine once asked me what does it take to be a blogger. I simply said, “Start a blog because you want to not because you want to be a blogger.” Don’t blog because you want to get invited for events or get products for review. Blog because you want others to relate to you, you want to share your stories and you want to contribute to the Internet and the netizens. If you can’t or don’t want to write a novel, start a blog. From there, write your own stories. May it be short, fictional, anecdote, or even personal. Anything that you just want to put out there. It can be therapeutic. Who knows, maybe it can even be published in the future.
MAKE TIME
I sometimes whine at the thought that I have a handful of backlogs that I need to finish. Crap. I know most bloggers also feel the same way. Too many events, press releases and product features to do, one me to write all about them. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t accept everything that is offered to me. I have my standards and only feature those I find really interesting. I promise myself I’ll make an effort to really write and to really read. I love reading. I read to go beyond reality. To experience an alternate universe and to immerse myself to my world of imagination. But then again I always end up piling on books that needed reading. I have about three books that I haven’t opened but purchased a few months back. Why? I haven’t had the time to sit down and read. Being a mother of two with yaya woes has done this to me. I always feel like I have something to do. Well, enough lame excuses. I will write/blog and read away! As of writing this it’s already past midnight. Where the house is quiet and everybody is tucked in bed. Like I said, if you ain’t passionate about something, you aren’t going to make an effort to give time to it.
FORGET ABOUT RESULTS
When I started blogging, I couldn’t care less what I was writing because the thought of just writing what I want made me happy. Eventually, brands and netizens started to notice my blog which somehow triggered the competitive side of me. I of course want to have good readership. At some point, I was so focused on having just that, I was exhausted and even lost my blogging mojo. I wasn’t as excited and as eager to tell my own stories and write from the heart. All because I needed good results to either boost my blog’s statistics or my ego. Either way, I wasn’t 100% happy. Until eventually I went back to being passionately purposeful which I learned from the Momprenuer Summit as well. I’m no momprenuer but I believe that my blog is my brand and my business. And I honestly want to give my clients the satisfaction that they deserve but at the same time love what I do. With this realization I have learned to forget about the results, to just write from the heart and enjoy what I do. Sometimes kasi when you’re too focused on the goal, you end up not enjoying the journey towards it.
MASTER A NEW TECHNOLOGY
Remember the task about learning something new? Well it’s similar to this except that we’re talking about technology here. I’m not really a techie person but I’ve learned that having the right tools can really make things easier for you. I have recently purchased a MacBook Air because my MacBook has somehow given up on me (or I had given up on it?) it has become so slow and the trackpad was acting like a Ouija board I was seriously having a hard time writing. Kahit mag Fezbuk di ko magawa! Stress Drillon. Anyway, with my newly acquired gadget I was determined to maximize its full potential and get apps that I really, really need. As of now, I’m still mastering my new toy and eventually the apps I got will help me blog efficiently. I’m still at the painful learning curve with Lightroom and iWork, but they’re doing an excellent job in aiding me with my work and the things I need to finish on schedule. But I do miss the old school ways. Writing on your journal, doing things in a leisurely pace and anything old school where there’s really time and effort put into something. But if there’s technology that can help you be equally efficient then I say go for it, master one.
photos lifted via Google Images
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