My First Solo staycation experience

It’s been too long since I have been in these streets, I was busy exploring other things, but I am back home 😀.

The past year and a half or maybe 2 years has been hard as I have been navigating motherhood and full-on adulting. The thing with some phases of your life is that it is impossible to just move through them as if nothing happened, they stop you in your tracks, and this phase in my life has been that.

It has required me to face some deep-rooted issues about myself that I partly didn’t think where there and partly just didn’t want to deal with them because I thought who has time for that, but adulting was like ‘no we are staying here until you face us’.

I feel like I have made some decisions that I thought were great for me, but in hindsight angikho-sure (directly translated as I am not sure). I listened to a podcast with a guy who, on an annual basis, takes solo vacations or retreats towards the end of the year to seek clarity about what God needs from him in this season of his life. This resonated with me a lot because I felt exhausted from all the hats that I wear on a regular bases and quite frankly I am not sure if I am supposed to be wearing some of them even though I choose them.

This prompted me to also embark on planning a solo vacation, I knew that it was short notice and with all the hats I wear, I had to make sure that the logistics work, and then come up with the money to actually do it.

After I found dates that would work, I needed to find a place that was within my reach, considering this is not budgeted for (the accountant in me always kicks in when it involves money 😀). I knew it had to be close by so that I don’t have to consider travel costs and the accomodation had to be affordable and nice at the same time. It is December, which means most places are more expensive because it is peak season , however, inland is not too bad. My first option was a 4 stars 🌟 resort about 10 kilometres from my house but it was too expensive, so I had to look at other options, that’s when I remembered a place we visited earlier in the year as a family , it was available and it suited my budget.

26 degrees South Bush Boho Hotel is in Muldersdrift in the west of Johannesburg Gauteng. It is a cute place with a lot of personality in their decor, however it is very quiet you even forget that you are still in Johannesburg.

At the entrance of the hotel

Part of the surroundings

Part of the decor

I spent time reading Will Smith’s biography and even thought it felt a bit exaggerated at times, but he is an actor, so I get it. He was a great companion. I wanted to be alone after breakfast in my room but I also wanted a made-up (clean room), so I choose a clean room and opted for a cosy spot on the ground floor for me to read.

My reading spot

The thing with grand gestures is that it creates the pressure for delivery, so in the morning before breakfast, I had tackled my budget for 2023 I guess because dealing with finances is an easy task for me. But when it came to other plans for Q1 of 2023 I was not sure if I was clear on my direction , so it felt like I was wasting time but I decided to stay calm and not force it. I had booked a 1 hour stone massage at 1:30, and it is there where I found clarity about what to focus on (this came with some emotions but I had to own the process). After that, everything else was easy. I journalled for the rest of the day and continued with some research about the plan.

The solo staycation was a first for me, but I believe there is a need to take out from all your roles, especially when you live with other people and the change of scenery didn’t hurt. It is a bit uncomfortable to be by yourself in an unfamiliar place but I will definitely be doing it again, and I will have to be more deliberate about putting money aside for this thing that I now want to make a norm in my life.

Here is to making time for intentional stillness so that we can reconnect with ourselves

Positioning yourself for success

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We just recently moved to a new place and for the first time in my adult life, I have a garden. Our garden needs work but it is not in a bad condition, this has made me think about what is going to get it to a place were every flower that is planted actually grow and blossom.

Maybe more importantly who is at fault if what I plant grows or dies?🤔I am now wondering in our personal lives what contributes to our growth or stagnation(‘death if you live on the extreme side of life’) 😉. Flowers need some things that look basic but are manditory for their growth and therefore survival, these are, fertiliser or fertile soil, water, sun, weather that is conducive for what you are trying to grow. Some flowers actually die if you give them too much water.

So what do we need as human beings to thrive in life?

Do the inner work

This point always feels over used but it is so true. We are different as human beings and therefore we need different things to be able to blossom. This has become real for me as a relatively new parent, as I interact with my son I realise what drives him to do certain things and how he responds to my tone, so that means I need to try my best to make the environment conducive for him to grow. As adults this responsibility lies with us, you need to do the inner work to understand in which environment do you thrive. And in cases were you are unable to completely change the environment, what things are in your control to still ensure that when they are implemented you will thrive.

Check your proportions

Take stock of what systems, people, feeds, books are you drawn to and then assess if they are still relevant to the current season of your life.

Allow yourself to experiment with different proportions and add/subtract or reduce some ingredients to increase your chances of success.

Remember only you can design a life that you are proud to call your own, you only live once so ‘Just do it’😉

About whose fault is it when the flowers don’t grow question, I believe it’s the environment. Flowers are planted by us which unfortunately means, their fate is in our hands. Luckily we as adults can change or influence that environment for ourselves. Let’s always remember that.

Finding your one purpose is a trap

The world is great at celebrating those people who did ‘one’ thing really well, think Nelson Mandela ( one of the greatest contributors to ending apartheid in South Africa), Michael Jackson (king of pop), Lionel Messi (one of the greatest soccer players of this generation). I admire and honestly sometimes envy those people who are clear about why they are here on earth, but in reality there is a long lost of people who have planted different seeds to ensure that they leave the world a better place.

The normal advise requires that everyone find their one purpose and for a few people it is clear but for the majority of people it is not so obvious. Based on my observations everyone who feels like they are not living their ‘purpose’ is mainly focusing on one thing their doing and they keep waiting for a sign or something to show them what they are supposed to be doing with their lives. I heard Gil Gilbert in an old interview with Lewis Holmes say follow your curiosity and I agree with it. The thing about following your curiosity is it opens you up to things that you really like or at the very least what you don’t like 😉. I find that if you are one of the people who don’t have one distinct purpose you need to design your own framework of putting more things that make your life fulfilling on your plate.

How do you pursue your curiosity without feeling like you are constantly starting something new?

1. Create a ‘prison’

If you observe or read about all successful athletes or healthy people, they have all created some form of ‘prison’ or ‘box’ to govern their lives. I don’t mean prison in a limiting kind of way, but prison as a funnel of how you sift through what to prioritize with your limited time (remember you can change it, if it no longer serves you). Healthy people restrict what they can eat and regular exercise is a non negotiable to them.Create that kind of prison for pursuing your projects.

2. Segment your curiosity into multiple buckets

Life coaches sometimes suggest listing all you are curious about and then put them in 3 buckets, i.e.

– What are you likely to do in the next couple of months

– What you are interested in but it can wait, and lastly

– What you are interested in but know that if you are being honest with yourself, you are never going to do anything about it

After the list then

3. Redefine your meaning of success

When you are starting or want to start something new it’s easy to feel like you are not ‘winning’ , it is even more paralyzing just thinking about putting yourself out there because you are scared that you might ‘fail’ or you might not finish the project. To this I say change your perspective on success or failure. Decide for yourself what do you define as success

– Is it everyone knowing about it (i.e. getting a certificate or stamp of approval from everyone)?

– Is it finishing what you started? Or

– Is it releasing it in your mind and stopping or parking it when you see fit?

Remember no lesson goes to waste if you are intentional about understanding your lesson even when it looks like a ‘failure’ to an outsider . Enjoy the advantage or cross pollinating your world with all your knowledge or skills acquired from all your experiences. Explore all of yourself so that you can die empty 😊😉.

4. Lastly Take action

Cheers to owning the fact that we are allowed to evolve as human beings

Who do you give your microphone to?

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We all have people that we love dearly in our lives, some by choice because they bring something while for others, we didn’t get the opportunity to choose them because they are family. These people don’t always behave or respond in a way that we would ideally like them to and vice versa. The normal advise is to discard everyone who is not ‘serving’ you. While I get where the advise is coming from and agree that for friendships that you feel have passed their expiry date, there is no point in holding on. I believe the advise falls short when it comes to family, because family for most people is a safe or steady source for many reasons and you therefore cannot just say “you are fired” as Donald Trump used to say in The Apprentice 🙂.

I say choose who you give your microphone (mic) to. By mic I mean who are you discussing your aspirations or goals with, considering that a conversation inherently means the other person will voice their opinion. There are people in your life who make for a great travelling or gym buddies or babysitters. That doesn’t mean they can feed all parts of your being.

The pitfalls of giving your mic to the wrong person is that:

• They can discourage you
• They could make you doubt your idea especially if you already had insecurities
• They can derail your path, thinking that they are helping you

This makes it very important to categorize who to discuss which aspects of your life with. Firstly decide which areas of your life are important to you e.g. Spituality, health, finances, career, passion projects. And then control who you give your mic to by creating your own Board of directors (BOD). For example your cousin who always looks her best would probably be the best person to talk to about your fitness aspirations as they will help to even motivate you, but they are probably not the best person to talk to about your aspirations to open a nonprofit to help pupils who struggle with their school work.

The BOD will be a list of advisers with different skills, they can be used as a sounding board or just for conversations. By choosing the right BOD for yourself it will create intentionality about who you give a voice to in the most important areas of your life. Remember the reason for this board is for you to express your aspirations and open yourself up to hearing their advice or views, however you are still responsible for your final decision.

The advantages of giving your mic to the right person is that :

• They will ask the right questions
• They will give constructive feedback
• They will be your cheer leaders sometimes
• They might even assist in some areas
• They will keep you honest

Please remember what we do in our life is not determined by what other people say, so if you feel compelled to do something fully examine your insecurities and then only take advice you believe is helpful.

Here is to creating a Board of directors that will help us reach our full potential 😊

Becoming the Main character of your life

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As you adult you are compelled to regularly review how are you showing up in the world. That is are you showing up authentic to self or are you hiding behind what you see as ‘normal’ and you don’t want to be the ‘odd one out’ or are you not even aware of the brilliance that you are as a person.

I have never seen a movie where the characters have equal appearances or their storyline have the same level of importance throughout the movie. There is always the main character or a ‘Steering’ as we used to call them growing up, we thought starring meant the main character who is not going to die or lose in the movie no matter what obstacles they face😂😂. The main character is the person whom the storyline revolves around. Children for the most part are still main characters because most parents’ life revolves around ensuring that they are well taken care of. As adults we need to remember that we are also required to be the main characters of our lives. This is especially true if you believe that we are born at a certain time and place for a reason, because it means you have a responsibility to live out your purpose or die trying. As Arthur the famous screenwriter in the movie ‘The holiday’ said to Iris

You are the leading lady but for some reason you are behaving like the best friend

So how do we fetch our lives and start behaving like leading ladies and main characters of our lives?

1. Go on a ‘new’ discovery journey

Decide what do you consider your highest potential to be and chase it. If you struggle with this, look at people that you admire and research what have they done or continue to do everyday to show up in life the way they do. And then design your own template by copying and adapting some of their habits to your personality. Remember to enjoy the process, don’t focus so much on the end goal that it becomes intimidating and paralysing.

2. Recognise your patterns

The reality is there are small but incremental changes that got you to this place where you feel like ‘an extra’ or the ‘best friend’in your own movie,so be vigilent about checking which actions or habits actually sabotage you and then replace them with new enhanced habits. Take falling or difficulty as part of the journey, forgive yourself and start again.

3. Reframe your perspective

Chris Guillebeau in an interview with Paula on her podcast Afford Anything https://youtu.be/PHPxE67xweo explained the imposter in Imposter Syndrome as

The imposter is the one who is holding back and not going for their dreams, the one who is counterfeiting and not living out their true self “

This resonated because it says when you are feeling inadequate check where that is coming from, is it coming from a place of feeling that you are a fraud or from a need to do better because it is something that is important to you? If it is the later then baby you got this, because you solve this problem by immersing yourself in the craft so that you can reach mastery and then take over the space. This is how you reframe your perspective.

4. Reflect and refine

Reflection is one of the most important things to do to center yourself, different people use different methods to reflect whether it is some alone time, journaling, asking for feedback or all of them. Do what works for you then refine your process to increase your chances of success. I adopted the 12 weeks year planning method in the beginning of the year https://sindiandlife.home.blog/2021/04/06/lessons-from-the-12-week-year-approach-to-planning/ and it changed my life, try different methods to see what works for you and apply it religiously.

5. Live and enjoy your life

In between doing all the above enjoy your life especially when you are not in a position you wanted to be in. Celebrate your wins, incorporate a self-care or self-appreciation routine in your life and allow yourself to enjoy it.

Remember , you can change because you are not a mountain that cannot be moved. So invest in long term change if you need to, your future self will thank you😘.

How to change your savings habits as you evolve

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In South Africa July is a national savings month. This was created to spark debates about key aspects of savings and raise awareness around short , medium to long term planning. Saving is one of the important foundations to build a healthy personal finances lifestyle, this is because when you save you are less likely to max out or increase your credit facility when life happens (i.e. when unexpected expensese or urges occur). Saving in nature is short term in that it is for money that is put away with the aim of being spent in the next 12 to 24 months. Which means accessible is an important factor , so you have to choose the right vehicle for your savings goals. There are many options to choose from so please do your own research.

I used to be a put everything in one basket and what would happen is I would think I have a lot of money saved up until I pay for a holiday and take some holiday spending money and that would cause a dent in my savings. As I evolve I split my savings into different categories and accounts. Below is how I do it.

Define your savings category

1. Unexpected expenses (e.g. Car breaking down)

Here I try to put 4 months worth of our expenses as it gives a cushion if something like temporary unemployment can happen or an unexpected expense occurs. We replenish it if we used some of the money for emergencies.

The standard advise says savings around 6 months of your expenses , however that doesn’t work for us because we are also trying to build our investment portfolio (future slaves😉) so it makes no sense to save 6 months when the interest received is so low because it is a short term investment while our objective is to create as many money babies as we can in the next few years. Hence it is important to emphasise that personal finance journey is just that ‘persornal’.

2. Travelling

Travelling is one of my important values as it is linked to adventure , so I have to save for it. My approach to this saving is deciding in the beginning of the year as to where are we planning to travel to and check out the prices and that help us determine how much needs to be saved and for how long.

I just realised that our savings here are only limited to accommodation and travelling costs, in future we must also include some spending money.

3. Adventure (Hobbies & Activities)

Most of our weekend activities are cheap as it is mainly hiking, picnics in summer or eating out so that forms part of our normal budget. The savings here refers to special outings like zip lining , quad biking etc, these costs are normally not cheap so here I use the points I earn from using my bank card. I know on average I get back R500 per month, so I wait for it to get to an amount that I can transfer to my savings account and then I go spend it.

I enjoy spending this money because I really didn’t work for it, all I did was spend the money on things I was planning to spend on and gives me points that are convertable to cash for me. I previously used to save it but I realised life is to short hence I now spend it. ‘Lol’

4. Adhoc ( e.g. Transfer duties for a new house)

This savings category is different every year because almost every year we want to buy or do something for the house. When the cost is low it is very nice because more can go to other caregories when the cost is high certain things need to be shifted to make provision for this goal. This is not my favourate caregory but it needs to be done.

Approaching my savings in this manner provides a lot of clarity around what you can or cannot do at any given time and for me that is part of liberation.

If you are not a billionaire as yet chances are you need to do a bit of saving, this doesn’t in any way takeaway from the fact that the ultimate goal is to find different streams of income. However if you are still in the ‘I need to save‘ category it is important to be clear about what you are saving for and then do it.

Here is to investing in enjoying life while also chasing financial Independence

Nuggets from the book ‘Show your work’ by Austin Cleon

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I saw this book from a youtuber I bumped into because of what I normally watch on YouTube(The algorithms)’Lol’, safe to say he compelled me to buy the book and here we are😊.

I personally struggle with voluntarily talking about my work in my professional and personal life unless I am asked and the truth is people cannot ask what they are not aware of. For example sharing my blog posts on social media or with my contacts via WhatsApp is an uncomfortable thing for me.I realise this is counter intuitive if I need the work that I do to help or encourage another person, but this book gave me a new light.

Firstly the book is an easy read both in grammar and in the concepts. In my pre-baby world I would have easily finished reading the book in a day but here we are.’Lol’

The book is a guide to getting discovered not only as a creative but as a person. The author demonstrates this with 10 pointers to start implementing in order to be discovered, most importantly he manged to do this without an emphases on networking. The black and white images in the book were also awesome. So here are some nuggets I picked up from the book.

Nugget 1: Be a documentarian

He emphases the important of documenting your process, this is “everything” you deem important in pursuit of your ‘thing’ using your preferred medium (i.e. Video, writing, photos, audio etc). This will give you enough content to be able to sift what it is that you want to share. This principle becomes more important if you one day want to write a book. The truth is our hard drives(i.e. our minds) forgets somethings and if they are documented this ensures that you always have a reminder.

From a creativity perspective you need to document because some content ideas comes from what is documented.

Nugget 2: Own your amateur status

This is my favourite nugget. He makes the point that as human being we like seeing how a person achieved their success, so show your progress. This can be encouraging to someone who is trying to start something and more importantly it will show your progress as you go through stages of your learnings.

The truth is when you are trying something new you feel so silly and it will be really liberating to own the fact that you are learning and document that. Provided you commit to showing progress. This will help you to build sharing in your routine.

Nugget 3: Write your swimming pool ‘lol’

He writes that Paul McCartney and John Lennon used to sit down before a Beatles songwriting session and say “We are now writing a swimming pool”. This was them saying to themselves we need to make enough money from this song so that we can build our own swimming pool. This was funny but I thought it is really smart in that we must always define the objective of why we doing something with the aim of monetising our craft. Fact is if you are writing for an audience you hope that some day that audience will be part of your tribe and if needed may support you with feedback, fellowship or patronage.

Nugget 4: Find your fellow knuckleballers

Knuckleball pitchers are basically the ugly ducklings of baseball and because there are so few of them they form a brotherhood. If we search hard enough for your fellow knuckle heads you will find them. Not everything is for everyone but everyone has their crowd. Invest in finding your own. He makes a great point about finding them online and converting them into your IRL(In real life friends).

I have seen a lot of that happen in the Twitter land. I like following ‘fintwitter’ because of the great encouragement about personal finance topics and you see how people who have meet online now seem like IRL.

Nugget 5: Be a copy cat but give credit when due

Austin says a lot of times we don’t have original ideas which is not necessarily a bad thing. So when you write or talk about someone’s idea give them proper credit particularly with links and not just mention their names. I am used to mentioning a person’s name but I know from personal experience when I read or hear about someone I don’t always take the time to go look at their work personally so links give you a real opportunity to give credit to the person.

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  After mastery start again

Image from the book

So what now:

When I learn something that moves me, I always force myself to take action, otherwise it just stays in my head, so here goes my action plan 😊:

1. Start putting my blog posts in my WhatsApp status as this will show more of myself to my direct contacts

2. Get serious about finding my knuckleballers (I am following 2 writers that I am interested in on Twitter, next is to look out for fellows bloggers in South Africa and abroad)

3. Journal, journal and more journaling ( This helps to clear my head and also be clear about what I want to write about)

If you struggle with sharing your work this is the book to read.

The Youtuber that introduced me to this book https://youtube.com/c/aliabdaal

Website of the author https://austinkleon.com/

Happy reading😊

How to create your own Mission Statement

Every successful business has a firm foundation that they pride themselves in. It revolves around why they exist and the boundaries by which they operate. They use it as a way to direct the business in the right direction , it plays a part in helping make sound decisions especially in a crossroad. This is their mission statement. So it is natural that if you as an individual operate with the same rationale you are more likely to experience success and more importantly a happy life. On a personal bases though a mission is a statement of who you want to be.

I understand how frustrating statements like ‘define your mission statement’ are when you feel like you not yet clear on why you exist or your purpose in life. Hence, I am offering an alternative approach. Look at your life as a resume/curriculum vitae, which means if you are choosing your life what would you want in your life resume? This will force you to look at your life in a holistic manner. This process will uncover themes that are commom or that you want to make common in your life.

Self-awareness is the foundation to crafting an authentic mission statement that you are guaranteed to continuously pursue. Here are the four themes that came up when I did some stocktaking of my life:

1. Being present in all my relationships (Family)

I grew up within a close knitted family with my grandparents,aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews. We spent lots of times at my grandparent’s house just having laidback fun. As I grew older though I realised that ‘life’ was getting in the way of doing more of that and that left me unfulfilled even though I was winning in other areas of my life because besides ticking boxes there was nothing deeper that was replenishing me. That’s how I figured out that Family is one of my values.

2. New experiences (Adventure)

As a child the things that fascinated me were new experiences and that became clear with the tv shows that resonated with me the most. My mom used to take us out every other month to different shopping centres were we would do some shopping ,eat and play games , we also used different modes of transport like a train (for her it was about affordability, for us it was a new experience) and those are my most memorable times from my childhood. As an adult now I still get excited about new experiences whether it is a new restaurant, a holiday or trying out something thrilling like skydiving, these experiences still add spice in my life. That is how I knew that I am a natural adventure seeker 😊.

3. Learning all I can to empower myself and explore all my potential (Growth)

This particular value of mine makes me a bit uneasy but it is my truth. Uneasy because I don’t know how to be settled as a person, whenever I figure out or master something I am already looking for the next project that will grow me.I have always been like that both in my career and in other areas of my life. I am always looking for things that will help me grow to the next level. As I get older it is no longer random learning it, it is curated to help me reach long term goals that are dear to me.

4. And putting all the lessons to practice by applying and sharing the knowledge (Serving)

I don’t push myself to grow so that I can be the smartest person in the room, I do it to be able to share the lessons with other people whether via a blog or in conversation with my peers or through life coaching or mentoring. I want all of us to win in this life because I truly believe the pie is big enough.

These values are not final, they will probably change or will be adapted as I evolve as a person and I am looking forward to that. This concept took a while to fully sink in for me 😊, however I am now sold and true to the sharer in me everyone else must get it. ‘Lol’

Figuring out the above is what helped me come up with my mission statement which is ‘To live life to the fullest and share all I know so that I can die empty ‘ with God guiding me every step of the way. This can be seen in how all my values are linked. I crafted this over 2 years ago, however it still felt incomplete because I was not clear about my ‘purpose’. My confidence in my mission statement only increased after realising that trying to figure it all out was paralysing so I am enjoying the journey even in the midst of certain things not working as I want them to.

May we continue to discover the precious commodity that we are while enjoying the journey.

Shot Left: A Day between North West and Gauteng

My day of two halfs finally came alive. I planned this day a month ago just from a need to spend quality time with family or my friends if you will. I needed to feed two things that were slightly under feed in my resent life (Family time and adventure). I really like exploring my surroundings and adventure is one of my values, so I made it happen.

North West

We drove for an hour and a half to haartebeespoort in the north west province to check out our own Paris in South Africa. ‘Lol’. I don’t even remember how I first found out about ‘Little Paris’. The place is really nice and laidback, there are lots of locks with messages of people pledging or reinforcing their love for each other whether romantically or friendships, we even saw a guy propose while we were there😍.

Eiffel Tower

Myself in front of some of the locks

Little sis in front of the paris poster

While there we went to a restaurant called ‘French Toast Koffie Kafee’ . The food was devine, actually before I get to the food , their lattee is the best I have ever drank in the last 3 years of being a coffee drinker. It was amazing. For me food is nice when we order different things and then eat from each other’s plates, luckily I was with people who also like that. The service is slow , I guess that is the case when we are outside Gauteng (everyone in the rest of the country is laidback 🙂). It was worth the wait though, we indulged in their french toast done three ways and they were all finger licking worthy. We were so full when we left the place that we were a bit sleepy.

Food from the French toast restaurant

After the eating and a bit of sightseeing off we went to Lanseria for our adventure . We got lost a bit but the road trip music was so good that we didn’t mind.

Gauteng

I found GZ Adventures while searching for an adventure in haarties(haartebeespoort). I guess because it is 20 minutes away, google figured it counts even though it is in Gauteng. I didn’t mind because it meant we will be closer to home after our activities.

There are quite a few activities to choose from but we opted for two. Bungee Catapult ( I always thought bungee was the one where you jump off a bridge or something very high) well this was also called bungee, guess catapult is the differentiator . I was screaming my lungs out everytime I went up but thoroughly enjoyed it. I will be going there with a bigger group soon.

Me screaming my way through this😂😂

We obviously could not end the day without a bit of competition , hence we did some go-karting and raced for 6 laps. My sister was leading for most of the race and then I passed her on the last lap, my mistake was that I didn’t see the instructor telling me to stop , so my over eargerness made me go for a another lap and that’s how I lost my win😕. I guess if the instructions are not followed the one who followed the instructions is the winner.(Me being a sour loser).

The gang getting ready to race

Overall the day was awesome, I spent it with good company , had awesome food and true to self I also had a bit of adventure.I couldn’t have asked for more. A day well spent.

Here is to being more intentional with filling our life with more of what we enjoy

Bridging the gap between knowing and doing

We live in an era were almost everything you want to know or learn can be found on the internet and that is awesome. However,the unintended consequences of it is that we want to learn most things because of FOMO( fear or missing out) or because we truly don’t want to be left behind. There is no doubt that we are a lot more informed than 10 years ago, so why are we not doing much with what we are learning?

Let me back track a bit, how does a person actually determine the value they have derived from something they have learned ( whether through a book, an online course or formal tertiary qualifications)?

After assessing myself and looking at a few close friends of mine I came up with a few ‘habits ‘ that we can incorporate in our learning process to indeed be able to bridge the gap between knowing and doing and therefore getting a return on our investments.

It’s ok to quit

If you are my personality type you likely consider quitting to be a failure. I am learning that this is far from the truth. The fact is it is not everything that you start that needs to be finished, because you sometimes realise half way through a book or course that whatever you are doing is not for you. This is an important nudge to stop and ask why did you even start it? If it doesn’t serve you (i.e. It is not important enough that if you don’t complete it, your other long term goals can still be achieved) , then the wise thing is not to waste another minute on it. Please hear me I am not saying quit everything you start, rather when something truly doesn’t speak to you and is a drag to you be honest with yourself and leave it. Sometimes your mind is not ready to digest whatever you are trying to feed it, respect that and leave it maybe you can pick it up in a couple of months or never. ‘Lol’

Use more than 1 resource to learn

I recently watched Bill Gates documentary and I was reminded of one thing that we don’t do enough of. Consult different sources for a particular topic, when you do that it enhances your knowledge and more importantly when you decide what your take is on the topic you have personal conviction and not just ‘author X said this’. When you are rich with information that is truly when you are likely to do something with it.

Taking breaks in between learning new things

Because we are in this fast-paced world, we are always encouraged to keep moving, this cannot be further from the truth. My goal was to read 2 books in a month , and I did it for a while but what I found is my mind forgot most of what I read because I never took the time to fully digest what I learned. What I now do is read one book a month if I am lucky, and what I do differently is write notes about what I’m learning and I don’t jump into the next thing ( i.e. book or online course) immediately. I take a break for a week or two before I go to my next thing.

It is very important to reflect on what you have learned and deciding how to integrate your learnings in your life.

Doing is the only way to truly learn

Lastly practice or apply what you have learned, it is easy to say you know something because you studied it and were assessed on it, however the true proof of learning is actually doing. Research even shows that as individuals we learn more by doing not by attending a class or watching a video.

So here is to realising the return on our learning investment ( i.e. time and sometimes money)