Be A Kind Visitor!
For years, I have been using the internet and all other media to a frightening extent. I am constantly reading, searching, consuming content up to a point that I almost want to stop doing that altogether or at least I have become a really picky and choosy customer/visitor. I think that this is a natural process, because we are all over-flooded and overloaded with content. It’s inevitable to choose more carefully what affects you and what reaches your heart. But, after that filtering mechanism you are left with the sites, blogs, causes and galleries that you truly love and support.
In this era of massive amounts of communication, especially if you can see the numbers of visitors or subscribers, it is easy to start thinking that you don’t want to be just the next person who writes a cliche comment. And this is where my plea comes. I would encourage you to do this anyway – don’t be the hidden number in a chart, show yourself to the creator and to the other people who have the same interest. Yes, maybe you will receive a thumbs down and/or a hateful comment or whatever, but just ignore that. Think about the person who spends hours and hours honing their talent and as a creator I can assure that all creative peeps have those shitty beliefs about showing our work to the world and we often think that what we do doesn’t matter, that is not as important as saving dying children in Africa or whatever.
So, please, if you like something, support it wholeheartedly – send a message, make a compliment and if you are that big of a fan donate/buy/subscribe or whatever it is that you could do.
I know it may sound simple, but I believe that this is a great way to show what we truly value. When something is valued, it is bound to become successful and we are going to create more of it in the world. Who would say “I love this artist but nahhh I don’t want him/her to have a good life and feel that what s/he does is important, then s/he is just going to create more art and I won’t enjoy that, I am satisfied with what I have seen already!”? It’s not you, I know, but basically this is what you do if you deny that person your feedback. So, even though he/she might be getting a million lovely comments, just be one of them, it’s not going to hurt you in any way and it just might turn out that your feedback makes the day a bit better for this person. Or, if the person is just starting out and getting a lot of hate…or just no feedback at all… maybe yours is going to give him/her hope to go on.
This is something I realized recently after mustering the courage to write a few messages to people whose art I really enjoy and they actually responded, but even if they didn’t I just feel good about showering them with support. Don’t forget that the person behind the screen is just a person with feelings like yourself, so support to see more of what you like.
Love,
Julie
Blog Action Day: (Small) Human Rights Post
I don’t know whether you have heard about Malala Yousafzai – we can all learn from her valor and humility. She stood up to the biggest monster on this world – a human with the intent to kill.
She was shot because she believed that girls have the right to be educated.
Thank God, she survived and she became even more determined to do what she feels is right. I am saddened by the fact that we should still fight for things that I feel are so inherent to human nature. I don’t understand war and violence. I can’t bear seeing and knowing that people suffer.
But, if there is something good in all of that, it is that hardships of this sort give us chance. They allow us to shine our light even brighter, because it is only in adversity that we can actually understand who we truly are and where our limits lie. And for a person to choose death over submission to the monster there should have been a higher force involved. This is the intrinsic light that manifests through all of us and when one shines brightly they illuminate the way for all of us.
These people make me think that we are born with a purpose, they make me see the good in what I am going through, they make me want to strive for something better, to pick myself up and become a better soldier for my own causes. This is what makes me believe that there is something more to life. And, mostly, these people make want to serve as a beacon to the people in my own path.
Let us all be these ordinary extraordinary people in our mundane gray days. We don’t live in movies – heroes in our world are not supposed to save the whole humanity in a day. Our job is to make a difference for just one person, just one time, to take a small step and take care of what we are capable of. Then the kindness muscle is slowly going to build up and we will be able to do a little more.
I can speak for days about human rights, write a book about trials and tribulations, but now I am going to give you something small. Because, I have just one simple dream – right small decisions to become the norm. Can you even imagine how brighter our world would be if we could only have this? People helping each other to cross the street or carry their bags. People who help lost children and people who stand up when they see something unjust and people who follow their dreams – this should be our everyday reality and this should be the way we treat each other. So, let’s start a small kindness revolution today and help me see a small dream fulfilled.
Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.
Mother Teresa
The Number One Success Secret
The secret to success isn’t willpower. Nor is it motivation. Nor you can visualize or attract your way to success. I know I say these things a lot and probably you have heard them from different places as well. But success doesn’t come after you have tons of money and an absurd amount of free time.
And if there is only one thing you learn from me, let it be these words.
Success comes with consistency.
If you accept that there is no magical fix that is going to make your life all shiny, it’s fucking insane how much you can achieve with a slow, persistent and just plain stubborn commitment to better your life.
Can you overturn your life in the blink of an eye? Of course you can’t, no matter how hard everyone around you is trying to shovel that lie down your throat. Magazines, news, TV shows, recent scientific studies, tips, tricks, hacks. Yes, some of them do work and could serve as an inspiration, I don’t deny that. But there is so much more for you that could come if you are ready to just say yes to a more subtle and slow approach. You can’t even imagine how far ahead you could be and how much you can do for yourself, your health, you relationships, your dreams and purpose.
For example: I just finished a hella workout that lasted more than an hour.
I’m just a normal person. Don’t think it’s because I’m young and skinny. No, it’s not because of that. I started training 3 years ago and I started from scratch. I wasn’t good at sports while I was young, kids used to laugh at my running and it didn’t get better in my teenage years. I drank a lot of alcohol on a regular basis, had cake as a substitute for my meals, spent the night with a lot of the wrong people, went crazy on all the wrong parties and drown my memories with another dose of alcohol (or worse) and generally I tried to achieve whatever I wanted with the least amount of effort possible. I was lazy. I procrastinated for every single thing, I even didn’t want to see my friends because I was too lazy to go out. I wanted to do everything perfectly even though I didn’t know what this was. I made plans for every single thing, I set goals and I failed to follow through. And, of course, I never changed. This led to a lot of disappointment and I utterly believed that I am doomed to be a failure, that I am weak and that I will never manage to do anything “right”.
And after all I wrote, it would be really relaxing if I could just tell you that one day I woke up and everything was brighter and I found the magic cure-all in a petite cute bottle. Well… I am not going to do that. You know why, because there is no such thing.
But, I’ll give you something better, more reliable and enduring that is not going to fly away if you leave the cap open. On that magic day I just decided to do things a bit different. Be kinder to myself, stop expecting to be “perfect” and capable in everything. I committed to lasting change and better choices. I set different goals, sometimes I achieved them, sometimes I failed, sometimes it was easy and sometimes it sucked. Sometimes I was inspired, sometimes I wanted to shoot myself or hide from the world and not get up in the morning. And you have no idea how much you can change if you are kinder to yourself, stop being such a full of impossible expectations jerk and consistently take one baby step at a time.
Stop believing that voice in your head that because you are not where you want to be, you will never be there. Because you will. You will achieve your goals, you will make your dreams a reality, it just takes a lot of time and practice. You will have bad days, you will have small fails, but if you are committed to the long-run you are going to make it. Just keep showing up.
There is little you can do in a month, but so much you can do in a few years that you won’t believe how far you’ve come once you arrive.
Start today. Start small. And have faith.
Don’t Finish (A Bad Book)
When I was little I used to devour at least a few books a week. I read different types of literature, that became more and more complex as I grew older. By the time I became a student I already had the habit of starting a few books at the same time and adding even more as time goes by and I also had to add a lot that I don’t actually want to read (or don’t want to hurry them), but are part of my studies. And at some point that got even worse – I learned to read books that I don’t enjoy at all in my spare time out of some sort of guilt or obligation.
And one day it hit me.
Don’t settle. Stop it! Don’t finish a bad book! If you don’t enjoy it, just quit it.
It’s not the 90′s anymore, there are more books being produced in a day than we used to have in big city libraries. You can’t read them all and it’s a waste of your time and your life to do that. Of course, it comes down to everything else in life.
Don’t settle for a bad experience or a crappy job. Don’t stay sucked in a relationship or a circle of friends that kills you.
There are tons of opportunities in this world now to change the way things have been done in the past and there are plenty of people who are willingly going to share your path, if only you dare to ask for more than you see now.
Where do you keep dealing with bullshit?
If you want to get on the right track, you should first get off the wrong one.
Get rid of that book and go on to find a masterpiece.
