And suddenly it hits you…

04 Saturday Mar 2017

Tags

aging, creativity, culture, cultures, diaries, dream, energy, goals, happy, journaling, life, living life, travel, traveling, writing

…this is your life. Your one life to live. The marathon, not the sprint. Right now, right here, this is it. You’re in the middle of it. Is it what you want it to be? How do you want the rest of it to go? If not now, when? These questions prod and poke at me constantly and have for months. For years.

This prodding and poking has been a part of me since a young age. It is evidenced from perusing the (exceedingly) detailed diaries of my youth. Documented are precise and lengthy details about days lived: books read, lunches eaten, dances attended, boys liked, troubles had, and dreams dreamed – – all written by hand in pen (I meant what I wrote and proved it by writing in pen!) on double-sided pages in the stacks of 3-ring binders of journals kept since I was 12 or 13. My documented youth.

It’s often embarrassing to read and sometimes it’s sad, but it all rings true and it is me, raw and uncensored. Every thought, every idea, every problem is documented.

There is a common thread throughout my years as a kid (that continues on through adulthood): there’s more to the life I’m living and it all revolves around writing, travel, and living in another place. Year after year, day after day, this is what I dreamed, wanted, and declared in these writings. It’s amazing, really, that a kid so young has dreams that continue throughout an entire lifetime!

So at this time in life, being middle-aged, I’m evaluating how I want to live the rest of my days. Evaluating how I can be my full self. How I can attain this life’s goals. It’s both exciting and scary! And I’m working in earnest to figure it all out.

Accentuate the positive

29 Saturday Jun 2013

Posted by seejanesblog in Observations

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

blank stare, cultures, healthy eating, Morocco, positive, risk taking, sales numbers, travels

A friend offered me valuable advice a few years ago. When struggling with a decision I felt had to be decided right then, she shrugged and said, ‘This isn’t a problem. It’s an opportunity. It’s an opportunity to say yes! Say ‘yes’ as long as you want to. Don’t try to rush into a decision, just keep saying yes.’

What amazing advice this has proven to be! Keep saying yes. I’ve tried it again and again in these past years and am amazed at the outcome!

In some parts of my life there are people who have constantly said no. No to travel. No to risk-taking. No to change in general, even the simplest of changes. People who have wanted to just live life the same, the easy way, or the no-risk way. But I’ve always fought against that in my own small ways. I’ve adapted my life to be such that allows me to say yes to the things I want to do. I just keep saying yes – – until I have to say no. And when I find myself saying no too often, I switch things up so I can say yes. For example:

It’s not a diet, it’s healthy eating. That’s a yes.
It’s not ‘I can’t afford that.’ It’s ‘I’ll do that later.’ That’s a yes.
It’s not ‘My sales numbers suck.’ It’s ‘I can do better.‘ That’s a yes.

In my travels throughout the world, I’ve joked at other cultures and how they refrain from saying no. In Malaysia it was always yes! Yes, you can make the ferry, they effused! But it was already pushing away from the dock. In Japan, there would be a blank stare, or they’d look away, or they’d change the subject, just so they wouldn’t have to say no. In Morocco, instead of saying no, people I have met will ask questions to get the conversation moving toward yes.

I’m taking a lesson from my travels and trying to say no less often. And yes is just so much prettier to say than…