FF#4 Monotony. Break it? Or Keep it?

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Do you ever wake up in the morning and feel like not dealing with today?

"Nope, sorry. I don't feel like dealing with life today. Maybe tomorrow, thanks."

You just feel like crawling back into bed, and closing your eyes, and drifting off into sleep where thoughts of school, work, life doesn't bother you with its hot pursuit?

Now, ever wonder why that happens? There has to be a reason to why you feel that way in the morning? 

This can be narrowed down to:

• Are you mentally tired?
• Is work/ school hectic? 
• Are you avoiding dealing with something?
• Are you drained of energy?
• Are you unwell?
• Or are you just lazy?

Or, maybe you aren't happy with your life right now and you just need a break from it, even if it were for a little while...

Well, maybe its just a case of things getting too monotonous?

That word, it makes me cringe while I even type it. Monotony.

Now don't get me wrong, there are some people who really like routine. They like things in place and scheduled, day in and day out. And there is nothing wrong with that. In fact, there are a few thing I like scheduled and routinized too (like my gym schedule).

But what about for those who constantly seek change? Exciting, adventurous things, new and creative elements, all neatly fitting together to make the perfect life? What about them?

What happens when they don't feel like dealing with the day? What do they have to complain about?

Now something struck me in the morning, where I felt like not dealing with today.

I used to think my life is interesting and fun. Monotony ain't getting anywhere near me today. MLIA.

Till I realized the value of routine. The predictability, the lure of planning, you can sort things out so easily when you know whats coming to you. And that seems just... so appealing.

And I have experienced that life. I have knows how monotony feels like and ironically, I hated it. So why am I looking for it now? 

Then I realized, you need an equal balance of both.

There are some part of yourself which you need to routinize, and some part where you need to be free and creative. For example, if your job requires you to be chained to a desk, then maybe you require a healthy dose of creative liberation in life outside work.

Think about it, if you job is as creatively demanding as mine, then maybe you need routine in some aspects of your life. A night routine before you fall asleep, perhaps. 

All I am saying is, if you don't feel like facing the world, instead of looking for reasons to run father away, try to look for reasons to solve it. It will do you much good than the temporary procrastination. 

And with this post, I think I have done just that. 

FF#3 Wong Fu Magic!

Have you heard of Wong Fu productions?
If you haven't then take this post as a starter kit to help you absolutely adore their work!

Wong Fu Productions is a film writing, production trio (Wesley, Philip and Ted) who started writing creative, inspiring short films and later uploaded them on Youtube.
The popularity of their work helped them start their own media company and now, they feature in a host of film festivals. And are recognized for their beautifully scripted, touching and thoughtful work.
My perfect go to, if I am having a creatively dead day.

The videos below are three of my favorites:

Shell

Light, airy, pensive and everything you would want in an inspiring watch. The video has no specific story line beginning, but its simple loop nature leaves so much to imagination. Stunning cinematography. 

The Last

Haw many people have come into you life and left? How many have you loved till you find another to share your heart with? What effect do they have with the one you are with now? 

Another inspiring watch, but this one sparks more than just pensive thoughts. Maybe some answers.

Job Expectations

Now this is a refreshing deviation if you think all they do are romantic themed videos. Are you stereotyped to be someone and quite often mistaken to be something else? No one likes stereotyped and its high time we break out of judging others to come under a specific category. And this video shows you the very same thing. 

Plus, its so funny.

And here we are! Wong Fu Magic in all its happy, fun nature, plus more to come if you subscribe to them. I really wanted to share this with you because they have really inspired some of my work recently.

And I hope they inspire you too.

FF #2 Normal moments of doubt

Okay, I am not going to lie. This is harder than I thought.

My day started at seven in the morning. It's been long, it's been tiring, and just when I thought it's about to end...

I remembered this entry.

Now down to business.

So today, something came across my mind.

Self doubt. And why it's normal sometimes.

Self doubt is when you second guess yourself and question the things you do and why you do them. Some people do it often, and some do it when they lapse into pensive phases. Which is what I do.

When you second guess yourself, you reassess all the pros and cons of the decision you have taken and do a quick check to ensure the decision you have taken is the right one.

Now when does it become too much?

When you doubt yourself all the time. When you doubt yourself in everything you do and why you do it. When you doubt yourself without any reason to.

When you doubt yourself without reason which in turn makes you unsure of yourself and that lowers your self esteem. Now that is problem.

Solution?

Define the parameters of self doubt before you indulge.

Wait, am I just thinking too much again?
Have I given this enough though?
If I have, what is making me think twice?

Because there will be a lot of things for your brain to worry about such a school, work or your family. You need to separate the ones worth the effort of using your grey matter.

Foxy February!

I haven't even got out of bed yet.

Let's put it this way, I had an idea that would help me be more regular to writing and find a way to creep it into my daily schedule.

A writing challenge.

Which I don't like to do. At all. Instagram challenges, them I like. But writing challenges? Not so much. Why? Because it forces you to write which at one point I thought kills the creative process you have inside your head. Till I realized, this may be the EXACT thing I had to do.

I am planning to blog every single day for the whole month of February.
Is that crazy?
Oh, good.

Remember my last post? It spoke about writing and writing, and making yourself feel like you can't write anymore? Till you are forced to pick the pen/ laptop up and write again? Well... I suppose this is it.
I hope you bear with me (Grrrr?) as I explore this challenge. It would be quite nice to see what comes out. Even if I have to blog from my phone- which is what I am doing right now!

And maybe it would be so much easier to upload pictures from here too. Plus, I get to test out the blogger app! And finally review it in the right sense.
So much win!

Are you ready? Because I am!
FF# 1

P.s. Foxy February sounds so fun to me. Like it's breaking inhibitions a little. You can't second think your blog articles at all. Plus I like the term, foxy! So... Foxy it is!

Writers block? I had one for 4 years. (And this is what I did)

Hola!

If you must be reading this post, then clearly you are stuck in the worse possible scenario any writer can be in.

The dreaded writers block.

Oh no, it’s not just a scenario. It’s a way of living. You are stuck in this little bubble of empty air, with a transparent wall of ideas trying to break into your bubble, but they just can’t get in.

You can faintly see these ideas, they are within your reach. You can nearly taste the sentences of your next story/ blog post on your lips.  The only thing stopping it is this thin wall which you just can’t crumble.

The funny part of it all is, you can write all the mandate things in life; Bills, homework, essays, resumes, etc. But when it comes down to the part when you write for yourself, you draw a complete blank.

And you ask yourself. What just happened?

Now if writing to you is a good as breathing then I am sure you can feel what I am saying. If it isn’t, then you must be just mentally tired and facing something like ‘performance pressure’. Where you are forced to write something so good, it blows the readers socks off. Or in my case, fluffy slippers.

And that’s normal.

But if you are unable to write something so beautiful, like you have left a part of your soul (woah there, Harry Potter fans. A tiny fragment, hardly noticeable) into your work then… you have the sickness.

The I-Can’t-Write-For-Shells-Of-A-Nut-Forget-The-Peanuts sickness.

But hold on! Before you turn your head down in dismay and hopelessness, let me tell you (like many) that I have found a cure!

A cure so simple, you may just punch the screen of your PC.

You Just Have to Write Some More.

Yes, you heard me. You just have to write so much that your fingers have developed an everlasting bond with your pen/keyboard. Anything, everything, sensible or senseless, you just need to write and write and make an effort to write even when you feel like you can’t.

Because that is the only way you will be able to flush out the trash and get down to the good stuff. 

Like the layers of a double chocolate disk ice cream cone. No one really likes the ice cream, everyone just wants the chocolate frozen at the bottom of the waffle cone.

So write about everything under the milky way (sorry Sun, you aren't big enough for this problem) and see your way through to a better foundation of writing.

And you also have to make sure you write on different platforms.

Usually, we get so accustomed to writing on a computer, or in a notebook, thinking anywhere else seems odd and out of place. And that is exactly what you should try for! The uncomfortable situation is what you need to probe your brain to fit into. Try something new. 

“Hey Brain”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t feel like writing on my laptop today, do you remember how to hold a pen?”

Trust me, your brain will comply.

The two things above are exactly what I am doing right now.

I started this blog to get out of my writers block. (Check)

No joke, I write things on paper, edit them, and then type it out on a computer- so not I am forcing my brain to directly write using a keyboard without the use of stationary. (Check, with itchy fingers)

And now to test and see if my post actually does make sense to pass it off as a slow recovery from a writer’s block. (Pending…)

Good things to you fellow solution seekers!  

Image from Google. 

10 days. 5 flights. 3 cities and 1 incredible start to the New Years.

Happy New Year everybody!

The circumstances of this post are actually quite comical, and I really don’t know how to begin.

So the last week of 2014 prepared me for a project in January that would require me to travel. Now the dates of the travel weren't confirmed, but I was looking forward to it all the same and the project was quite interesting as it required a substantial amount of creativity. And since I was directly involved in it, I was even more excited to get started.

So when the dates of travel came around, I was laughing at the coincidence of it all. I had a shoot in one city on the 5, 6 & 7, then I had to leave for another city on the 9 to the 12, for another conference, then while I was on that conference, I was told that I would have to travel to yet another city on the 14 till 15th.

So given the fact that I love travelling (I mean, who doesn't?) even though the flights were back to back, I was still quite excited. Out of the 3 cities, 1 was a cosmopolitan city, the 2nd was a seaside city and the third had a beautiful chilly climate which I couldn't wait to experience.

So first let’s talk about what was comical about this;

For the last city, we got a text telling us that our flight to go back home has been delayed from 8:20 p.m. to 9:20 p.m. So we called our office and spent a little more and pre-poned it to an earlier flight of 6:20 p.m. When we got to the airport (2 hours earlier for the lack of things to do) we checked in and asked the attendant if our flight was on time. He said it was.

Happily, we proceeded to the terminal, grabbing a quick bite on our way and happy with our decision of booking an earlier flight. We get to the terminal a few minutes before our scheduled boarding time to see…

Our flight has been delayed by three hours.

Right.

Wait, it gets better. So we check our earlier flight to see if that is still at 9:20 p.m. and fortunately, that has been further delayed to 10 p.m. Now we were subconsciously expecting this. I mean, the chilly city is known to have flights delayed because of the climate and everything, and we were mentally prepared.

So when member of the cabin crew sat in the seat next to us, (he wasn’t inform of the delay either) I don’t know what compelled me to ask him the reason for our flight’s delay, his answer was something I wasn’t expecting.

Technical difficulties of the aircraft.

Ha, it gets even better.

So we sat at a terminal which has another terminal in the opposite direction. That terminal gated the same airlines as our delayed flight. So when their boarding call was made, guess where were they headed to?

Yep. The same city as ours. Back home.
So they get to leave, and we don’t.

Even better you ask?

Guess who we see walking into the terminal gate?

The client whose brand we came to this city to work for!
Sighs. And now as we wait for another hour and a half for our flight, I just wanted to share this experience that if something, anything is meant to happen, no matter what, it will happen.

All we can do is pray that it’s always for the best :)

Update: Haha, I made it back, safe and sound. Except for a bit of climatic turbulence, terrible last seats which don't recline and strategically placed next to the restroom. Oh, and getting a tad bit excited to see the food that I spilled it on the floor. *Thumbs up*

Thanks for reading! :)

How to make time for absolutely anything!

Bonjour everyone!

How many times have you heard people say, 'Oh, I wish I had the time for this', or 'I can't seem to find the time,'. And a million reasons people push the things they really want to do, for the sake of one thing: Time.
In the past month, I have realized that in order to ensure all my goals have a chance of succeeding, I need to learn how to make time for it all.
But then the dreaded question pops up...

How do I make time for it? 

You would be pretty surprised when I tell you that you can't  make time for everything. Its virtually and physically impossible to be everywhere you want to be. So how do you make time at all?

Its simple. You make time for the things that matter to you. You make time for the things you consider the most important in your life at this very moment, and you work your way down the list of things you would like to make time for.

For example, the things on my priority list right now is maintaining a work-family-friends-life balance right now. I need to find a way to ensure I get a daily workout, meet my social life needs, spend time with my family and find some quiet time for myself as well.

Sounds tricky? Okay, lets go over it step-by-step.

Image Source

Step 1: Write down your list of things to accomplish.

It can be a long term, short term, big, small, daily or even a monthly list. Write down everything you would like to do.

Step 2: Prioritize

I can't tell you how important this step is. If you think that you have two things which weight the same amount of priority (important meeting and BFF's birthday) then find a way around the two, and decide which calls for your attention first.

Step 3: Schedule

This is another crucial step for you to finally decided what goes where in your life. Because my classes at the gym are at a fixed time, I need to work around them. Then I fit in my work schedules, work to do lists based on my class for the day. Which comes to my next point...

Step 4: Work around a centrifugal point

This step is for those who need something to pillar towards. If its family, then your list should work around them. In my opinion, work shouldn't be the point here as you tend to neglect a lot of secondary things if  majority of your day is around something you (may or may not) like.
Keep this point to be your priority, something you can control, or even something which related an emotional connect to everyday life.

Step 5: Give it time

You can't expect things to just work its way through in the first shot. As optimistic as that is, you need to give yourself time to settle into you new schedule.
It took me 3 weeks to find a reasonable balance between my Gym schedule and family. Work was also biting its way through my attention, so that's another things to keep in mind.
Don't lose hope if things don't fall through immediately, but be determined to make that schedule work for you.

And finally: Sacrifice is an option

A lot of people may say that you need to sacrifice something to achieve something else... And as true as that may seem, I think to give something up is an option. Its not written in stone that you need to give up your social life to be better at work, or work and family can never be balances, its all up to you. And how you deal with the things you have on your hand.
Otherwise, I say it would be a sweet to say....

You can make time for absolutely anything.
All you need is determination and a priority list.